Implementing Inequality

Implementing Inequality argues that the international development industrys internal dynamicsbetween international and national staff, and among policy makers, administrators, and implementersshape interventions and their outcomes as much as do the external dynamics of global political economy. Through an ethnographic study in postwar Angola, the book demonstrates how the industrys internal social pressures guide developments methods and goals, introducing the innovative concept of the development implementariat: those in-country workers, largely but not exclusively local staff members, charged with carrying out developments policy prescriptions. The implementariat is central to the development endeavor but remains overlooked and under-supported as most of its work is deeply social, interactive, and relational, the kind of work that receives less recognition and support than it deserves at every echelon of the industry. If international development is to meet its larger purpose, it must first address its internal inequalities of work and professional class.