African Activist Archive

In this issue paper, Joel Samoff writes that research has become the currency of development planners and decision makers, used to assign value to often competing projects. Wealthier projects and programs, which can claim greater research support, are more likely to be approved and funded. The apparent link between research and policy seems positive, but the common view that competent policy makers base their decisions on a careful review of relevant research is inaccurate. Policy makers who are largely guided by research often select research that is instrumental and relatively narrow. The conjunction of development assistance and research transforms both research and its role in the policy process, to the detriment of both. In the contemporary development business, the same agencies are increasingly responsible for decisions, funding, and research. Samoff points to education in post-colonial Africa as an example. There is a continuing tension between the pressure to expand education and the absolute shortage of funds. Over time, it has come to seem obvious that new initiatives and reform programs require external support, and therefore must be responsive to the agenda and preferences of the funding agencies. Samoff briefly touches on the conjunction between foreign aid and research for progressive scholars. He advices scholars to: (1) examine self-critically one's own role, however unintentional, in this relationship; (2) expose the distortions of research that serve to legitimize the imposition of external control and the perpetuation of dependence and poverty; (3) highlight the roles of particular universities and research institutes, both African and foreign, in internalizing an understanding of research that entrenches this relationship; (4) pursue research topics and approaches likely to yield alternative perspectives; (5) use one's own legitimacy to enable progressive African scholars to develop their critiques, findings, and policy recommendations, and to get them disseminated and considered; and (6) ally with groups committed to confronting the financial-intellectual complex and its effects.

African Activist Archive

The Financial-Intellectual Complex- The Challenge to Progressive Scholars

Creator

Place Created

Date

Type of Item

Length/duration

Description

Publisher

Organization

Coverage Africa

Language

Digital Format

Rights Management

Collection