Can good governance be exported? International development assistance is more frequently being applied to strengthening governance in developing countries, and in Exporting Good Governance: Temptations and Challenges in Canada’s Aid Program, the editors bring together diverse perspectives to investigate whether aid for good governance works. The first section of the book outlines the changing face of international development assistance and ideas of good governance. The second section analyzes six nations: three are countries to which Canada has devoted a significant portion of its aid efforts over the past five to ten years: Ghana, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. Two are newer and more complex “fragile states,” where Canada has engaged: Haiti and Afghanistan. These five are then compared with Mauritius, which has enjoyed relatively good governance. The final section looks at challenges and new directions for Canadas development policy.

Co-published with the Centre for International Governance Innovation

Jennifer Welsh teaches international relations and is a fellow of Somerville College, University of Oxford. She is the author of At Home In The World: Canada’s Global Vision for the 21st Century (2004) and is a frequent commentator in the media on Canadian foreign policy and international affairs.

Ngaire Woods is a fellow in politics and international relations at University College, Oxford, and director of the Global Economic Governance Programme. She is the author of The Globalizers: The IMF, the World Bank, and Their Borrowers (2006) and many other books and articles on developing countries in global economic governance.

Jennifer Welsh's profile page

Ngaire Woods is a fellow in politics and international relations at University College, Oxford, and director of the Global Economic Governance Programme. She is the author of The Globalizers: The IMF, the World Bank, and Their Borrowers (2006) and many other books and articles on developing countries in global economic governance.

Ngaire Woods' profile page

''The authors have given us one of the more important recent books on Canadian international public policy--on a par with Janice Stein and Eugene Lang's The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar.... The changing international and Canadian contexts for aid are well laid out, as are the implications provided by the empirical evidence.... The authors punch huge holes in the naïve and simplistic assumptions behind much of good governance programming.''

Journal of Military and Strategic Studies

''Timely and important.... Taken together, these twelve chapters are well researched and effectively presented. They draw prudent conclusions and do not make exaggerated claims. The country case studies are appropriately chosen to illustrate a range of situations, from fragile states like Haiti and Afghanistan, to more promising examples like Ghana, through to a relative success stoy like Mauritius. Moreover the volume is highly readable, not only by serious scholars but also by practitioners and journalists. One pleasing feature is the extensive use of cross-referencing. Several of the authors had obviously read and thought about the other chapters, and this reading informs what they have to say, thus enhancing the unity and the quality of the whole volume.''

Canadian Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 30, nos. 3-4, 2010