Understanding UK Aid and Development Policy

This chapter reviews literature relevant to our examination of UK development policy and practice, in six interrelated sections. The first section, on donor interests and aid, highlights the varied ways in which these concepts are understood and measured. The second section probes theoretical approaches to the securitisation of development, tracing its evolution and encompassing contemporary perspectives. A review of empirical studies during the 2010s, examining the securitisation of development across donors, enriches this second section. The third section examines the literature exploring the influence of domestic politics on UK aid and development policy, while the fourth scrutinises scholarship on the soft-power dynamics of aid. The fifth section contextualises UK development within a neoliberal framework and the sixth one briefly reflects on the integration of the concept of sustainable development within development policy and practice.