Robert Klitgaard

Fairly dull. Lots of writing reports that nobody reads, meetings with people who don't care. Very little is accomplished, or even attempted. It does give a sense, perhaps, of the life of a traveling World Bank economic consultant. Peter Griffiths's "The Economist's Tale" tells a similar story, based in Sierra Leone instead of Equatorial Guinea, much more successfully. Judging just from memoirs, though, Peace Corps and MSF volunteers have more interesting and effective experiences.

La prévention de la corruption permet d'accroître les revenus d'une ville, d'améliorer les services municipaux, de stimuler la confiance et la participation des citoyens; en un mot, la vie en société.

This is an interesting inside look at the process of foreign aid to Africa. The author was a consultant on economic development to the govt. of Equatorial Guinea and was involved in that country's negotiations with the World Bank and the IMF. He is a sympathetic narrator and a careful observer of the natural environment, which he clearly enjoys. It gets a little difficult for those with no background in the subject (like me) but was a good introduction.

amusing, informative, critical (but not mean-spirited or didactic) description of 1) living in Equatorial Guinea and 2) impact of NGOs on the country