Reviews
Ben Ramalingam convincingly shows why transformational change is so badly needed in foreign aid, and where it might come from., Challenging... Much needed. Ramalingam pushes his reader to question traditional wisdoms, navigate different disciplines, and value the import of local experience., Ramalingam sets out a challenge to everyone working in international cooperation, to rethink our basic assumptions and to think and act in ways that are more attuned to the real world in all its complexities. This is one to read and re-read., This is a work of immense value and importance for the development sector. The crucial question is whether international agencies are ready to hear the message and willing to act on the lessons., With beautifully clear writing and stories, Ben Ramalingam uses complexity concepts to reveal the deep reasons for why aid sometimes worksand sometimes doesnt., An exhaustive tour of the complex systems research landscape, including how it is used to understand phenomena as diverse as climate change, food price rises, ethnic segregation and the Arab spring ... Important and relevant for the aid world., Aid on the Edge of Chaos will change the way you think... One of the most important books you will read about development., This well-written and thought-provoking book is an important contribution to redesigning aid for a messy, complex world., Ben Ramalingam's thought provoking and highly readable book re-frames the debate on aid and development challenges the existing aid paradigm and points the way towards a genuinely new approach - a new approach that is urgently needed., This book explains an important global activity few outsiders understand, and important scientific ideas that might yet turn it around., Far from being a pessimistic funeral march, Ramalingam's wide-ranging discourse provides many inspiring examples of how complexity theory can be put to practical and meaningful use, and lays out a hopeful path forward., A terrific, stimulating book. Ramalingam clearly and engagingly shows how the use of complex adaptive systems thinking can significantly strengthen and enhance the impacts and effectiveness of global foreign aid., Masterful. An important step towards changing our institutions and organizations Ramalingam skilfully draws upon a diverse body of ideas and research to deliver a vital message for aid and beyond., This excellent book [is] a must-read for anyone interested in development, its current discontents, and its future potential., Many see international development aid as in thrall to linear, mechanized thinking, and champion approaches in which local people solve their own challenges with intelligently tailored backing. Ben Ramalingam offers a scientific model for that path... and fosters a new aid paradigm: an open innovation network, catalysing and leveraging change in countries around the world., Well-intentioned aid agencies sometimes oversimplify the problems they need to solve. [this] book makes the good case that the growing field of complex adaptive systems can help prevent such errors from being repeated., A magnificent piece of work a major contribution to the debate about how to rethink and improve the way we deliver aid worldwide., This brilliant book will energise the struggle to make big government, big money and big aid sensitive to contexts, humble about what they can achieve, and sophisticated about the connectedness of things., Ben Ramalingam seamlessly combines practical experience, policy relevance and scientific expertise. Aid on the Edge of Chaos deserves a very wide audience., Marrying science, policy and practice with a deep moral conscience, this important book points to a future that that we should all be working towards., Ben Ramalingam is a leading champion of the adaptive, scientific, trial-and-error thinking that the aid industry badly needs., The accolades on the cover are well-founded; this is a great read, engagingly written, and full of vivid examples, poignantly-funny cartoons and a reflective humility that suits its subject matter., This is a superb book, boldly facing in this age of globalization the complexity of aid to developing countries. Impressive and inspiring, this work is destined to become a 21st century classic., Ben Ramalingam's tour de force of a book provides an unorthodox and fascinating insight into today's global aid sector: its current practices and sometimes faulty theories of action. This book is a vital source of inspiration
