In this excellent book the authors present a detailed analysis and a balanced assessment of the prospects for knowledge-based aid to achieve the goal of improving aid-effectiveness. Based on conceptual framework setting and a close examination of actual experience they reach the conclusion that success depends on reconceptualizing aid itself, in the direction of capacity building in poor countries.

Ravi Kanbur, Cornell University

Knowledge management is popular. Aid agencies talk easily of sharing stories, communities of practice and double-loop learning. But are they ready to sacrifice a preoccupation with results and a concern to disseminate 'best-practice' - in favour of real partnership and mutual learning across divergent networks? McGrath and King are sceptical. Their case studies and their thesis challenge all of us involved in the production, sharing, and use of knowledge.

Simon Maxwell, Overseas Development Institute, and President of the Development Studies Association of the UK and Ireland