However, despite these praiseworthy goals, technical assistance in virtually all donor or lender institutions has come under a barrage of criticism in the last 15 years from donors, recipients, and independent observers alike. Perhaps the most distressing aspect of the criticism is that general evaluations of technical assistance written in 1995 read much the same as evaluations written in 1983.8 While it would take a book (or at least a thick monograph) to address this problem in full, we will go through some of the most consistent criticisms of technical assistance.<sup>9</sup> The first group of problems of TA comes from the fact that it is often donor (or supply) driven. For various reasons, discussed below, the donor agency wants to provide free-standing TA or add on a TA component to an investment project. It is usually but not always (especially from the World Bank) free, and the recipients take it for that reason or simply because if they want the investment component, they must take it. In addition, free-standing TA often includes substantial equipment support, so the reluctant recipient takes the expert services out of need or desire for the material goods.

There are many potential problems with donor driven TA but by far the most important is that there may be little recipient commitment. Such commitment is particularly essential in the case of institutional development, as otherwise when the foreign experts leave there will be little or no follow-up and the probability of long-term impact is virtually nil. All evaluations of TA concur on the fact that borrower ownership is a prerequisite for success.

The reasons for donor driven TA vary from the well-meaning to the suspect. Often it is realized that without significant institutional development, the probability of success of other initiatives, donor driven or otherwise, is very small. At the other extreme, the TA may be based on the wish to provide work for national consultants, who in turn put pressure on their own govermments to provide this type of foreign aid. In project related TA there may be a wish to keep closer control over the investment or an inability to locate competent local personnel.

However, the criticisms of donor driven TA are more likely the result of the inadequacy of much of the TA rather than the underlying motives. Its frequent failure begins with poor identification and design of the project, a problem which has increased as TA has become "softer" on average. This problem begins with the development of projects without either an institutional development strategy or sectoral analysis to act as guides. A recurring criticism of Bank TA (which would also apply to most other donor agencies) is the lack of expertise on

> 8 A review of a progression of World Bank documents evaluating technical assistance can leave the reader with a feeling of being suspended in time. See, for example, Lethem and Cooper (1983), WAN Task Force (1986), AFTPS (1989), and Jayarajah and Branson (1995).

> 9 The following is based largely, but not exclusively, on evaluations of World Bank technical assistance. However, the materials that we have read on technical assistance of other agencies suggests that the experience of the Bank is quite generalizable.

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