Ian Smillie is an independent Ottawa-based development consultant and writer. He began his career as a CUSO volunteer in Sierra Leone and later served as Executive Director of the organization. His most recent book is Stakeholders: Government-NGO Partnerships for International Development (with Henny Helmich); Earthscan, London, 1999. He is currently preparing a new edition of a previous book, Mastering the Machine: Poverty, Aid and Technology, for publication in 2000. The paper featured in this website was commissioned by Industry Canada in the fall of 1999.