Paper short abstract:

This paper considers negotiations over authority to direct development as experienced by Lao government officials. Significantly, the officials in question work in an agency recently established to fulfil World Bank requirements for a major hydropower project, so they are positioned at the interface of state authority and donor conditionality.

Paper long abstract:

The considerable donor requirements associated with large-scale infrastructure projects support an interpretation of international institutions as wielding authority over development. This paper takes issue with such simplified views of institutional power relations and argues for attention to processes of localisation inherent in development practice. Of particular interest are questions over institutional authority in Laos, one of the most donor-dependent nations in Southeast Asia. I examine these questions in the context of a government agency that was recently established as a condition of the World Bank in order for it to provide loan guarantees for the Nam Theun 2 hydropower project. Significantly, this agency is approached through the experiences of government officials working within it since officials are positioned at a delicate nexus between state authority and donor conditionality, both as agents and as recipients of development.