John Toye obituary

My friend John Toye, who has died aged 79, was director of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex (1987-97) and of the Centre for Study of African Economies at Oxford (2000-03). However, development economist" does not properly describe him: he was also a historian, political scientist and sociologist.

When I first met him in the early 1980s, I was looking for someone who could help me understand the World Bank's attempt, during those years of global depression, to impose free-market policies on developing countries. My proposal of partnership luckily was accepted, and eventually emerged as Aid and Power (1991), written by John and myself, and Jane Harrigan, and provided the basis for a 40-year friendship.