This volume examines how local actors respond to Africa's high dependence on donor health funds. This book conceptualizes dependent agency, and the condition in which local actors can simultaneously act and be dependent, and investigates conditions under which dependent agency occurs. This volume examines how local actors respond to Africa's high dependence on donor health funds. It conceptualizes dependent agency, a condition in which local people can both influence and be dependent on donor programs. Focusing on AIDS projects in Malawi and Zambia, the book questions the role of Africans in a dynamic aid architecture and their responses to the myriad of opportunities and constraints that accompany it.