It's not about "who does the deed". It's about who accrues the benefits, and who has a stake.
Without a strong local stake, the only projects that work are resource extraction projects. These have a tendency to create dependencies, and strong political instability.
There's also the fact that many technocratic proposals from rich countries never progress past first order thinking: "Trees missing, add trees here". Again, a function of skin in the game - rich nations overwhelmingly operate on a form of capitalism that prioritizes short term wins, and they're not around for the cleanup after that. This is why you want a local stake - not due to theoretical arguments around capitalism or colonialism, but because you want to make sure the people who own the consequences are part of the process. Which usually leads to better outcomes.
Without a strong local stake, the only projects that work are resource extraction projects. These have a tendency to create dependencies, and strong political instability.
There's also the fact that many technocratic proposals from rich countries never progress past first order thinking: "Trees missing, add trees here". Again, a function of skin in the game - rich nations overwhelmingly operate on a form of capitalism that prioritizes short term wins, and they're not around for the cleanup after that. This is why you want a local stake - not due to theoretical arguments around capitalism or colonialism, but because you want to make sure the people who own the consequences are part of the process. Which usually leads to better outcomes.