Results Based Aid: Limitations of New Approaches

Abstract

In the current development debate, so called results based approaches play an important part. There are two aspects to this debate: On the one hand, further improving the effectiveness of development cooperation (aid) is important to the specialists, whereas on the other hand many donors (parliaments, the public etc.) continue to call for the justification of aid expenditures. This creates great pressure to give the most concrete evidence for the utility of aid budgets. It is important to distinguish between (i) Results-Based Aid (RBA) and (ii) Results-Based Service Delivery (RBSD). Even if both approaches are based on the same rationale (incentives), they are fundamentally distinct. The current international debate is focused mainly on results based aid.