Abstract
There are significant weaknesses in some of the traditional justifications for assuming that aid will foster development. This paper looks at what the cross-national aid effectiveness literature suggests about effective aid, first in terms of promoting income growth and then for promoting other goals. This review forms the basis for a discussion of recommendations to improve aid effectiveness and a discussion of effective aid allocation. Given the multiple potential objectives for aid, there is no one right answer. However, it appears that there are a number of reforms to aid practices and distribution that might help to deliver a more significant return to aid resources.Il y a d'importantes faiblesses dans la pensée traditionnelle qui prétend que l'aide stimulera le développement. Cet article étudie ce que dit la littérature sur l'efficacité de l'aide internationale à ce sujet, d'abord vis-à-vis de la croissance du revenu, puis au regard de ses autres objectifs. Ce bilan constitue une base pour des recommandations visant à améliorer l'efficacité de l'aide et pour une discussion sur l'efficacité de l'attribution de l'aide. Étant donné les déterminants multiples de l'allocation de l'aide, il n'y a pas une seule bonne réponse. Cependant, un certain nombre de réformes concernant les pratiques et la distribution de l'aide pourrait contribuer à améliorer le rendement de l'aide.
Highlights
If all donors agreed on aid objectives and the methods to achieve them, we would only need one aid agency
This paper looks at what the cross-country aid effectiveness literature and World Bank Operations Evaluation Department (OED) reviews have suggested about effective aid, first in terms of promoting income growth and for promoting other goals
The importance of institutions to aid outcomes, as well as the fungibility of aid flows, suggests that programmatic aid should be expanded in countries with strong institutions, while project aid should be supported based on its ability to transfer knowledge and test new practices and/or support global public good provision rather than as a tool of financial resource transfer
Summary
If all donors agreed on aid objectives and the methods to achieve them, we would only need one aid agency. There are considerable unknowns – because aid projects and programs have been too little subject to rigorous monitoring and evaluation and because of the complexity of determinants of success and failure. Having said that, it appears that the quality of institutions is an important factor in determining the results of aid to governments, at least, and that there are a number of reforms to aid practices and distribution that might help to deliver a more significant return to aid resources. This paper opens with a discussion of various different objectives for aid It discusses weaknesses in some of the justifications for assuming that aid will foster development. This review forms the basis for a discussion of recommendations to improve aid effectiveness and a discussion of effective aid allocation
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