Does foreign aid really work?

'A good thing?'

pt.1. The complex worlds of foreign aid.

The origins and early decades of aid-giving

Aid-giving from the 1970s to the present

The growing web of bilateral aid donors

The complexities of multilateral aid

pt. 2. Why is aid given?

The political and commercial dimensions of aid

Public support for aid

Charity or duty? The moral case for aid

The moral case for governments and individuals to provide aid

pt. 3. Does aid really work?

Assessing and measuring the impact of aid

The impact of official development aid projects

The impact of programme aid, technical assistance and aid for capacity development

The impact of aid at the country and cross-country level

Assessing the impact of aid conditionality

Does official development aid really work? A summing up

NGOs in development and the impact of discrete NGO development interventions

The wider impact of non-governmental and civil society organizations

The growth of emergencies and the humanitarian response

The impact of emergency and humanitarian aid

pt. 4. Towards a different future for aid

Why aid isn't working

Making aid work better by implementing agreed reforms

Making aid work better by recasting aid relationships.

List of Figures

List of Tables

List of Boxes

Preface

Preface for the Paperback Edition

List of Abbreviations

1. 'A good thing?'

The aid revival

A different book on aid

Outline of the book

Part I. The Complex Worlds of Foreign Aid

2. The origins and early decades of aid-giving

Defining aid

A snapshot of the history of aid

The origins of aid: the pre-1949 era

The 1950s to the 1960s

3. Aid-giving from the 1970s to the present

The 1970s and 1980s

From the 1990s to today

4. The growing web of bilateral aid donors

The ever-increasing number of donors

The explosion in the numbers of non-governmental organizations

The main bilateral donors

The smaller bilateral donors

5. The complexities of multilateral aid

What is multilateral aid and how much of it is there?

The international financial institutions

The United Nations, development and aid

Other multilateral agencies

Systemic issues

Part II. Why is Aid Given?

6. The political and commercial dimensions of aid

Why governments give aid

Politics and national self-interest in aid-giving

Commercial interests in aid-giving

The overall impact of political and commercial influences on aid

Concluding comments

7. Public support for aid

Trends in public support

The reliability of public opinion surveys

Public support for aid and public perception of its effectiveness

8. Charity or duty? The moral case for aid

Facts on the ground

Ethical theories and approaches

9. The moral case for governments, NGOs and individuals to provide aid

Donor governments: current and evolving views

Aid and the nature of governments' moral obligations

Ethics, voluntary aid-giving and the world of NGOs

Part III. Does Aid Really Work?

10. Assessing and measuring the impact of aid

Methodological challenges and data-gaps

Judging the impact and performance of aid: what questions need to be asked?

Understanding how aid contributes to growth and development

Expectations about the impact of aid

11. The impact of official development aid projects

Project aid: an overview

Detailed project performance

Data quality and the sustainability of official aid projects

The wider picture

Summing up

12. The impact of programme aid, technical assistance and aid for capacity development

Programme aid

Technical assistance

Aid for capacity building

13. The impact of aid at the country and cross-country level

The country-level impact of aid

The impact of official development aid across countries

14. Assessing the impact of aid conditionality

Aggregate aid impact and the policy environment

Official donor conditionality and recipient response

Does policy conditionality produce the results intended?

Summing up

15. Does official development aid really work? A summing up

The search for sustainability

Effectiveness does matter

16. NGOs in development and the impact of discrete NGO development interventions

NGOs: an overview

Methodological challenges

The impact of NGO development projects and programmes

Cost-effectiveness, quality, innovation and replication

Capacity development and institutional strengthening

17. The wider impact of non-governmental and civil society organizations

NGO advocacy, lobbying, awareness-raising and campaigning

Strengthening NGOs and strengthening civil society

The contribution of NGOs to development: a summing up

18. The growth of emergencies and the humanitarian response

Emergencies and disasters: an overview

The humanitarian aid response

19. The impact of emergency and humanitarian aid

Assessing humanitarian aid

The impact of humanitarian action and humanitarian aid

Advocacy in humanitarian action

Emergency and humanitarian aid: a summing up

Part IV. Towards a Different Future for Aid

20. Why aid isn't working

Systematic impediments to aid effectiveness: problems caused by donors

Problems at the recipient end: aid dilemmas

Conclusion

21. Making aid work better by implementing agreed reforms

The discrete individual-donor approach

The step-change international cooperative approach

Taking stock

22. Making aid work better by recasting aid relationships

Confronting the politics of aid-giving

Recasting aid relationships

Making aid work better: addressing five key problem areas

Bridging the divide between ideas and implementation

Notes

References

Index