Foreign Aid, the non-aligned move-ment: how to make aid work

Résumé du document

It seems that ever since foreign aid existed, there have been voices calling for its increase. Nowadays, everyone, from the world leaders of the G81 to the economists, seem to agree on the quite unclear target of doubling aid to Africa. But there are, at the same time growing doubts about aid effectiveness. The article 'How to make aid work' published in 'The Economist' highlights the various problems of aid and shows that increasing aid is a simplistic solution that would not solve Africa's problems. First, it reminds us that while the world leaders multiply commitments on increasing aid amounts and improving aid effectiveness, there is little progress if any: Aid doesn't increase, donors do not coordinate and keep being 'intrusive, cumbersome, rivalrous'. Second, aid quality doesn't improve: it's still unmanageable for the recipient country because it's a 'capricious and volatile commodity'. Though aid is weak and unpredictable, it can't be effectively planned and spent.

Extraits

[...] Working Paper No Washington: Center for Global Development. Figure A constant rhetoric Easterly William, cartel of good intentions: the problem of bureaucracy in foreign Journal of Policy Reform, Volume 223-250. Article The non-aligned movement - Foreign aid 4 avril 2007 The Economist How to make aid work The quality of aid matters as much as the quantity MAIMONIDES, a 12th-century rabbi and philosopher, argued that it is better to give anonymously, like the sages who secretly placed coins under the doors of the poor, than to flaunt your generosity. [...]

[...] References Bauer, Peter Dissent on Development, Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Easterly, William, cartel of good intentions: the problem of bureaucracy in foreign Journal of Policy Reform, Volume 223-250. Foreign Aid Buy Growth?”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2003, Volume 17, No 23-48. Ross Levine, and David Roodman Data, New Doubts: A Comment on Burnside and Dollar's Policies, and Growth,' American Economic Review, 94-3 (June). The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good, New York: Penguin Press. [...]

[...] Even those that explicitly asked for “quiet periods” to get on with their real work were not spared. The OECD's money-count is, it says, distorted by debt relief. In 2005, donors forgave vast amounts of red ink; last year, they wrote off a little less billion of Iraq's outstanding debts; $11 billion of Nigeria's). Nonetheless, the OECD reckons that if donors are to keep faith with their promises in Gleneagles, their giving will have to rise by 11% a year between 2008 and 2010, faster than any other item of public spending. [...]

[...] For example, he uses to criticize the Millennium Development Goals because they don't give any incentive to anyone and thus won't have economic efficiency. He considered this set of targets to be worst designed incentive scheme for public policy seen in my lifetime” Sachs (2005) defines the poverty trap: poor start with a very low level of capital per person, and then find themselves trapped in poverty because the ratio of capital per person actually falls from generation to generation. [...]

[...] Moss, Todd, and Michael Clemens “Ghost of origins and relevance of the international aid target”, Working Paper No Washington: Center for Global Development. Niskanen, William Bureaucracy and representative government, Chicago: Aldine-Atherton. Roodman, David Project Proliferation and Absorptive Capacity”, Working Paper No Washington: Center for Global Development. Sachs, Jeffrey D The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time. New York: Penguin Books. Appendix Figure Foreign aid and growth in Africa Easterly William, cartel of good intentions: the problem of bureaucracy in foreign Journal of Policy Reform, Volume 223-250 Figure A huge number of project commitments (2001–03, top ten recipients) Roodman, D. (2006). [...]