Tag Archive for: ODA

Reader response: foreign aid, geopolitics and perverse incentives

Money on a HookI commend Charles Miller for writing on the important and under-examined relationship between our development assistance and broader international goals and settings. I’m puzzled, however, by his leap from the imperfectability of foreign aid to a declaration that it doesn’t work, especially when donated for strategic reasons.

Almost all aid offered by OECD donors such as ourselves is ultimately provided for some mix of both humanitarian and strategic motives. In Australia, a third purpose—supporting domestic commercial interests—was formally removed in 1997. But even at the height of the subsequent ‘One Clear Objective’ phase of our aid approach, a key reason for focusing on poverty reduction was to break the link between underdevelopment, insecurity, and instability in countries that are important to us. Read more

Why and how failed states recover: book review

UN Team Navigates through Western SaharaMore than one billion of the world’s seven billion people live in failed or failing states. Why and how do failed states recover and why haven’t the lessons of state failure over the past sixty years been learned? Why do we continue to see the same mistakes repeated again and again?

In his new book Why States Recover, Greg Mills, the head of the South African-based Brenthurst Foundation, conducted fieldwork in over 40 countries on four continents to provide a compelling first-hand account of the causes of state failure and the prescriptions of recovery. Mills concludes that states can and do recover from failure, but we shouldn’t expect any quick fixes.

As someone who has been engaged with fragile and recovering states in Africa over a good many years, I’m familiar with the massive challenges of rebuilding infrastructure and bringing justice and reconciliation to damaged communities.  As Mills points out it starts with a legitimate local leadership building trust through policies that provide better basic services, creating opportunities, imposing the rule of law and opening the door to private-sector investment. Read more