Aid, Growth and Poverty

The authors discuss the impact of foreign aid and tackle the question of why assessing the impact of aid isso difficult. The authors focus on peer-reviewed, cross-country studies published overthe last decade and draw together some global-level assessments, considering the context and conditions under whichaid might be said to ‘work’. Glennie and Sumner argue that the evidence in four areas shows signsof convergence that may have direct relevance for policy decisions on aid andfor aid effectiveness discussions. These are as follows: Aidlevels (meaning if aid is too low or too high); Domestic political institutions(including political stability and extent of decentralisation); Aid composition(including sectors, modalities, objectives and time horizons); and Aidvolatility and fragmentation. Notably, this study finds that there is no consensus that theeffectiveness of aid depends on orthodox economic policies.

JonathanGlennie is Director of Policy and Research at Save the Children UK, andVisiting Fellow at King’s College London. He has worked and written extensively on international poverty and humanrights, and helped to develop Christian Aid’s now-ubiquitous critique of globaltax policy. Jonathan is a regular columnist for The Guardian’s GlobalDevelopment website, and is on the board of Peace Brigades International, as wellas the Sheffield Institute for International Development.

AndySumner is Reader in International Development and Co-Director of King’sInternational Development Institute, King’s College London. He holds associatepositions at Oxford University at the Oxford Poverty and Human DevelopmentInitiative and the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC. He has beenlisted in Foreign Policy Magazine’s ‘Top 100 Global Thinkers’ and isDeputy Editor and Editorial Board Member of the Journal Global Policy.