Does Aid Work?

In 1984, eighteen governments established an international Task Force on Concessional Flows to investigate the transfer of real resources to developing countries and to report on the effectiveness of aid. This book is the report which resulted, and its basic finding is that most aid succeeds in terms of its own objectives and obtains a reasonable rate of return. At the same time, the report analyses the by-no-means insignificant failings of aid projects, compares these failings with other forms of private and public investment, and proposes measure for improving aid effectiveness.