Aid Without Power

Book reviewed in this article: Western Middle Powers and Global Poverty. The Determinants of the Aid Policies of Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. Edited by Olav Stokke The Emergence of Japan's Foreign Aid Power. By Robert M. Orr Jr. Development Cooperation, 1990 Report. Efforts and Policies of the Members of the Development Assistance Committee. OECD Development Assistance Committee     

Bauer on Aid

Book reviewed in this article: Reality and Rhetoric. Studies in the Economics of Development. By P.T. Bauer     

Aiding the Aid Debate

Book reviewed in this article: Democratizing Development: The Role of Voluntary Organizations. By John Clark When Aid is No Help: How Projects Fail and How They Could Succeed. By John Madeley et al     

An Appeal to Aid Specialists

The appeal I am making is (roughly speaking) for aid specialists to do more to help those of us who are not aid specialists to arrive at judgments about the effects of the work of (voluntary) aid agencies that we have at least some reason to think accurate. I argue that the fact that it is so difficult for us to arrive at such judgments at present has certain negative consequences, and that this gives those who are in a position to make it easier for us to arrive at such judgments strong reasons to do so. And I argue that (certain) aid specialists are in such a position. Hence my appeal to them to do so.     

Mutual Aid in the Classroom

The purpose of the study is to examine the use of instructional technology in creating a mutual aid environment in the classroom. By developing and exploring Internet-based exercises designed to promote interaction in a distance education environment, the authors tested the hypothesis that instructional technology offers opportunities to promote mutual aid among students. This article describes these exercises and presents the results of a student survey about the application of mutual aid in distance education.     

Paris in Bogotá: The Aid Effectiveness Agenda and Aid Relations in Colombia

This article uses an aid‐relationships perspective to explore the application of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in Colombia. It argues that aid donors were subjected to an attempt to push them (back) into a technocratic corner, and that social actors' advocacy outcomes were put under threat. Both are worrying developments in a politically complex context marked by internal armed conflict and human‐rights abuses. Analysis of the Colombia case offers some useful insights into applying the Paris Declaration, and other global aid‐policy frameworks, to diverse settings.     

Tokyo Story: Aid Sells Books

Book reviewed in this article: Japan's Foreign Aid Challenge: Policy Reform and Aid Leadership. By Alan Rix Yen for Development: Japanese Foreign Aid and the Politics of Burden-Sharing. Edited by Shafiqul Islam The OECF Research Quarterly, 1993/1 No. 76 Japan's Foreign Aid: Power and Policy in a New Era. Edited by Bruce M. Koppel and Robert M. Orr, Jr. Boulder, CO     

Why Do Aid Agencies Exist?

This article seeks to explain the organisational set‐up of foreign aid delivery from a Coasian perspective: Why are there many and different aid organisations and not just one? Why is foreign aid not transferred directly from donor to beneficiary? With zero transaction costs and fully shared preferences between donors and beneficiaries, there would be no need for aid agencies. Their role is not so much to transfer funds or goods and services to developing countries, but (a) to reduce ex‐ante transaction costs and (b) to mediate between the diverging preferences of donors and recipients, and package aid flows in a contract that reduces ex‐post uncertainties for donors. Outcomes differ according to types of agencies and aid delivery instruments.