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Long-run Trends and Recent Developments in Official Assistance from Donor Countries

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  • White, Howard

Abstract

Official flows account for close to half of capital flows to developing countries, and close to 90 per cent of receipts for Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper documents trends in these official flows over the last three decades. The most striking trend has been declining aid volume. Following two decades of relative stability, official flows have decline in the 1990s; in particular aid to just 0.2 per cent of donor GNP. A second trend is the decline in aid to low-income countries, partly as aid flows are diverted to transition economies and ‘trouble spots’. As a result of these trends, real aid per capita to Sub-Saharan Africa fell by 40 per cent in the 1990s. Continuing an existing trend, multilateral agencies have accounted for a growing share of total aid, in part as a result of the expansion of EU aid, but non-EU donors have contributed more of their aid through the UN system. Positive developments have been the increased concessionality of aid and a move toward untying. However, substantial parts of the multilateral system, notably the World Bank, continue to extend loans rather than grants. And the move to untying is not well-established, having been somewhat reversed in some countries in recent years. Finally, the aid programme of most donors is thinly spread over many recipients. Whilst there are good grounds to question the current fashion for selectivity, there remain good developmental arguments for greater concentration by individual donors.

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File URL: http://www.wider.unu.edu/stc/repec/pdfs/rp2002/dp2002-106.pdf
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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER) in its series Working Papers with number UNU-WIDER Research Paper DP2002/106.

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Length: 30 pages
Date of creation: 2002
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:dp2002-106

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Related research

Keywords: development aid; bilateral aid; multilateral aid;

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References

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  1. Berthelemy, Jean-Claude & Tichit, Ariane, 2004. "Bilateral donors' aid allocation decisions--a three-dimensional panel analysis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 253-274.
  2. Robert Lensink & Howard White, 2000. "Assessing Aid: A Manifesto for Aid in the 21st Century?," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 5-18.
  3. White, H. & Woestman, L., 1993. "quality of aid : measuring trends in donor performance," ISS Working Papers - General Series 1765018943, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University (ISS), The Hague.
  4. Lensink, Robert & White, Howard, 1998. "Does the Revival of International Private Capital Flows Mean the End of Aid?: An Analysis of Developing Countries' Access to Private Capital," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(7), pages 1221-1234, July.
  5. Howard White, 2001. "Will the new aid agenda help promote poverty reduction?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(7), pages 1057-1070.
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Cited by:
  1. Carl-Johan Dalgaard & Lennart Erickson, 2006. "Solow Versus Harrod-Domar: Reexamining the Aid Costs of the First Millennium Development Goal," IMF Working Papers 06/284, International Monetary Fund.
  2. Ingrid Majerová, 2012. "International Development Cooperation Of The Czech Republic In The Context Of European Development," Prague Economic Papers, University of Economics, Prague, vol. 2012(2), pages 166-185.
  3. White, Howard, 2004. "Trends in the volume and allocation of official flows from donor countries," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 233-244.
  4. Agata Czaplińska, . "Building Public Support for Development Cooperation," Policy Papers del Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales 02-07, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales.
  5. Sanjeev Gupta & Catherine A. Pattillo & Smita Wagh, 2006. "Are Donor Countries Giving More or Less Aid?," IMF Working Papers 06/1, International Monetary Fund.

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