Editing Aid effectiveness (section)

== The concept of aid effectiveness ==
Any discussion of "effectiveness" must rely on understandings or assumptions about aims.<ref>{{cite report|url=https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/9296/wps4005.pdf|title=What is effective aid? How would donors allocate it?|last1=Kenny|first1=Charles|date=September 2006|publisher=World Bank|pages=2–3|access-date=2021-03-05}}</ref> In public discussions of aid effectiveness, the general aim is usually assumed to be boosting the development of recipient countries and, hence, the well-being of people living in them. But "[[International development|development]]" and "well-being" are complex and slippery concepts. The most popular summary indicator for a country's development is probably average national income per head in its population, but this indicator does not capture inequalities of wealth and power, or the structural characteristics of the country's institutions and economy.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Mahbub ul Haq |display-authors=etal |url=http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/219/hdr_1990_en_complete_nostats.pdf|title=Human Development Report 1990|publisher=UNDP|year=1990|access-date=2021-03-01}}</ref> Since the 1990s the prime purpose of aid has widely been seen as poverty reduction, but this, too, can be interpreted in a variety of ways (How soon? How sustainable? What level?).<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|last=Barder|first=Owen|date=2009|title=What Is Poverty Reduction?|url=https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/1421599_file_Barder_Poverty_Reduction.pdf|url-status=live|website=Centre for Global Development|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201223173422/https://www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/1421599_file_Barder_Poverty_Reduction.pdf |archive-date=2020-12-23 }}</ref> Such ambiguities should be clarified or at least borne in mind when considering aid effectiveness.<ref name=":5" />

Under the main international definition of aid – [[Official Development Assistance]] – any self-seeking motives of aid donors are supposed to be strictly subordinate to the objective of promoting the economic development and welfare of developing countries.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Official Development Assistance (ODA)|url=https://www.oecd.org/dac/financing-sustainable-development/development-finance-standards/official-development-assistance.htm|url-status=live|access-date=2021-03-01|website=[[OECD]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422122947/http://www.oecd.org:80/dac/financing-sustainable-development/development-finance-standards/official-development-assistance.htm |archive-date=2019-04-22 }}</ref> Such motives – which may involve strategic alliances, diplomatic trade-offs, commercial advantages and other political benefits<ref>{{Cite web|last=Kenny|first=Charles|date=2006|title=What Is Effective Aid? How Would Donors Allocate It?|url=https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/9296/wps4005.pdf|url-status=live|access-date=2021-03-01|website=[[The World Bank]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211101233334/https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/9296/wps4005.pdf |archive-date=2021-11-01 }}</ref> – are nowadays usually discussed as obstacles to aid effectiveness rather than alternative aims.

In the first decade of the 20th century, "aid effectiveness" was the declared focus of a movement joined by major donor and recipient countries and aid-related organisations, involving a series of [[high level forums on aid effectiveness]]. The agenda of this movement was largely about good practices in donor-recipient relationships, and in some cases these good practices became seen as proxies for aid effectiveness.<ref>{{Cite web|last1=Mitchell|first1=Ian|last2=McKee|first2=Caitlin|date=15 November 2018|title=How Do You Measure Aid Quality and Who Ranks Highest?|url=https://www.cgdev.org/blog/how-do-you-measure-aid-quality-and-who-ranks-highest|url-status=live|access-date=2021-03-01|website=[[Center for Global Development]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190510070512/https://www.cgdev.org/blog/how-do-you-measure-aid-quality-and-who-ranks-highest |archive-date=2019-05-10 }}</ref>