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Will the new aid agenda help promote poverty reduction?
Author(s) -
White Howard
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of international development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.533
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1099-1328
pISSN - 0954-1748
DOI - 10.1002/jid.820
Subject(s) - poverty , poverty reduction , government (linguistics) , economics , debt , development economics , basic needs , economic growth , public economics , point (geometry) , business , finance , linguistics , philosophy , geometry , mathematics
Aid is widely perceived to have failed at poverty reduction. The last decade has seen a renewed focus on poverty and a number of changes in aid management. Will these improve aid's effectiveness at reducing poverty? The adoption of the International Development Targets is an important rallying point in emphazising poverty concerns, but do not tell us how to achieve them. Sector programmes and Poverty Reduction Strategies can both be important in enhancing the efficiency of expenditures, though there have been problems in implementation, mainly of donors being reluctant to allow government to lead the process. Less desirable are the move to selectivity on the basis of ‘good policies’ and attempts to earmark debt relief to poverty reduction expenditures. But the real issue to be tackled is to ensure that a greater proportion of aid resources are used in ways which will directly benefit the poor. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.