Aid and development: issues and reflections

This paper aims to explore three areas in the literature on aid and development. The first focuses on Dambisa Moyo’s controversial book Dead Aid (2009), developing some criticisms which were not fully elaborated in the reviews which followed its publication. The second questions some of the implicit properties of the World Bank’s Country Policy and Institutional Assessment which was subjected to a thorough going internal review recently (World Bank, 2010) . The third reflects upon the ‘Needs - Effectiveness Index’ (N - EI) developed by DFID for its major 2010 - 11 reappraisal of bilateral and multilateral Official Development Assistance allocation.