• What does it mean?
• The proliferation of new donors
• Approaches for delivering aid

Aid architecture - what does it mean?

This paper by the International Development Association reviews the broad trends in Official Development Assistance (ODA) flows; the growing complexity of the existing global aid architecture; and the prospects and challenges facing the donor community. It finds that the recent upward trend in ODA volumes has been accompanied by an increase in the amount of aid delivered through grants. Almost 90 per cent of bilateral ODA is now in the form of grants, and there has also been an increase in the use of grants by multilateral organisations. New donors bring with them more resources to help developing countries reach the Millennium Development Goals, but also new challenges for harmonisation and alignment.

The paper concludes with a brief look into the main challenges facing the donor community going forward, including: (i) achieving complementarity across national, regional and global development priorities and programmes; and (ii) strengthening recipient countries’ ability to make effective use of potentially scaled-up fast-disbursing ODA such as budget support. The platform provided by the principles and targets of the Paris Declaration should help to achieve complementarity. [adapted from authors]

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