Poverty, inequality and aid: rhetoric and reality

How much of the $56 billion that OECD countries counted as Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 1999 was 'real aid'? The question of whether aid is really reaching poor people is fundamental.

In this Report, the authors' aim is not to belittle the progress that has been achieved. but rather to do a modest reality check - to begin addressing some key questions in a way that will highlight the limitations on aid - whilst pointing to ways in which a reformed aid regime could become a catalyst for wider change:

• What are the true motivations for aid?
• How much aid is 'real aid'?
• What are the underlying reasons for the co-existence of aid and debt?
• Why is it OK to cancel debt for the rich but not for the poor?
• Why are donors so addicted to conditions?
• Can ownership be reconciled with conditionality?
• Democracy and hypocrisy: who sets standards on governance ?

These questions pose real challenges to donors in the North (including NGOs). They point to the gap between the claims of what aid can do, the policies of donors, which are outlined in the national reports from OECD NGOs, and the experience and observations of civil society in the South, which are described in reports from developing countries. [adapted from authors]