ABSTRACT

The provision of aid to developing countries has become an increasingly important part of contemporary international relations. The number of aid donors has increased, and the total amount of aid given to developing countries has risen significantly, especially in the last 10 years. For many developing countries, relations with development agencies have become a central part of their international affairs, and, for some of the most aid-dependent states, foreign assistance has become central to their ability to provide services to their population. For Western states, the provision of development aid has become an important instrument for achieving international objectives including the cultivating of political allies, opening markets, fighting terrorism and constructing regimes of global governance. The provision of foreign aid has also been very controversial. There is an important (and very lively!) debate about how effective foreign aid has been in stimulating development and thus about whether donor countries ought to be more generous in their aid provision. In addition, over the last 10 years or so, there has been increasing pressure on Western donors to provide aid in a more effective, co-ordinated and transparent manner. For all of these reasons, foreign aid is an important site of investigation into changing practices of global economic governance.