@article{Ranis:133408, recid = {133408}, author = {Ranis, Gustav}, title = {Another Look at Foreign Aid}, address = {2012-08}, number = {1858-2016-152953}, series = {Economic Growth Center Discussion Paper}, pages = {25}, year = {2012}, abstract = {The discussion of the effectiveness of foreign aid has reached a high pitch. This paper assesses the sorry past and present key arguments for a potentially more effective and sustainable method of aid delivery. A key ingredient is to shake off the vestiges of structural adjustment and move towards true recipient country ownership complete with “self-conditionality” with aid recipients formulating their own reform packages. This means donors become much more passive, act like a bank and respond to proposals which concentrate on a few critical areas over a three to five-year period. Policy-based program lending should respond to packages put together by the main domestic stakeholders with the help, if necessary, of independent third parties. There should be no compulsion to lend; indeed, an aid hiatus is an indication that the new system is effective. What is required is for donors to stop using aid as a short-term foreign policy tool and for recipients to accept the notion that aid provides the opportunity to reduce the inevitable adjustment pains caused by real reforms.}, url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/133408}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.133408}, }