This is the eighteenth in a series of posts discussing themes from The Trouble With Aid by Jonathan Glennie. In chapter 8 the book discusses the reasons aid is increasing. According to the author, the increases in aid over the past decade have been brought about by political considerations, and not by evidence of actual effectiveness. He argues that the literature about aid tends to be more policy-based evidence than evidence-based policy.
In the new era of aid there is a higher degree of dependency than ever before while, for the first time, there is compelling evidence that “aid has at best very mixed results and at worst can hinder economic and political progress”. So why do donors persist with the current aid system, rather than addressing poverty in more effective ways? According to Glennie, there are two reasons: aid is an easy answer for politicians who want to be seen as doing something, and it is a cost-efficient way of buying economic advantage and political support.
It is relatively easy for rich countries to give a small amount of aid to poor countries; it is politically far more difficult for them to change their trade policies to give better opportunities to poor countries at the expense of powerful lobby groups within the rich countries. Further, aid was a way of buying friends during the Cold War, and it is a way of buying friends in the War on Terror. To solve poverty, costly structural changes are required; but all that poor countries receive is dependency-inducing aid.