Perspectives on Aid and Development

Leading economists explain why, despite widespread agreement on sustainable development, much has gone awry.

A growing consensus has emerged in recent years among donors, and between aid agencies and their developing country counterparts, on development strategies. Almost everybody now agrees that sustainable development requires macroeconomic stability, substantial integration into the global economy, better public sector management, more effective poverty alleviation, and greater attention to the private sector and to civil society in general. At the same time, it has become increasingly apparent that in many countries, particularly in the least developed that are the most heavily aided, much has gone awry. In Perspectives on Aid and Development a distinguished group of policy experts offer perspectives on the lessons learned from development experience and how these lessons have been translated into new thinking on aid and development issues.

Catherine Gwin is Senior Vice President of the Overseas Development Council.

Joan M. Nelson is a senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a scholar in residence at the School of International Service at American University.