What is the rationale for foreign aid?
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Making Aid More Effective: Lessons from the Philippines | In Asia
As thousands of development experts and leaders gathered this week in Busan, Korea, for the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness , The Asia Foundation has just published a book featuring case studies from the Philippines that focus on many of the most critical development challenges being raised in Busan. The book, Built on Dreams, Grounded in Reality: Economic Policy Reform in the Philippines , examines both successful and unsuccessful reforms in order to draw lessons from those experiences. The five highly regarded reforms include: introducing competition and liberalization in three sectors (sea transport, civil aviation, telecommunications); privatizing water service in Metro Manila; and passing a property rights law to allow faster titling of residential lands.
Pakistan, an Ally by Any Other Name | U.S. Naval Institute
Its ever-contentious relationship with America is unlikely to change, but the time is right for a reassessment of U.S. strategy in the region. The death of Osama bin Laden creates an opportunity for the United States to fundamentally re-examine its strategy in Afghanistan and South Asia. Such a re-evaluation must take into account three basic concepts: In addition, polling data suggest that public support for the United States in Pakistan is astonishingly low, civil-military relations are dominated by the military, and elements of the military support the Taliban along with a range of other Islamist militant groups.
By the standards of some of the commentary that has appeared in the wake of the review of Australian aid, Hugh White’s op-ed in the Age is pretty good . Its tone is measured and it makes coherent points. Its central argument is plausible. And yet it is still wrong. It’s worth explaining why it is wrong, because the arguments it advances are conventional wisdom among many who comment on foreign aid, despite being mistaken. White’s case against aid runs like this:
Increasing aid, wasting money? | Development Policy blog
