In The Foreign Aid Business, Kunibert Raffer and Hans Singer offer an incisive analysis of aid and development finance, examine the key issues and new trends in aid as well as proposing a series of fundamental improvements.

Distinguishing clearly between ‘aid’ and ‘help’ in development finance, the authors discuss aid in the context of other North-South flows, such as trade or debt service, and describe its role and evolution during the Cold War. They address in detail issues such as food aid, the European Union’s Lome co-operation, Japan’s emergence as the largest donor and its specific aid philosophy, the often neglected question of South-South aid and the role of non-governmental organizations. The new trends analyzed in this book include political conditionality, the UNDP’s proposal to reorient aid towards human development and the question of aid diversion to the former communist countries.

The Foreign Aid Business concludes by proposing a series of innovative reforms for development aid and finance. The authors advocate major improvements which include combining emergency and development aid, the financial accountability of donors, international insolvency to stop aid bailing-out creditors and the emulation of the Marshall pla’s successful self-monitoring by recipients.

Combining a sophisticated analysis of current issues and trends with innovative new ideas for raising the effectiveness of development aid and finance, this substantial new book will be welcomed by academic scholars, policymakers and practitioners as a major contribution to our understanding of the foreign aid business.