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in more than six decades since the end of world war ii and the successful beginning of decolonization and self-determina- tion in Africa and Asia, international aid to developing countries has amounted to about $2.2 trillion (OECD 2011). This aid has provided much needed assistance to many countries and generated a wide range of effects. At the same time this aid has also generated continu- ing controversies in both donor and recipient countries about whether the aid has been well used, whether it has met the expectations of the donors, or whether the nature and delivery system of aid has itself undermined the capacities of countries to improve their incomes and human development over time.
There are many books about aid with catchy titles such as Dead Aid (Moyo 2009), White Man's Burden (Easterly 2006), Lords of Poverty (Hancock 1989), or other more suggestive titles such as Foreign Aid as Foreign Policy (Taffet 2007) or Masters of Illusion (Caulfield 1997). Each day articles can be found in the global and local press about the "failures of aid" or its high costs in terms of financial debt or interference in the sovereignty of developing countries. An annual survey by the University of Maryland has repeatedly found that Americans believe foreign aid accounts for about 15 percent of the US government's budget when in fact it is less than 0.1 of 1 percent. These same issues can be heard in current debates over aid to Greece or Spain as these industrialized countries face their economic problems.
Such debates need to be weighed against the extraordinary historic increases in life expectancy, literacy, and per capita income of the world's population and the dramatic decreases in infant and maternal mortality as well as a variety of infectious diseases. According to the World Data Bank (http://databank.worldbank.org/ddp/home. do?Step=3&id=4), in 1960 India and South Korea had the same per capita incomes and Ghana was richer than both. In 2010 South Korea was among the 15 richest countries in the world, with a per capita income of $22,424, while Ghana had grown to $1,570, with India behind at $1,489. Something has happened that explains important social and economic transformations in these countries, and aid has certainly played a key role. If this was...