Development Policy
How to Really Help Africa?
Despite the enlargement of the G8 to the G20, Europe remains its largest presence. In November France will host the G20 meeting, and so Europe will have the predominant influence on the agenda. While Africa is permanently on the agenda, the question is how we might best use that moment to do something for our [...]
Assessment System Required to Ensure Aid Makes a Real Difference
How should aid be provided? Aid appears to be at its best when it is designated to finance beneficial projects. If aid finances a school or a health clinic then surely it is useful. Unfortunately, this is often an illusion for the simple reason that such projects may well have been undertaken by the government [...]
New Development Commissioner has his Work cut out
News of the appointments in the new European Commission has been dominated by the political struggles for the high-profile positions. The portfolio responsible for the Commission’s development program in poor countries is decidedly not one of them. The Financial Times, reporting on the appointment of Andris Piebalgs to the post, suggested that he deserved better.
Yet [...]
The new European Commission needs to use its Experience to stabilise fragile States
In the face of the political and military deterioration in Afghanistan international ambitions have been radically scaled back. The initial intent was to turn Afghanistan swiftly into a replica of a Western democracy. The new objective is to settle for any government that blocks terrorism. State-building has been abandoned both because it is evidently difficult, [...]
Who will run the World?
The tectonic plates of the global economy are beginning to settle into a new alignment. At Pittsburgh it was announced that henceforth the G20 would replace the G8. At Istanbul, where I have just been, Stanley Fischer, currently Governor of the Central Bank of Israel and hugely influential, used the Annual Meetings of the IMF [...]