This paper explores the current evidence underlying the debate on aid effectiveness, with a specific focus on the health sector. It summarizes the history of aid and outlines the methodological challenges encountered when assessing its effectiveness. The current evidence on ‘what works’ in the different aid modalities is outlined, highlighting examples of success. The review finds that resource...

Africa is the world’s most aided major region. Yet economic growth has been disappointingly low there. A number of factors explain the poor outcomes and limited sustainability of and in Africa. But the organisation and management of the aid relationship is a particularly important one, including the dependence of Africans on that aid. The currently popular nostrums for solving the problem of th...

Development assistance from high-income countries to the health sectors of low- and middle-income countries (health aid) is an important source of funding for health in low- and middle-income countries. However, the relationship between health aid and the expected health improvements from those expenditures--the cost-effectiveness of targeted interventions--remains unknown. We reviewed the lite...