The number and diversity of actors in development cooperation have dramatically increased. To give one example, only one or two donors assisted Mozambique and Zambia in 1964, but this increased to almost every one of the 37 donors in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development database by 1999.
Having more donors creates new opportunities for broader partnerships among different development actors. At the same time, it poses challenges for countries receiving aid and other types of assistance. It increases fragmentation, transaction costs and makes management of aid all the more challenging.
How can a country make best use of multiple aid sources while avoiding the negative effects of uncoordinated aid? How can we significantly reduce transaction costs and other negative effects of fragmentation?
About the author
Fred Twesiime
Fred Twesiime is an economist at Ugandan Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development. He is also co-chair of the GPEDC's Building Block on Managing Diversity and Reducing Fragmentation.
