International donors should be more selective in the kinds of programs they support if they want to tackle corruption and other governance issues in some of world's most corrupt countries.
That's according to Daniel Kaufmann, who writes about corruption and aid effectiveness in a recent post to the Brookings Institution's Up Front Blog. The senior fellow of global economy and development acknowledges, however, that such an approach would prove difficult.
But immediately suspending aid because of corruption is simplistic and misguided, he argues. Instead, Kaufmann suggests that bilateral and multilateral donors consider the following:
• Concrete evidence that sustained development is possible in a partner country suffering from corruption.
• Lessons learned from assisting non-corrupt countries.
• The extent through which aid addresses or fuels corruption in recipient countries.
• Alternative means of providing aid if the central government of a partner country is proven corrupt.
• The exposure of development projects to corruption.
A recent Devex blog on an Overseas Development Institute aid effectiveness report outlines three new principles of aid effectiveness that donor countries can adopt in addition to the Paris Declaration and the Accra Agenda for Action.
