GOOD GOVERNANCE AND EFFECTIVENESS OF AID FOR DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Since the introduction of international aid for development, researchers and donors have been questioning whether or not it is really effective. Today, this issue still remains the subject of investigation and controversy; particularly for the relationship between aid, growth, poverty relief and other more recent concepts, such as good governance. This article explores the origin and changes experienced by the notion of good governance; we analyze the constituents and determinants of the same, their relationship with similar concepts, such as institutional quality, and especially the ideas and evidence created on the relationship between good governance and the effectiveness of aid for development purposes. The very rubric of aid effectiveness is subject to review, because of the considerable diversity of approaches to the objectives to which it is ultimately accountable.

The question of whether or not it is good governance that attracts and makes aid more effective, or whether it is the latter that favours the transition of countries to better levels of governance, is still under debate with scholars and experts. This article presents the debate on the effectiveness of aid. We can see that again there is no general consensus that aid has been effective in promoting economic growth; for which there are both advocates and detractors of this idea.