The Failure of Foreign Aid

“When the United Nations agreed on the Millennium Development Goals a decade ago, it was a triumph of consensus. But with five years to go before a self-imposed deadline, failure on many fronts is a real possibility. German commentators discuss why this is so. … The failure of development aid is not the result of a lack of money. Insiders quietly report that in many countries they have problems finding enough worthwhile projects to spend their budgets on. There must then be other reasons to explain why some countries make no progress while others that were once just as underdeveloped now boast of phenomenal growth rates.”