7 - Implications for Aid Effectiveness, Public Policy, and Future Research

Summary

Chapter 7 considers the implications of the book's analysis for the study of foreign aid effectiveness as well as policy-making. It establishes a link between political economies and the different kinds of outcomes that donor officials prioritize. Donor governments that outsource aid delivery in countries with bad governance may achieve greater success in providing immediate relief to the poor through easily implementable health interventions than donor governments that continue to engage in institution building in collaboration with the state. However, outsourcing in foreign aid delivery might hamper or even undermine donor efforts to build up a state capable of managing its own development – an objective that ranks high for donor governments who prefer a tactic of greater engagement with the government in the developing country. The book further suggests that the proliferation of neoliberal governance beliefs puts increasing pressure on statist regimes to change their metric, a process, which may come at the expense of efforts to strengthen the capacity of the state abroad. Finally, my book opens up future avenues for research.