Development Aid and Good Governance

Monday, October 10, 2011, 18.00–19.30, Žofín Palace, Knight’s Hall

 

Keynote Speech:

Mou-Shih Ding, Senior Advisor to the President, Taiwan

Moderator:

Jan Urban, Journalist, Czech Republic

Panel Discussion:

Frans Timmermans, Politician, Diplomat, The Netherlands

Gérard Roland, Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley, USA

Marcus Cornaro, Director, Development and Cooperation, European Commission, Belgium/Austria

 

 

The panel discussed the effectiveness of development aid. Keynote speaker Mou-Shih Ding provided an example of how Taiwan was once a recipient of aid and has built itself up to become a provider to other developing countries. Building upon this example, Marcus Cornaro commented that countries must have a sustainable management of resources to become self-reliant. Frans Timmermans proceeded to discuss the issue of a decrease in popular support for aid from developed countries due to the fact that “people want to see that the money they spend is put to good use and that it yields results and we do not see enough of that”.

 

Gérard Roland then added to this by critiquing the lack of evaluation of aid implementation, stating that there are “no correct evaluations of aid programs”, thus it is hard to measure the success of development aid and to assess whether money is reaching those to whom it is directed. Roland commented that “when there is strong support for something there is big pressure to spend” and this pressure on politicians to spend aid money quickly can result in governments turning a blind eye towards corruption. He also added that aid may be unsuccessful because “we think that by exporting existing institution structures we will solve the problem” and he agrees with Timmermans, stating that “if you are able enough to let the people speak for themselves … you might be far more successful”.