ABSTRACT
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, industrialized development was a major theme of development assistance. The International Fund for Agricultural Development has a special mandate of combating rural hunger and poverty in the most disadvantaged regions of the world. There is little doubt that development assistance can be much more effective. One problem is accentuated by a reluctance of donors and the inability of recipients to coordinate activities at the national level for monitoring and sharing results and experiences. Major investments in agricultural and rural development come from individual national governments. Donor-supported agriculture development projects have generally had high incidence of failure, resulting in low institutional impact. In the mid-1990s, the Swedish Government also set aside funds for development assistance to the Baltic States. A number of countries receiving Swedish aid feature quite high on the index presented by Transparency International on corruption in the world.
