Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book argues that the recipients would do better with less traditional patronage and more opportunities to take control of their own destinies. It reviews the origins and evolution of aid, traces the stages in development thinking that have influenced the motivations for aid and the forms in which it has been provided, and traces the decline in aid during the 1990s. The book describes the central idea that in a more equitable and better managed global environment, countries can more readily advance their development status through their own efforts, and with diminishing reliance on the direct transfer of aid resources. It presents a public lecture at the UN University’s World Institute for Development Economics Research in Helsinki in April 1997. Development aid has usually been construed as a form of compensation for disadvantage.