ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some of the difficulties in bringing aid to poor countries. Most poor countries in the South are struggling to overcome a colonial inheritance: the language, the structure of government, and even the boundaries of the country, are the result of foreign interference and domination in the past. Aid also comes in cycles; what is fashionable in one decade is replaced in another. I describe some of the main international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) that give aid and illustrate their way of working: the World Bank and its satellites; the United Nations and its many offshoots; international consultancies; corporate donors; international NGOs like Oxfam and Christian Aid; and those few organizations concerned mainly or exclusively with early childhood. I point to the difficulties that most of these organizations face, as bureaucratic agencies located in the North, relying on a particular kind of technocratic knowledge and expertise. I also briefly discuss how governments in the North provide aid programmes. Whatever the source of the aid, it is sometimes counterproductive and not always welcomed.
