ABSTRACT
Optimists might look at 1997 as the last ‘transition year’ for Belgian development cooperation. The sector lost most of its meagre public support and credibility in 1995, due to continuing newspaper reporting of real and presumed scandals within the aid system. Since then, a series of inquiries and proposals have been made, culminating in December 1997 into a new policy paper and several Bills adopted by the government (but at the time of writing still to be approved by parliament). Realists will say that the job has only just begun.
