ABSTRACT
Foreign aid is an ambiguous concept and its precise definition is often glossed over by analysts on the grounds that it is the impact of this resource transfer, or the motivations behind it, that are important. The continuing uncertainty over what constitutes aid is surprising given that development assistance has become 'virtually a universal element in the relationship between developed and developing countries' (Ohlin, 1986: 61). Ambiguity of this kind is also unhelpful as it can lead donors to seek to have as many resource flows as possible counted as development assistance. Perhaps the clearest example of this is to be found in France's policy of including her massive 'inward investment' in her 'dependent territories' (the Departements et Territoires dOutre-Mer) within official French aid statistics.1 This form of creative accounting has enabled Paris to 'mask a real decline in French aid' (Adda and Smouts, 1989: 34) over much of the postcolonial period.2
