ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book examines aid and the ways it is defined and distributed, how this has changed over time and whether or not it has been seen as successful and effective. It starts by suggesting that there is no agreement about how it is defined, how it is measured and whether it works or not. The book focuses on the type of aid most used and best understood on the global stage: ODA. Aid – and ODA in particular – stresses material things, whether financial resources, equipment, consultants as advisors, construction and so on. Aid also has symbolic value in terms of the act of giving and receiving between the parties involved.
