ABSTRACT
The Bretton Woods institutions are showing more interest in basing the country programs that they support on the Millennium Development Goals, and it is important for them to follow through on that expressed interest. Most low-income countries require technical support from the international system to put forward scaled-up investment plans to achieve the Goals. Multilateral organizations frequently compete for donor government funding to implement small projects, instead of supporting country-scale plans and budgets. Aid can and must be disbursed in ways that align the incentives of donors and recipients to support positive development outcomes. In many countries international expectations are low but the country’s potential is very high if timely donor support and debt cancellation are brought to bear, and phased in over time. The multilateral and bilateral agencies should organize their technical efforts around supporting countries to develop and implement Millennium Development Goals-based poverty reduction strategies.
