Better aid

Since the signing of the Millennium Declaration in 2000 and the agreement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), levels of official development assistance or aid have finally started to increase.

New commitments made in 2005 at the Gleneagles G8 summit and by European Union countries suggest that aid flows will increase to about US $130 billion by 2010, from a level of US $80 billion in 2004, with at least 50% going to Africa.

However, more aid does not necessarily lead to a reduction in poverty. Commitments made must actually be delivered, and aid must be real additional support, for example in addition to debt relief, and not disguised in mechanisms such as 'technical assistance', where no real cash transfers to developing countries actually take place.

When funding is actually delivered, it is currently often highly unpredictable or has too many strings attached. Without strengthening domestic accountability between citizens in developing countries and their own governments, the ability of individual citizens, particularly marginalised groups such as children, women and the disabled, to help decide how aid is used means that it can often be less effective, or in the worst cases, diverted by corrupt practices.

World Vision campaigns and advocates for better aid so that aid is allocated and delivered efficiently and effectively. Ultimately, we believe that we need to move to a situation beyond aid, where developing countries and their citizens do not depend on foreign aid to sustain their livelihoods, but instead generate sustainable improvements in livelihoods by themselves.