Reforming foreign aid : the role of international public goods
Ferroni, Marco
There is now vigorous debate on how to reform the system of development cooperation that has evolved over the past fifty years. The reform of foreign aid must focus on better approaches to both national and transnational policy challenges. This paper spotlights the transnational dimension and makes the following points: 1) As global integration deepens, the number of development problems that call for supra-national policy response grows. Thus, a new development frontier is emerging, and with its new role, and perhaps a new rationale, for foreign aid. 2) The international public goods agenda is critical to aid effectiveness. In contrast to traditional patterns of development cooperation, now seen to have fostered aid dependency, the new agenda must be embedded in inclusive and thus legitimizing and mutually empowering partnerships. This is key to a more productive aid relationship and, in time, to a qualitative shift from aid to accelerated integration and true international cooperation. 3) International public goods vary considerably in nature and reach. The motivation to contribute to the supply of a particular international public good depends on the degree to which potential contributors are affected by the transboundary problem that the good is designed to correct. Multilateral agencies can play an important role as catalyst of collective action to produce international public goods.
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