Security concerns increasingly influence foreign aid: how Western countries give aid, to whom and why. With contributions from experts in the field, this book examines the impact of security issues on six of the world's largest aid donors, as well as on key crosscutting issues such as gender equality and climate change.

Contents: (1) Introduction; (2) Recent Trends in Foreign Assistance; (3) U.S. Aid-Related Activities, by Agency: USAID; State; DoD; HHS; USDA; Treasury; Millennium Challenge Corp.; Peace Corps; Others; (4) Existing Coordination Mechanisms; (5) Aid Coordination in Other Countries; (6) Selected Coordination Options: Enhance Coordination as Part of a National Foreign Assistance Strategy; Empower One Entity to Coordinate All U.S. Foreign Aid; Build on White House/NSC Structures with Department/Agency Rep.; Separate Strategic Assistance from Development Assistance; Enhance Coordination and Authority at the Country Level; Require Whole of Gov¿t. Reporting; Require IG Reports on All Aid Activities; (7) Legislative Activity. Illustrations.

Sumner and Mallett review the literature on aid in light of shifts in the aid system and the increasing concentration of the world's poor in middle-income countries. As a consequence, they propose a series of practical, policy relevant options for future development cooperation, with the aim of provoking discussion and informing policy.

Foreign aid is now a $100bn business and is expanding more rapidly today than it has for a generation. But does it work? Indeed, is it needed at all? Other attempts to answer these important questions have been dominated by a focus on the impact of official aid provided by governments. But today possibly as much as 30 percent of aid is provided by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), and over 10 percent is provided as emergency assistance. In this first-ever attempt to provide an overall assessment of aid, Roger Riddell presents a rigorous but highly readable account of aid, warts and all. Does Foreign Aid Really Work? sets out the evidence and exposes the instances where aid has failed and explains why. The book also examines the way that politics distorts aid, and disentangles the moral and ethical assumptions that lie behind the belief that aid does good. The book concludes by detailing the practical ways that aid needs to change if it is to be the effective force for good that its providers claim it is.