A clear paper, albeit unreasonably strewn with acronyms, regarding the problems of where aid money is best directed.  Reports the trend away from Technical Assistance (TA) and direct project support – seen as too directive.  Sector Wide Approaches (SWA) and Direct Budget Support (DBS) are now favoured, allowing recipient governments to direct the funds and make their own capacity building decisions, so reflecting increased ownership of programmes.

Smith concludes however that recipient governments aren’t too good at these high level processes and that little of this high level spending  actually results in building local capacity, which is the only place it is really effective.

Concern that achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDG) may actually be hindered by the redirection of aid money to high level.  Do we want better education by colonial methods or worse education by delegating spending to recipient government control?