Development carries conditions in almost every form in which it is given.
The conditions are defended as protecting the money and criticised as substituting a 's judgement for a government's.
Both descriptions are accurate in different cases, which is why the argument has not resolved in forty years.
Evaluations distinguish conditions on process from conditions on policy.
Requiring an audit, a published budget or a competitive has a good record.
Requiring a particular economic policy has a poor one, and the reason is not ideological.
A policy that a government does not believe in is reversed the moment the programme ends.
therefore buys compliance for the duration of the money and rarely longer.
is the difficulty that s create for themselves and complain about separately.
A ministry of health in a low-income country may report to thirty separate funders, each with its own format and mission schedule.
Senior officials spend a documented majority of their time on that reporting rather than on the system they run.
solve this and reduce each 's visibility, which is why they remain a minority of the total.
is the currency of aid politics, since a parliament funds what it can point to.
, the least visible instrument, has the strongest evidence and the weakest political base.
Recipient countries have stated this repeatedly and have limited leverage in saying so.
The most useful reform available is also the dullest: harmonised reporting formats across s.
It requires no new money and returns a measurable share of a ministry's working time.
It has been agreed in four international declarations and implemented in none of them.