Aid Quality

The development community has reached a strong consensus, demonstrated by the Paris Declaration, that aid quality plays an important role in determining the effectiveness of development assistance. However, public debate still focuses disproportionately on the quantity of aid, in part because of the lack of accessible, comparable information on aid quality. While the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) has made significant progress in collecting data on how aid is spent, this information is often difficult for nonspecialists to interpret.

Building on the successful experience of the Center’s Commitment to Development Index, which examines aid quality in addition to quantity, as well as on the work of the OECD-DAC, CGD is collaborating with staff at the Brookings Institution to develop and publish an annual assessment of the quality of the aid disbursed by official donors. The Quality of Official Development Assistance (QuODA) is intended for a broad audience including donor agencies, civil society, legislatures, and the public and aims to produce useful comparisons across donors. Even in early stages, a prototype assessment could help to catalyze interest in improving the supply and delivery of aid. The pilot assessment will be in 2010.

Please email AMahgoub@cgdev.org with comments and suggestions, or to request more information.

Aid Effectiveness