Developing country performance with respect to economic policies and institutional behaviour is a common criterion for the allocation of aid among recipient countries. This paper questions the manner in which performance is used in this regard, arguing that performance is too narrowly defined. A...

This paper analyzes aid allocation from a normative point of view. It attempts to design aid allocation criteria adapted to development goals and combining the principles of effectiveness and equity in a transparent and integrated framework. The common view about aid selectivity, which...

The last fifteen years have seen an intensive discussion on the effectiveness of aid. Part of the debate focused on the (often confusing and conflicting) evidence from growth regressions regarding the effect of aid on economic growth in recipient countries. A different discussion (probably of...

The Aid for Trade (AFT) Initiative was announced at the 2005 Hong-Kong World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial. Then, Doha round talks were stalled as developing countries were disenchanted with the world trading system they had signed up to a decade earlier under the Single Undertaking,...

The African Development Bank allocates its concessional resources through a procedure which is mainly based on the quality of the beneficiary countries' economic policy and governance. This allocation procedure relies mainly on the Performance-Based Allocation formula which can be criticized on...

This paper considers why and how the Performance Based Allocation (PBA) used in multilateral development banks and in particular at IDA, could be improved by taking the structural handicaps of eligible countries into account. The PBA relies on a debatable definition of performance. It does not...

How far is it a benefit to be classified as a LDC? To address this issue several approaches are conceivable.A first approach would be to consider how the developing countries themselves perceive the benefits and costs of membership. [...]A second approach consists to review all the measures that...

Making development financing in LDCs more conducive to development should be a priority for the next Programme of Action of the Istanbul Conference. It needs to go beyond the old and emblematic target of ODA to LDCs, which is too far to be reached. The present paper examines four issues.

This paper proposes a model of aid allocation which aims to equalize the opportunity between recipient countries to reduce the poverty. The model takes into account the natural growth deviation which is defined by the gap between the growth rate required to reach a development goal and the...

Assessing the vulnerability which is independent of present policy is needed both to identif, the most vulnerable poor countries, and to design criteria for the allocation of international resources. With this regard two kinds of vulnerability and corresponding indices are considered: the...