The question of aid

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe very briefly what Ireland and its EC partners have been doing in recent years and to raise some issues for discussion at this symposium which are likely to be important over the next decade or two. The emphasis in the descriptive sections is on the quantity of aid flows issues of quality and effectiveness are not addressed statistically. The geographic focus is on the Afncan, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of LDCs and especially on Africa since this reflects the priorities of both the Irish and EC aid programmes. The donor focus is on the official side. This paper discusses government aid flows or official development assistance (ODA). It alludes to private flows from nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and charitable sources only in so far as they interface with official aid flows through co financing and other arrangements.