According to the State Secretary’s letter, the chief reason for introducing his new measures is to improve the quality of policy through better knowledge and its management, including quality control (‘bewaking van de wetenschappelijke kwaliteit’)...

It is about time to start paying systematic attention to the resource transfers that are flowing from the world's poor to the world's rich, says David Sogge.  

I wonder if, at a conference dedicated to humanitarianism, there may be any sense of alarm about how the term is being employed these days. In Libya for example, a great many civilians have recently lost their lives or endured terrible suffering b...

The Millennium Development Goals claim our attention as today’s pro-poor aid agenda. Yet going by who gets what and from whom, the world’s real agenda looks distinctly pro-rich.The MDGs have been a singular success as a vehicle for many in the aid...

NGOs have been joining forces to increase their effectiveness. They need to form alliances with social movements as well, however, to avoid working in isolation from broader social currents.

In a closed meeting recently, I heard a senior figure in the Dutch aid/development world (high among ViceVersa’s 'top tien') remark, in despairing tone of voice, that there had been no serious critique of Dutch aid since Paul Hoebink’s 'Geven is N...

The business of working up successive development agendas and policy formulas has beset the aid system from its beginnings more than sixty years ago. The MDGs are the latest in a long parade of earnest exhortations. As the “After 2015” exercise cl...

 A Review of The Politics of Aid: African Strategies for Dealing with Donors, edited by Lindsay Whitfield Who calls the shots in the aid encounter? In the main, it’s the donors. But surely this is now improving, thanks to new recipient-f...

Even in summary form, the IOB’s assessment of Dutch Africa policy 1998–2006 provides plenty of reasons to sit up and pay attention. In our public forums on aid, its findings might help bring into public view what have until now been merely rumbli...