Twenty years ago, 22 members of the OECD/DAC accounted for 95% of total aid to developing countries. Today, aid to developing countries is delivered via more than 150 multilateral agencies, 33 bilateral members of the OECD/DAC, at least 10 non-DAC governments and a growing number of global Vertical Funds. The number of donors per country has multiplied threefold in two decades. Some developing countries have more than 700 active (sometimes very small) projects and receive more than 400 missions a year, each with its own specific requirements. Aid channeled through bilateral as opposed to multilateral institutions would roughly be in the proportion 70/30. To this already complex picture enters the benevolent foundations mainly in Health and Education and the emerging actors such as China deploying significant level of resources.Comment: The President of the African Development Bank has identified a real issue. The interface between donor and recipient was once fairly simple, but as the number of donors increases and as the number of potential recipients increases has become more complex.
The question is whether the evolutionary change of the institutions connecting donors and recipients suffices, or whether revolutionary changes are required.
The large bureaucratic organization was once the most efficient means for coordination in the face of complexity, the Information Revolution has started to introduce revolutionary changes. Many organizations are downsizing and outsourcing, using information and communications technologies to handle the complex information functions.
Perhaps we should look at a comparable change in the donor recipient relationships, downsizing government and donor organizations, and using country development marketplaces to allocate smaller contributions to smaller projects.
Of course, the technology also lends itself to more efficient operation of large organizations. Perhaps the revolution will go in the other direction. JAD
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