Economic Aid: an Obsession with Efficiency

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Abstract
The issue of aid efficiency has been the main preoccupation of the policy makers, politicians and researchers in the donor countries during the 1980s. This paper argues that a unique and neutral concept of ‘aid efficiency’ is a rare genus. There are fundamental conceptual and methodological difficulties involved and the so called ‘neutral’ criteria are ultimately dependent on the subjective judgements of the evaluators. This would suggest that ‘economic efficiency’ as a criterion for donation or curtailment of aid is neither necessary nor sufficient. Moral, social, altruistic or purely egoistic motives are more honest and at least as good as any ‘economic’ measure which claims to be value-free.