This concluding chapter focuses on the role of foreign aid in development. It argues that under certain conditions foreign aid may contribute to an acceleration of growth and development, but in itself cannot transform processes of stagnation into dynamic processes of development. 

Until the 1990s, the desirability of development aid was not questioned in the political debate. Although there has been a lively debate on the effectiveness of aid flows, development aid was supported by political parties across the political spectrum and by the general public. In the early 1990s the consensus started to unravel. This manifested itself in a substantial decline in the real value of aid flows and a renewed urgency of the debates on the desirability and effectiveness of aid.

This chapter presents the theoretical underpinnings of aid and analyses the arguments of proponents and critics of aid.