COMMENT & ANALYSIS Should we support a doubling of the share of gross domestic product spent by the world's rich countries on development aid? If we were convinced that it would bring about a substantial reduction in poverty and disease, the answer would have to be "yes". If we believed instead that it would be wasted, the answer would be an equally resounding "no".
Convincing the public that the former, not the latter, is the case is the hurdle advocates of extra aid have to jump. It is, in particular, the hurdle the report from the United Nations on the challenge of meeting the "millennium development goals" has to jump.* Does it do so? Up to a point is my answer.
