development aid that is spent on rich country consultants does little to reduce poverty
Buried in the text of the 2006 Global Monitoring Report (GMR), a Bank-Fund document to examine progress towards the MDGs, it suggests that technical cooperation funding not be tied to the countries giving the money. According to the Financial Times, GMR lead author Mark Sundberg made the point that “the one-third of world development aid that is spent on rich country consultants does little to reduce poverty”. Sundberg asked at a Brusels launch event, “500 days of technical assistance costs the same as employing 5,000 teachers. Which does more to cut poverty?” The effectiveness of technical assistance will be a focus of the Real Aid II reports to be released by ActionAid this summer.
