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Blind Spots on the Map of Aid Allocations: Concentration and Complementarity of International NGO Aid

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Book cover Development Aid

Part of the book series: Studies in Development Economics and Policy ((SDEP))

Abstract

The Central African Republic is an extremely poor, landlocked country where around three million people live below the poverty line. Similarly, Malawi is also a poor country with no access to the sea, and four million poor. One would expect these two countries to receive roughly the same volume of aid from organizations such as CARE, World Vision and Plan. In reality, however, fifty of the world’s largest non-governmental (NGOs) development organizations spend only about €1 million a year on the Central African Republic, compared with more than €80 million for Malawi. This example suggests that there might be countries where aid to NGOs is sparse, and others where it is generous, which causes a concentration of aid. Perhaps NGOs made this choice because official donors were focusing on the Central African Republic? On the contrary: official donors provided Malawi with a sum in excess of €480 million in 2005, compared to only €71 million to the Central African Republic.

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Authors
  1. Dirk-Jan Koch
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Editor information

George Mavrotas (Chief Economist of the Global Development Network (GDN)Mark McGillivray (Chief Economist of the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID)

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© 2009 United Nations University

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Koch, DJ. (2009). Blind Spots on the Map of Aid Allocations: Concentration and Complementarity of International NGO Aid. In: Mavrotas, G., McGillivray, M. (eds) Development Aid. Studies in Development Economics and Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230595163_3

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