Senior diplomats from 20 nations met in London to decide conditions for financial and security aid to Yemen. The aim is that it will result in a ‘political and economic overhaul’ by the San’a governement.

Prepared in advance of the London conference on Afghanistan, this briefing paper outlines ‘The Dangers of Militarized Aid in Afghanistan’. It argues that the overemphasis on military issues in Afghanistan will undermine ‘genuine development and good government’. The situation must be rectified; not simply in view of the human cost, but also becuase ‘poverty, unemployment and weak, corrupt government’ increase the chance of conflict.

To read the paper, click here.

At Publish What You Fund it is exactly the processes of recipient-donor alignment and involvement which we advocate; precisely the factor illustrated to improve the developmental impact of aid in ‘Untying Aid: Is It Working?’

At present, only 66% of education-commited aid is reaching Pakistan’s education system. Reasons for this include, ‘meagre allocation of resources, little focus of multinationals on education, gaps in commitments and actual disbursements, strict aid conditionalities, and lack of implementation and transparency mechanisms.’

Bill Gates fears that money pledged by rich counties to developing nations will simply reduce aid put aside for other areas. The funding which has been agreed to help countries deal with climate change may come at a huge cost to other categories of foreign aid. Gates is particularly concerned that health will be hit hardest. He says, ‘If just 1 percent of the $100 billion goal came from vaccine funding, then 700,000 more children could die from preventable diseases’.