Aid under threat

Debates over international aid have long been marked by unlikely marriages of convenience. Critics on the right have condemned development assistance as a perversion of market forces, a waste of resources and a source of corruption. Those on the left have broadly shared this view, albeit within a framework which sees aid as one element in a broader neo‐colonial project aimed at integrating southern states into a capitalist world economy. In the past, the international consensus in favour of development assistance has survived this critique. But today dissent stands on the verge of becoming orthodoxy. For the first time in a generation, the role of aid as a form of development cooperation is under threat. Unprecedented cuts in development assistance budgets are now in prospect, especially for sub‐Saharan Africa. All of which raises the question as to whether the left should sit back and celebrate, or join new alliances to redefine the purpose and practices of aid around an agenda for poverty reduction.