(2002-03-11) f

Alan Beattie (FinancialTimes) on the debate over International Development. At present, the centre of gravity of expert opinion seems to settle around a slightly less optimistic thesis... : aid can help, but it should be concentrated on countries with good macroeconomic policy and governments genuinely committed to improving public services and infrastructure, and stamping out corruption... "Rather than the old model of unco-ordinated support for individual projects, countries are working towards a new model based on support ing good governments in developing countries and focusing aid firmly on poverty reduction."... But sceptics say that this change is more evident in rhetoric than practice... "The first thing that needs to be done is for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to announce that only a limited number of countries will get aid and make them compete for it. But they refuse to do this."

As a counter-example, Zimbabwe is going through a totally corrupted election. Last night, the Harare high court ordered that Zimbabwe's presidential election be extended to a third day as hundreds of thousands of residents of the capital and its neighbouring townships claimed the ruling party had engineered horrendous queues and laborious voting procedures to keep people away from the polls in urban areas where Mr Mugabe is widely loathed. The government said it would appeal.