Aid for the poorest: Some early lessons of UK experience

The paper presents an interim review of recent attempts to reach the poorest people in developing countries through aid policy from the viewpoint of one donor, the United Kingdom. It concludes that the UK has achieved a modest increase in the proportion of aid aimed at the poorest between 1974 and 1979; that poverty‐focused projects are in general more local‐cost intensive, and have lower rates of return, than others; and that the principal difficulties in the way of successful implementation of poverty‐focused projects are: excessive size, an over‐rapid rate of disbursement, inadequate local cost provisions and failure to specify the target group or the repayment strategy with sufficient precision. It is argued that there are political obstacles to removing the second and third of these obstacles in donor countries, and to removing the fourth in recipient countries also.