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Does foreign aid work?

Give the case for and against foreign aid, with evidence, and say what its success depends on

Key terms
Official development assistance
Official development assistance is aid from governments to developing countries whose main aim is their economic development and welfare, given as grants or soft loans.
Multilateral aid
Multilateral aid is aid paid into the core budget of an international body, pooled with other donors' money, without saying where it goes.

Supporters see aid paying for clinics, schools and roads

Supporters of more aid point to the extraordinary human suffering in low- and middle-income countries, and to chances across Africa, Asia and Latin America to set up health clinics and schools. They want to help build economic infrastructure: clean water, plumbing, electricity and roads.

When meningitis broke out in Ethiopia in 2010, the UK's Department for International Development sent money to the Ethiopian Ministry of Health to train rural health workers and buy vaccines, filling gaps in the ministry's budget.