APPLES, PEARS AND POVERTY REDUCTION - AN ASSESSMENT OF BRITISH BILATERAL AID

Aid quality is often investigated using cross-country statistical meth ods. The article takes a more institutional approach. It reviews Briti sh bilateral aid, in order to investigate the complex interaction betw een policy and practice in aid for poverty reduction. There has been a stated desire to increase the poverty focus of the programme. However , difficult to trace the effect of a new policy in the statistics. Mor e important has been the influence of an external factor, the increase in the demand for emergency aid. This has risen from 2 per cent to 14 per cent in a decade, increasing the poverty focus of the programme, but for the 'wrong' reason. At the same time, the share of technical c ooperation has increased sharply: it is hard to trace the poverty-redu cing impact of this form of aid. Statistical analysis which ignores po licy shifts and changes in aid composition may be misleading.