Simon Scott: Does development assistance have a future?
By Ashlee Betteridge
18 July 2013
Simon Scott, Head of the Statistics and Monitoring Division at the OECD Development Cooperation Directorate, gave a talk entitled ‘Does official development assistance have a future?’ at a Development Policy Centre event earlier this month.
If you missed Simon’s talk, you can now watch it in full on YouTube. You can also download an audio podcast and the presentation slides.
The presentation is highly recommended for anyone who wants some historical perspectives on official aid, or insights into the latest developments. Simon’s conclusions are that: ODA levels will fall for several years; there will be fewer ODA pledges in the future; a new measure of total official finance for development will be proposed; ODA may remain the standard measure of donor aid, but needs to be cleaned up; the OECD will continue to collect aid data, but probably in closer partnership with the UN.
About the author/s
Ashlee Betteridge
Ashlee Betteridge was the Manager of the Development Policy Centre until April 2021. She was previously a Research Officer at the centre from 2013-2017. A former journalist, she holds a Master of Public Policy (Development Policy) from ANU and has development experience in Indonesia and Timor-Leste. She now has her own consultancy, Better Things Consulting, and works across several large projects with managing contractors.
