Governing Aid

Making foreign aid work for development.

GEG’s Governing Aid initiative was established in 2005 with a view to exploring the ways in which better governance of foreign aid can improve development outcomes.  The three core objectives of the project are:

1. To conduct and foster research into the organisations that comprise the global aid system, with a view to improving global aid governance, particularly from the perspective of recipient governments

2. To create and maintain a network of scholars and policy makers working on these issues

3. To influence debate and policy in both the public and the private sector in both developed and developing countries

The project draws on researchers with expertise in public policy, international relations, political science, development studies, public management and international law, among other areas.


Designing effective donor governance

GEG is examining the relationship between donor governance systems and the quality of aid. Better quality aid requires reforming donor institutional arrangements. The research will include Northern bilateral aid agencies and Southern donors. It is being supported by funding from the British Academy.

Preventing corruption for better aid

This research evaluates the mechanisms to prevent corruption in foreign aid organisations. Do financial controls and audit systems, transparency and regulatory mechanisms, integrity training, political economy analysis, and other mechanisms work? In this work, we seek to develop frameworks for evaluating anti-corruption efforts in aid.   This work is a joint initiative of GEG, the Blavatnik School of Government, and Linklaters.

Negotiating Aid

Between 2005 and 2007, GEG carried out research on the factors accounting for the bargaining power in aid negotiations of governments in eight African countries: Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Ethiopia and Botswana.

The GEG Guide To The (Dead) Aid Debate

Stop aid. Increase aid. Reform aid. The debate about aid and its effectiveness (or lack thereof) received new impetus when Dambisa Moyo, former World Bank and Goldman Sachs economist, proclaimed that aid to Africa simply doesn’t work in her book, Dead Aid. The GEG Guide to the (Dead) Aid Debate surveys the aid debate, looking beyond Moyo and other well-known contributors to also include voices from the margins. It also includes links to the GEG blog series on the aid debate, recommended reading, a guide to interpreting the evidence behind the aid debate, and other GEG research on foreign aid. Visit the GEG blog for archived material from GEG researchers and guest bloggers.


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