Achieving Health, Wealth and Wisdom: Links between Aid and the Millennium Development Goals

Abstract

Achieving the MDGs is an ambitious undertaking and one that in planning relies heavily on the developmental impact of aid. The achievement of the MDGs by 2015, or later, requires inter alia a recognition and understanding of their interdependence and the efficient intra-country allocation of development aid. This chapter addresses both issues. Using a new cross-country data set, it empirically examines: (i) the strength of the links between a number of MDG target and related variables, including health, educational status and access to water and sanitation; and (ii) the extent to which aid impacts on these variables. Identification of the key links between the different target variables can help to inform prioritization of the MDGs, by suggesting the areas of endeavour that are likely to have the largest and widest impact. A particular interest of the chapter is whether there is a central or pivotal variable, which, if targeted, leads to the greatest beneficial impact on the remaining variables. Importantly, the chapter’s data set provides information on population subgroups within each country. This allows the chapter also to draw inferences regarding the impact of aid on the poorest groups in each country. Such information is clearly crucial for strategies to move towards achieving the MDGs, especially in countries that are a long way from or not tracking towards achieving the goals. Overall, the chapter seeks not only to provide policy-relevant information on achieving the MDGs, but also to contribute to the literatures on the determinants of cross-country wellbeing achievement and aid effectiveness. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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