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Cash on Delivery: A New Approach to Foreign Aid

12/2/11

COD aid

In this two-minute clip from 2010, Ayah Mahgoub, former CGD special assistant to the president, discusses Cash on Delivery  Aid (COD Aid), a CGD initiative for making aid more effective. COD Aid builds on existing initiatives to disburse aid against results but links payments more directly to a single, agreed-upon outcome. The approach gives recipients the autonomy to achieve progress however they see fit and ensures greater transparency. Mahgoub explains how this hands-off approach creates incentives for countries to discover what really works and shows funders that their money is making a difference. The development community has already shown a strong interest in applying COD aid to health, education, and water sanitation. Learn more about the COD Aid initiative here. 

Nancy Birdsall on Cash on Delivery (COD) Aid

3/28/11

Nancy Birdsall

A little over a year ago, I invited Nancy Birdsall, founding president of the Center for Global Development, to join me on the Wonkcast to talk about her big new idea, Cash on Delivery Aid (COD Aid), an innovative approach to the delivery of foreign assistance. COD Aid has since gained a lot of traction, so I invited Nancy back to update us on recent developments, including a planned pilot program in Ethiopia.

[Listen to the Podcast]

For those new to the concept, I start by asking Nancy to explain the problems with traditional aid approaches, and how COD aid would solve these. Too often, she says, aid is given based on priorities set by funders who care more about how their money is spent than what outcomes it produces. COD Aid focuses on outcomes by making aid transfers contingent on yearly incremental improvements in an agreed indicator, such as the number of kids who complete primary school and take a test. (For much more on COD Aid, see here.)

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Expert

Initiative

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