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CGD's weekly Global Prosperity Wonkcast, event videos, whiteboard talks, slides, and more.

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. 

Cash on Delivery: A New Approach to Foreign Aid

3/29/10

At the March 23, 2010 launch of their new book, Cash on Delivery: A new approach to foreign aid with an application to primary schooling, authors Nancy Birdsall, President, Center for Global Development; William Savedoff, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development; and Ayah Mahgoub, Program Coordinator to the President, Center for Global Development, presented an approach that links aid directly to outcomes in ways that promote accountability and strengthen local institutions. Cash on Delivery builds on existing initiatives that strive to disburse aid against results, but it takes the idea further by linking payments more directly to a single specific outcome; giving the recipient country full authority to achieve progress however it sees fit and without interference of any kind from donors; and assuring that the recipient country's progress is transparent and visible to its own citizens.

Type

Expert

Initiative

Date