Views from the Center

The current rules for what counts as aid are a mess. Richard Manning, a former chair of the DAC (the OECD’s donor club), said last year that the system allows donors to “get away with murder” by counting loans as aid even if they are made on commercial terms. He has led a commendable campaign for reform.

Does a stand-alone Department for International Development have a long-term future? What is the role of DFID in facilitating other British government departments and other UK organizations to assist developing countries? What is its role in influencing the policies of other Whitehall departments?

If you could choose how to curb greenhouse gas emissions, would you choose a carbon tax or cap-and-trade?

Administrators in colonial-era Delhi, the story goes, had a problem. The growing capital city bordered agricultural land, bringing more people into occasionally deadly contact with a subcontinental rogues gallery that included cobras and banded kraits.