A Discussion Paper on Aid and Good Governance
In recent times, the terms ‘governance’ and ‘good governance’ have become buzzwords in the development discourse. Pushed by powerful international financial institutions, ‘good governance’ has become the cornerstone of development cooperation. Nowadays it is difficult to come across aid packages of multilateral financial institutions and bilateral donors that do not use the term ‘good governance’ and contain ‘governance’ conditionalities.
The governance agenda is full of inherent contradictions and dilemmas. If used technically, it may reinforce the intellectual models and traditional donor intervention approaches relating to development cooperation. However, if political and other important dimensions of development are incorporated, it has not only the potential to contribute to reducing poverty, but, equally importantly, it could also repudiate the intellectual models (for instance, Washington Consensus) on which the one-size-fits-all development strategy rests. This paper critically examines the emergence of “good governance” agenda and exposes some of the myths espoused by the development aid community. This paper critically examines the inter-linkages between aid and good governance.