BetterAid.Org

The Asian Development Bank's board of governors is migrating to Madrid this weekend to debate the meaning of its existence at its annual meeting, which opens Saturday. That's a worthy cause to mull over a bottle or two of rioja, since Asia is the world's fastest-growing region and doesn't much need development advice anymore.

“Fostering Democratic Ownership – Towards Greater Impact on Poverty” is the title of a new Alliance2015 report that synthesises case studies undertaken in four recipient countries. The report finds that donors and recipient governments too often take decisions on aid allocation without sufficiently involving the people in need of the aid.

The World Bank meets here Sunday as rising food prices spark deadly unrest in developing countries, underscoring the urgency of getting food aid to desperate people.

Policymakers of the anti-poverty bank are due to discuss a massive, coordinated international plan to reduce hunger announced less than two weeks ago by the head of the bank, Robert Zoellick.

With soaring food prices threatening political stability in poor countries, Zoellick called for a "new deal" for global food policy, similar in scope to a 1930s programme under US president Franklin D. Roosevelt that tackled the problems of the Great Depression.

The future of multilateral and bilateral cooperation for development is in question. It is either in crisis or in the process of reinvention. Two short years ago hopes for governance and policy changes that would assist poor countries were running high in the aftermath of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, the release of the Commission for Africa report and the commitments made at the Gleneagles Group of 8 (G8) meeting and the UN illennium Review Summit. Subsequently,the World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha Development Round of trade negotiations stalled and the purpose of the World Bank and the nternational Monetary Fund (IMF) were increasingly questioned. G8 members did not scale up their aid flows substantially and major new donors and creditors emerged outside of the Paris framework.

The Wilton Park Conference Report.