Reopening a healthy debate about aid

A week before Christmas Gordon Brown, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, went to Washington and gave a speech that irritated his hosts. Reflecting the widespread feeling that the events since September 11 demand a reassessment of international relationships, he proposed that the total overseas aid budget of western countries be doubled to nearly $A 100 billion a year. In response, the US Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill told journalists that the US would only consider a large increase in funding if it could be demonstrated that overseas aid actually 'works'.