Review of Joel Negin, ‘Reviving dead aid: making international development assistance work’, Lowy Institute for International Policy, August 2010 Stephen Sherlock* The Lowy Institute for International Policy recently published a paper on the Australian aid program and issues in international devel- opment assistance. The author, Joel Negin from Sydney University, states that the paper is not aimed at the ‘small group of aid specialists in Australia’, but rather the ‘under-informed’ members of the public who are interested in aid matters. The paper provides a brief over- view of the elements of the Australian aid program and its objectives, as well as an intro- duction to some of the trends in thinking on development assistance over recent years. The author also ventures bravely into the minefield of assessing what kind of aid has ‘worked’ and what has not. As a basic introduction to the subject of aid, one that arouses sometimes emotive and unin- formed commentary, this paper provides a smattering of useful background material. It touches on a number of recent moves in inter- national aid policy, such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Paris Dec- laration on Aid Effectiveness. The MDGs were designed to set some specific developmental objectives for donor countries. The Paris Dec- laration is part of efforts to ensure that the needs of recipient countries, rather than the political and economic interests of donors, are the driving force of aid flows. The paper also discusses the increases in aid that have occurred internationally in recent years, including the emergence of aid from countries such as China and from private sources, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. However, when covering the very complex and value-laden debate around what aid works and what does not, the paper fails to equip a new entrant to the field with the analytical tools necessary to understand the issues. The author, for example, argues that the debate is ‘economist-heavy’, when a greater problem is that thoughtful discussion is frequently drowned out by superficial populism, glib slogans, and easily disillusioned pop star enthusiasm. Hidden from the hype, a sophisticated dis- cussion has slowly emerged about the effec- tiveness of international financial transfers between donors and recipients in facilitating development, and, more importantly, the role of transfer of skills and knowledge. Despite the penchant for ‘fads’ among donor agencies that the Lowy paper correctly identifies, along with a tendency to repeat old mistakes, many lessons have indeed been learnt and progress made in improving the quality of the relationship between donors and developing countries. An introduction to issues in development assistance for the lay reader needs to provide a sense of the working out of that debate since World War II, when aid first became part of the language of international relations. A first * Stephen Sherlock, Director, Centre for Democratic Institutions, Crawford School of Economics and Government, The Australian National University. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8411.2010.01266.x 171 © 2010 The Author Journal compilation © 2010 Crawford School of Economics and Government, The Australian National University and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.