I attended a panel discussion at the Brookings Institution this afternoon about the release of the new book, Catalyzing Development:  A New Vision for Aid.  You can read my tweet blurbs here.

At the end, an audience member posed the question, “how do you [the panelists] measure success?”

That’s a great question.  I think the answer is “it depends on who you ask.”

Aid has a diverse customer base.  If you ask the U.S. or UK government, aid is successful when it keeps our nation safe and helps us meet our foreign policy goals.  If you ask the aid beneficiaries, it is successful when they have something to eat tomorrow or a tent to sleep in after an earthquake.  If you ask the governments of the countries receiving the aid, it is successful when they can use it for their goals, which may or may not be successful for the beneficiaries or the entity giving the aid.

The reason aid reform is so slow, difficult, and game-changing is because we have so many different customers, who have different expectations, goals, and success measures.

The NGO community must hold the torch for the beneficiary customer because the rest have enough power on their own.  I hope this will happen with enough representation from beneficiaries at the upcoming 4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness coming up in Busan.