Financial Times: Shifting aid to support business is the right decision
Paul Collier, professor of economics and public policy at Oxford University

“The decision last month by Britain’s Department for International Development to allow more of the U.K.’s aid budget to flow via the CDC (formerly the Commonwealth Development Corporation), in order to support private investment, has met predictable criticisms from familiar quarters. … Shifting aid to support for business will be essential for the small low-income countries that are the core of the development challenge. … Informal micro-enterprises are no substitute. … Aid is needed to pay for the substantial public benefit of bringing reputable companies into difficult countries. Without such groups, the poorest countries will struggle to develop, and without public support there will be too few of them. This view should not be contentious. Happily, development agencies are belatedly recognizing its merits. … It takes courage for a politician to navigate aid policy between the travesties of left and right. Priti Patel, the U.K. international development secretary, should be commended for her support of the CDC” (12/11).