Development assistance gone wrong : why support services have failed to expand exports

This study shows that in developing countries with no more than partly favorable policies toward manufactured exports, outside assistance to services that promote and support manufactured exports has had little discernible impact on exports and has rarely been effective in expanding them. The principal reasons for this lack of impact appear to be the after effects of inward-looking development policies, neglect of assistance to enterprises in the production and supply aspects of exporting, insufficient donor concern about the direct impact of their assistance on exports, and reliance on an inappropriate delivery mechanism. Recommendations which suggest new guidelines for donor assistance, project components and new country policies are explained in a companion paper, WPS 544.