Is foreign aid working? - no comments

An interesting discussion, via Owen, at Prospect, where Hilary Benn debates with William Easterly, a "prominent aid critic", each responding to the other's points in turn.

Read it all (as they say), though Benn's final piece contains a great summary (my emphasis):

We can all see the attraction of the approach you advocate: giving what is most easily quantified [...] And part of Britain's aid programme does just that. However, I remain unpersuaded that this should be our only approach. It is not contradictory also to help governments to work better to provide for their own people's need. This is hardly "meddling in matters outsiders little understand." All functioning governments have essential features in common: a capacity to do things, good financial and information management, clear lines of accountability and freedom from corruption, to name just a few. We owe it to the world's poor to help their governments to develop these capacities. Strong economic growth and fair trade are simply the fastest and most effective ways to get people out of poverty, and both of these require governments to work properly.

Discuss.