Bilateral aid has tended to favour allies and ex-colonies. A 1998 study by Alberto Alesina and David Dollar found that a former colony with a closed economy received about twice as much assistance as a non-colony with an open one. On some figures, countries with poor management got just as much bilateral aid as those with good management. It is not easy. For years the IMF and World Bank have made their loans conditional on policy reform, but the record is mixed, to put it kindly.
Governments often agree to cut subsidies or tackle corruption, but later backtrack.
Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, frequently promises one thing to donors and the opposite to domestic interest-groups. Kenya's Daniel arap Moi is skilled at selling the same reforms several times. Even when recipients blatantly flout aid conditions, donors often hand over the money anyway, for fear of sparking an economic collapse or even bloodshed. Good policies cannot be imposed on unwilling pupils. Attaching conditions to aid can strengthen the arm of governments that are trying to push through wise but unpopular measures.