The fear of a trade-off between equity and growth has been misplaced. . . . These data challenge the long-standing Kuznets hypothesis, which claims the poor will inevitably suffer in the early stages of a country's economic progress. They also argue that while economic growth is necessary to eradicate poverty in developing countries, investing in a country's poor, especially through basic education and health programs, will contribute to that growth. Moreover, they find that growth reduces poverty more rapidly in countries with low levels of income inequality than in countries with high inequality. Overall, their summary of findings provides the foundation for a widening consensus on development approaches.
Most experts now agree that aid has too often done a poor job of both.
He suggests the reason for this is that aid programs which come with conditions specific reforms or programs required of countries receiving aid have not accomplished their purpose of creating an environment in which aid is effective in supporting economic growth. This is indeed the core of what conditionality is supposedly about aid buys reform. Unfortunately, it does no such thing. Conditionality has tended to undermine governments' incentives to take real charge of their economic reforms. As a consequence of this environment, claims Collier, investors do not want to put money into Africa because they fear that governments will reverse economic policies.