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Advice for Paul Wolfowitz Samuel Brittan Contribution to International Economy Symposium Above all avoid the trap of administrative reorganisation. The best intentions of some of your predecessors of all political persuasions in this and other bodies became bogged down in these reorganisations. Make the best of the system you have, with the aid of a few key personnel, and concentrate on actual problems. You are probably rightly suspicious of aid to governments as often wasteful and counterproductive. Give as much of your resources as possible to modest sized local organisations whose resources cannot easily be diverted into national Treasuries. So far as you have to deal with governments, I agree with much of the advice you are being given about insisting on the rule of law, and human and property rights. And do not provide aid to emerging countries that can already borrow for themselves on world capital markets. Concentrate on providing grants for the really poorest. If I may add my own gloss, it is not only to refuse all aid to unnecessary arms programmes and prestige projects of all kinds such as dams, which often attracts an unholy alliance of self interested corporations and Third World lobbyists. But go further. It will mean not only refusing to finance such projects themselves, but cutting off governments who misuse development funds to divert money into these projects. This advice will not make you popular with business, but you will only have one chance.
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