AIDAN COX has served as a Specialised Adviser to the International Development Committee of the House of Commons. Recent publications include: Understanding European Community Aid: Aid Policies, Management and Distribution Explained, How European Aid Works (with J.Healey and A.Koning), and British Aid Policies for Poverty Reduction.

JOHN HEALEY is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute, London. Recent publications include: Democracy, Governance and Economic Policy: Sub-Saharan Africa in Comparative Perspective (with Mark Robinson), Votes and Budgets: Third World Studies in Accountable Governance (with William Todd), and How European Aid Works (with A.Cox and A Koning).

PAUL HOEBINK is a Senior Lecturer at the Third World Centre of the Catholic University in Nijmegen. His main subjects of research are development policy and cooperation. He has published widely on aid policies and aid effectiveness, as well as on policy coherence.

TIMO VOIPIO is a Research Fellow at IDS-Helsinki and is presently Secretary-General of the Finnish Parliamentary Advisory Board for Relations with Developing Countries of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has published a major work on the history of international trade in coffee, tea and cocoa entitled Tropiikin Lahjat (Gifts from the Tropics), as well as many smaller books and articles on poverty reduction and aid.