Abstract
This article, published in the issue of "Foreign Affairs" dated July/August 2005, questions a lot of ready-made ideas about foreign aid and about the ways to "help poor countries". The main interest of this article is that it questions the foreign aid as the provision of resources from a country to another and trading opportunities, which are usually considered as the most efficient tools to promote development of poor countries. Such an aid has only limited effect on the long-term development of these countries. The authors argue that the successes of poor countries remain mostly on internal factors, such as the development of their economical, political and social institutions, which enable them to make an effective use of the opportunities they face. They feel that "development is something largely determine by poor countries themselves".
