Richard Manning notes that despite much progress over the past half-century, great inequalities persist. While this means that international concessional flows will still be necessary for several decades to come, he argues that future aid programmes should be more responsible, accountable and transparent. Better delivery of aid also continues to be an important issue, especially for aid-dependent countries. The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) can continue to take a leading role, providing collective self-discipline. This includes, however, taking a fresh look at how official development assistance (ODA) is defined to ensure that all reported ODA is truly concessional. Broader agreement among all providers of development co-operation on how to measure development flows will also be essential. As the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) reach their due date in 2015, new targets are needed – maintaining a poverty focus while bringing in new concerns such as transport, energy, human rights and empowerment.