My first job after college, in 1984, taught me to ask a question about foreign aid that I am still asking forty-two years later: Who really benefits? I was a young MBA working for Bangladesh's Master Plan Organisation (MPO), which was preparing a twenty-year national water plan. The project was undertaken with assistance from the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank, with Harza Engineering Company International among the principal consultants. MPO was an attractive employer for young Bangladeshi professionals. I earned about 5,000 taka monthly when, as I recall, a newly minted MBA elsewhere might earn 1,500 to 2,000. Although MPO positions were temporary contracts without retirement benefits or job security, the project attracted capable local professionals at substantially lower cost than expatriate consultants.
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