In contrast to the bulk of the literature on foreign aid, which deals with it as an instrument of foreign policy or focuses on problems of implementation, this book examines the role of the aid agencies themselves, from a recipient's perspective, and provides longitudinal as well as comparative analysis. The principal aid agencies of China, Sweden and the United States began their operations in Tanzania simultaneously in the early 1960s but from very different ideological premises. Nonetheless, they all fell into operational traps that have limited the effectiveness of their contributions to Tanzanian development. The editors draw lessons about how foreign aid, if it is going to continue, needs to be reformed at the agency level.