The contours of the landscape of foreign aid are shifting. There has been talk of a ‘triple revolution’ in official development assistance (ODA) in terms of goals, players and instruments – all of which are mushrooming – and a questioning of the validity of the current definition of ODA (i.e. in terms of loans and grants from governments) (Severino and Ray 2009). In order to respond effectively and decisively to the changing distribution of global poverty, aid donors need to adapt quickly to changing contexts and rethink aid objectives, allocations, and instruments.