The idea of local “ownership” of development policies is now popular among the donor community, but without a reduction of conditionality on aid disbursements, enhanced ownership will be difficult to achieve. While there are still strong reasons for attaching certain kinds of conditionality to aid, policy conditionality has been shown to be largely ineffective and often counterproductive. Donors insisting on policy conditions may in any case soon find themselves sidelined, as developing countries find alternative official and private sources of finance with fewer strings attached.