As foreign aid budgets shrink, international aid agencies are being forced to become more efficient with less money. Increasingly, these donors recognize that fostering healthy private-sector growth is one of the most promising ways to help aid recipients become self-sustaining and ultimately self-financing. Aid to the private sector is especially important in countries affected by conflict and violence, where limited access to capital can inhibit much-needed growth, even more so than in more stable (if still poor) developing countries.