The use of indicators in development cooperation has increased as a result of two main phenomena, the constant obsession to determine aid effectiveness and the establishment of quantifiable goals such as the Millennium Development Goals. More recently development indicators have been used to measure States' performance in order to determine the distribution of aid, thus addressing simultaneously the problems of aid effectiveness and aid allocation. By using indicators the donor community has managed to give an aura of objectivity and transparency to its decisions and to the model of development that is expected to be implemented by States in the South. However, in reality indicators are concealing a determined development common sense promoted by the donor, which is neither true nor objective since development knowledge remains contested.