On February 11, 2015, the SFB 700 and the AidData Project hosted a joint workshop on the topic of “Foreign Aid, Effective and Legitimate Governance in Areas of Limited Statehood” in Berlin. Twenty scholars from the research projects of the SFB 700 and the AidData Project’s international network met for one day to exchange research findings on the legitimacy and effectiveness of development aid programs in the context of limited statehood. After short input lectures by Michael J. Tierney (College of William and Mary), Helen Milner (Princeton University), and Audrey Sacks (World Bank), among others, participants engaged in productive discussions of the work presented. In order to grasp the complex relationship between development aid and governance, the workshop included presentations of recent empirical studies in countries such as India, Uganda, and Afghanistan. At the end of the workshop, the participants concluded that they could not definitively identify the consequences of development aid for effective and legitimate governance. Some empirical findings point to a positive effect of development aid, others to a negative effect. Many participants emphatically reiterated the role of local characteristics in development aid. Further research projects should be devoted to this topic, especially those focusing specifically on regional and local contexts.