scholarly journals Effective Development Aid: Selectivity, Proliferation and Fragmentation, and the Growth Impact of Development Assistance

Author(s):  
Takashi Kihara
Author(s):  
Ayokunle Olumuyiwa Omobowale

Most of the discourse on development aid in Africa has been limited to assistance from Western countries and those provided by competing capitalist and socialist blocs during the Cold war era. Japan, a nation with great economic and military capabilities; its development assistance for Africa is encapsulated in the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) initiative. The TICAD started in 1993 and Japan has so far held 5 TICAD meetings between 1993 and 2013 during which Africa’s development challenges and Japan’s development assistance to the continent were discussed. The emphasis on “ownership”, “self-help” and “partnership” are major peculiar characteristics of Japan’s development aid that puts the design, implementation and control of development projects under the control of recipient countries. This is a major departure from the usual practice in international development assistance where recipient countries are bound by clauses that somewhat puts the control of development aid in the hands of the granting countries. Such binding clauses have often been described as inimical to the successful administration of the aids and development in recipient countries. Though Japan’s development aid to Africa started only in 1993, by the 2000s, Japan was the topmost donor to Africa. This paper examines the context of Japan’s development aid to Africa by analyzing secondary data sourced from literature and secondary statistics.


Author(s):  
Dewald Van Niekerk

Disaster risk reduction is an ever-growing concept and finds its application within various disciplines. This article investigates the development of disaster risk reduction and some of the most important aspects which shaped it. The early years of international disaster relief are discussed and it is shown how a change in this system was necessitated by a variety of factors and international disasters, which exposed its weakness. The article argues that disaster relief and development aid were inextricably linked and it is this linkage which provided a catalyst for questioning the manner in which relief, and development assistance, were provided. The later emphasis on disaster preparedness and management is discussed, and international policies and mechanisms, which contributed to a gradual shift in focus towards disaster risk reduction, enjoy attention. The article concludes that solutions to disaster risks lie within a rigorous trans- disciplinary focus.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (4) ◽  
pp. 100-121
Author(s):  
Elena Balter ◽  
Aleksandra Morozkina

This article examines the impact of financial crisis of 2008-2009 on allocation of development aid. Using OECD data on Official Development Assistance (ODA) allocation for international development by key donor countries, authors test three hypotheses: first, general impact of crisis on ODA allocation; second, impact of crisis on three recipient income groups; third, impact of crisis on relative importance of analyzed factors for ODA allocation decisions. The results show that general impact of crisis on ODA volumes was negative, although donors preferred to increase aid to low-income countries. Impact of factors describing economic situation in donor countries (public debt level, government expenditures and donor growth) increased after crisis. Donor countries might make use of these results to increase efficiency of their development assistance strategies, whereas recipient countries may exploit these results in order to attract more external financing for development.


2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 399-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eelco Jacobs ◽  
Irna Hofman

Abstract Despite overwhelming interest in the role of social capital in international development, attention to the interplay of community-based development aid with local collective-action dynamics in Central Asia and particularly Tajikistan has remained limited. This paper investigates donor-induced local institutions for collective action in rural Tajikistan with a focus on the introduction of a community-based health insurance. Social capital and collective-action theories are used to interpret results from qualitative research in two Rushan District villages in the Gorno-Badakhshan region. By highlighting the role of donor embeddedness, and the perceived legitimacy of different decision-making structures, the article contends that the perception of such externally-induced change depends on the community’s capacity to reach beyond the intra-communal solidarity network through bridging and linking capital. The findings suggest this can be fostered by addressing trust, and the role of effective development brokers, with due attention to power relations within communities and towards external agents.


1981 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 566-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seleshi Sisaye

Since the beginnings of development assistance to Third World countries during the post-World War II period, there have been some philosophical changes in the theory and practice of development aid programmes. Western development aid ( i.e., of the United States and West European countries), can be classified into two main conceptual types. These include economic growth as development objective and economic growth with an increased quality of life as development objective. The first two decades of development assistance 1950–1970 focused on economic growth objectives with increased production. The period, 1970–1980 concentrated on redistributive measures to improve the quality of life of the rural poor, the provision of basic needs, creation of employment opportunities, and the implementation of policy measures to reduce relative inequality and absolute poverty. The main purpose of this article is to discuss the changes in the theory and practice of Western aid programmes in Third World countries from 1945–1979. We will look into the underlying international causes that contributed to these changes. We will also review the evolution of aid to Third World countries for the last thirty years by examing the economic, political and social background for the changes in development assistance from urban to rural development programmes and from an emphasis in increasing production to that of redistribution with growth. These problems are discussed in the hight of their relevance for policy-onented rescoorch in Third World Comtnes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoon Ah Oh

This research note empirically examines China’s development assistance to Asia, a region critical to China’s geostrategic ambition, from 2000 to 2014. It uses AidData’s Global Chinese Official Finance Dataset, one of the most reliable publicly available data sources on Chinese aid, which systematically collects and classifies different types of China’s official development finance. It is found that, despite a recent surge, China’s development assistance to Asia remains highly limited compared to that of Japan, Asia’s top donor, and that the economic sectors of energy, transport, and mining dominate financial flows. Econometric analysis results suggest that China’s aid allocation in Asia is influenced by its export relations, but, more importantly, that foreign policy considerations do not play a significant role, which is in contrast to the findings of recent work on Chinese aid to Africa. The results suggest that better measures may be needed to properly capture China’s strategic interests in Asia, including its involvement in the territorial dispute in the South China Sea.


Legal Studies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 320-335
Author(s):  
John Harrington ◽  
Ambreena Manji

AbstractIn this paper we explore a case for judicial review brought against the Secretary of State for International Development by an Ethiopian national, Mr O. The claimant alleged that the Department for International Development (DfID) had failed adequately to assess evidence of human rights violations in Ethiopia to which funds provided by DfID had contributed. Warby J ruled that the claim merited a full hearing. DfID is unaccustomed to judicial review: the O case is the first time since the 1995 Pergau Dam case that UK development aid has been reviewed by the courts. We study Warby J's judgment and its implications for accountabiity for aid decisions. We argue that both the wider context for aid and the legal framework governing development assistance have changed significantly in the 20 or so years since Pergau. In particular, we show that despite the UK's new legal commitment, made in 2015, to spend 0.7% of gross national income (GNI) on official development assistance, the existing mechanisms for scrutinising aid decisions are inadequate. We argue that there is an accountability gap in relation to the UK's now considerable development spending and explore the role of judicial review in this context.


Author(s):  
Mark Pieth

Amongst the key players in combatting corruption are the institutions promoting development assistance, the International Financial Institutions (or Multilateral Development Banks, MDBs) and the bilateral development aid agencies. This chapter questions the effectiveness of development assistance, particularly the autocratic states’ tolerating embezzlement. That discussion also touches on the logic of development assistance and describes donor interest. The chapter then turns to the Oil-for-Food Programme, describing its planned distribution of oil proceeds, and then notes what went wrong, including the topic of the impact of oil surcharges and humanitarian contract kickbacks on the flow of funds. It concludes with a discussion of the contributions of the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) toward improving aid effectiveness.


2020 ◽  
pp. 146801812095003
Author(s):  
Gulnaz Isabekova

The importance of mutual learning between providers and recipients of development assistance has been emphasised for decades. Nevertheless, its practical implementation remains limited, primarily due to organisational issues and unequal power relations in development aid. Using the ‘design-thinking’ approach, this study demonstrates the possibility of mutual learning utilising the example of the Swiss Red Cross and the Village Health Committees in the Kyrgyz Republic. Based on the related project documentation and interviews with relevant partners, this article provides an insight into the factors enabling mutual learning in practice. It suggests that decentralisation of the organisation, its leadership and response to failures, continuous contact between provider and recipient of development assistance, and emphasis on local expertise contribute to learning. Although context-specific, these findings are essential to understanding the mutual learning in general and taking this phenomenon from theory to practice.


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