Assessment of landslides in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia: A Geoscientists without Borders project

A severe storm caused floods and landslides in the Balkan region in May 2014. In response to the disaster, geophysical and geotechnical surveys were organized as a Geoscientists without Borders® (GwB) project of SEG. It took place in eight landslide prone areas in Serbia and Bosnia Herzegovina in three phases in 2015 and 2016. The seismic and electric resistivity surveys were conducted and the results were interpreted in conjunction with the geotechnical inspection. The surveys identified the size of a potential landslide layer by S-wave velocity distribution and particular high-risk locations by electric resistivity anomalies. This interpretation enhanced the geotechnical observation. From the result, several countermeasures were recommended to suit the budgetary restrictions of local governments. Among them, the survey results in the Lopare locality are presented as an example. The project was organized by the Association of Geophysicists and Environmentalists of Serbia (AGES) involving many scientists, engineers, students, government staff and local communities. As well as technical achievements, significance of the project includes: providing students with opportunities to have practical experience of geophysical surveys and to learn outside the classroom; bringing together the participants from different racial, political, religious and educational backgrounds. All were made aware of the importance of humanitarian expert work. We assessed the effectiveness of the GwB project using the guidelines of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC). One of the important outcomes of the assessment is that such a volunteer geoscientific survey cannot stand alone. It is more effective if incorporated in the overall recovery and prevention programs.

Financing for Sustainable Structural Transformation

Official development assistance (ODA) and domestic expenditures of developing countries on food and agriculture are often too small, relative to needs or for stimulating private investment. ODA and expenditures are suboptimally allocated mostly to subsidies, with little to public goods, such as agricultural education, research, and extension. Learning and evaluation of impacts need to improve and expand to meet complex challenges facing farmers. The multisectoral nature of agriculture means that agricultural financing must consist of multiple components, with resources that are public, private (household), and private (external to household), coming from six categories: public—domestic and international; private—domestic and international; and household—savings and remittances. Information on “traditional” ODA for agriculture is more available than for “nontraditional” ODA: for example, from emerging countries, including China’s growing involvement in Southern countries, private investments in value chains, land purchases, and private philanthropy. Aside from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), few philanthropists report aid to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development–Development Assistance Committee (OECD–DAC). BMGF’s Aid Transparency Index (ATI) rating improved only from “very poor” (18.1 percent) in 2013 to “fair” (47.3 percent) in 2018. The 2020 ATI reported significant improvement in aid donors’ overall transparency, but less in impact of aid projects. New themes, including nutrition and the environment, pose challenges to estimating sources of resource flows in support of adaptation of agriculture. We show that, even though available aid has increased since 2020, resources are very small relative to needs and the extent of advocacy.

Tracking Development Assistance for Health: A Comparative Study of the 29 Development Assistance Committee Countries, 2011–2019

Development assistance for health (DAH) is an important part of financing healthcare in low- and middle-income countries. We estimated the gross disbursement of DAH of the 29 Development Assistance Committee (DAC) member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2011–2019; and clarified its flows, including aid type, channel, target region, and target health focus area. Data from the OECD iLibrary were used. The DAH definition was based on the OECD sector classification. For core funding to non-health-specific multilateral agencies, we estimated DAH and its flows based on the OECD methodology for calculating imputed multilateral official development assistance (ODA). The total amount of DAH for all countries combined was 18.5 billion USD in 2019, at 17.4 USD per capita, with the 2011–2019 average of 19.7 billion USD. The average share of DAH in ODA for the 29 countries was about 7.9% in 2019. Between 2011 and 2019, most DAC countries allocated approximately 60% of their DAH to primary health care, with the remaining 40% allocated to health system strengthening. We expect that the estimates of this study will help DAC member countries strategize future DAH wisely, efficiently, and effectively while ensuring transparency.

Antimicrobial stewardship interventions in least developed and low-income countries: a systematic review protocol

IntroductionAntimicrobial resistance (AMR) is increasing in low resource settings. It complicates the management of infectious diseases and is an increasing cause of death. This is due to, among other things, lack of health resources for appropriate diagnosis and unregulated access to antimicrobials in the public sphere. Developing context-specific interventions that enable judicious use of antimicrobials is important to curb this problem.MethodsWe will conduct a systematic review of antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) approaches in Development Assistance Committee in least developed and low-income countries. The inclusion criteria are antimicrobial stewardship interventions in hospitalised patients of all age groups and exclusion criteria are community-based trials and studies that solely focus on viral, fungal or parasite infections. Antimicrobial stewardship interventions will be classified as structural, enabling, persuasive, restrictive or combined. Outcomes of included studies will be classified as clinical, microbiological or behavioural outcomes. The studies to be included will be randomised controlled trials, controlled before–after studies, interrupted time series trials, cohort and qualitative studies. Data will be extracted using forms adapted from the Cochrane collaboration data collection form. This systematic review will be conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines and risk of bias will be done according to the Integrated quality Criteria for Review of Multiple Study Designs.Ethics and disseminationOur findings will be presented to clinicians and policymakers, to support developing AMS protocols for low resource settings. We will publish our results in peer-reviewed journals.Trial registration numberCRD42020210634.

India’s Engagement in Development and Peacebuilding Assistance in the Post-Conflict States: An Assessment

The emotional and ideological factor to express solidarity with the other developing countries is the main driving factor for India to engage in development assistance. In the changed geopolitical and geo-economic context in the globalized world, the economic factor of access to the market for Indian products and natural resources for its growing industrial sector became the additional motivation. As India does not subscribe to peacebuilding, it has no separate category of peacebuilding assistance. This study’s central focus is on why India’s way of providing development and peacebuilding assistance captured the world’s attention in the 21st century and how India’s ways are different from that of the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) countries. It highlights India’s unique guiding principles, approaches, and modalities for development and peacebuilding assistance. It focuses on why the developing countries appreciated India’s development and peacebuilding assistance, although it is not much in terms of volume compared to the Development Assistance Committee countries. It emphasizes the advantages of accepting diversity instead of an attempt for uniformity in peacebuilding assistance.

Does Aid Matter for Foreign Direct Investment in ECOWAS: Investigating The Infrastructure Channel?

We ask the data whether and how aid targeted at specific sub-categories of economic infrastructure could assist ECOWAS economies to attract higher Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow via improvement in infrastructure in Water Supply and Sanitation (WSS), energy, transport, and ICT. By relying on the 3SLS estimation technique that is able to explicitly account for dependencies between 3 structural equations on the allocation of targeted aid, the determinants of infrastructure, and the determinants of FDI – we found quite interesting results. First, aid targeted at infrastructure indicates strong positive effect on the countries’ infrastructure endowment, as expected. Second, there is robust evidence that aid promotes FDI but, surprisingly, not necessarily through the infrastructure channel. Targeted aid appears to exert a positive and direct knock-on effect on FDI - apparently, because investors anticipate the positive effect that targeted aid is almost always inclined to produce on host countries’ infrastructure endowment. Finally, aid allocation by Development Assistance Committee donors seems to have primarily been merit-based, followed by weaker evidence for ‘need’. Therefore, we recommend more need-based aid allocation particularly in economies where initial infrastructure endowment is minimal. There is also need for extended effort at index construction (e.g., index of infrastructure need) and data collection to drive country-case studies. This should identify the transmission channel from aid to FDI and how the associated binding constraints could be overcome.

Functioning of the system for evaluating the effectiveness of international technical assistance: the experience of the European Union and the world's leading countries

The authors of the article study the foreign experience of the administrative and legal organization of systems for evaluating the effectiveness of international legal assistance (ITA). The article notes that the definition of international technical assistance in different countries is interpreted differently. States, at the national level, establish their own definitions of the concept, which may differ in content and characteristics. It is established that the assessment of the effectiveness of the use of ITA has the ultimate goal to ensure its better use. Both ITA donors and recipients are interested in this. The largest ITA donors have been identified as Japan, the United States, and the European Union. Each of these donors has its own system for evaluating the effectiveness of the ITA provided. In the study of the model for evaluating the effectiveness of the US ITA, the key role of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was highlighted. The Agency itself has developed tools to monitor the assistance provided, implements analysis programs, publishes reports, and conducts training among its employees. In Japan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have been found to be the central policy-makers in Japan. These bodies issue regulatory regulations on which the performance appraisal process is based, analyze experience, conduct training, and publish reports on their official websites. In the Japanese model for assessing the effectiveness of the provision and use of ITA's, the key features are assessing the usefulness of the assistance provided in terms of Japan's diplomatic interests. It was found that a characteristic feature of the evaluation system of the European Union is the functioning of the Regulatory Control Council, which reviews and improves the legislation in the field of ITA. The article establishes the relationship between national legal systems and global standards for assessing international assistance. It is established that the donors of the ITA, for the organization of the system of evaluation of its effectiveness, use as a basis the Quality Standards for evaluation, which are developed by the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Conceptualising Ideational Convergence of China and OECD Donors: Coalition Magnets in Development Cooperation

This chapter analyses the development discourse on foreign aid to explore areas of convergence between the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donors and Chinese development cooperation. We apply the concept of “coalition magnets”—the capacity of an idea to appeal to a diverse set of individuals and groups, and to be used strategically by policy entrepreneurs to frame interests, mobilise support, and build coalitions. Three coalition magnets are identified: mutual benefit, development results, and the 2030 Agenda. The chapter finds that coalition magnets can be used to influence political change and concludes that applying a discursive approach provides a new conceptual opportunity for fostering closer engagement between OECD-DAC and Chinese development cooperation actors.