Aid-Supported Policies and Programmes

Abstract

This chapter is the first part of a critical analysis of the aid-supported programs and institutions/mechanisms of international aid. Albania is not an exception among developing countries, where international aid organisations have played a role both as facilitators of policy transfer and as sources of pressure for reform (Martin 1993; Wright 1994; Common 1998). Thus, in the formative years following the collapse of communism up until 2000, the policies of those organisations including the WB, the EU, the EBRD, the UNDP and the USAID had one element in common: application of aid conditionality as pressure on transitional governments to adopt reforms (Ruli 2003; Elbasani 2009). Therefore, aid policy as reflected in the interventions of international organisations in the early years of transition targeted ‘state-building’ broadly rather than public administration reform, as a strategic approach towards the country’s development.