Abstract
Foreign aid has always been an important source of finance for Pakistan. The flow of foreign aid depends upon the donor’s interest and motives that can differ as some may be truly interested in helping the recipient nation (Mumtaz, 2013). Some donors may have a national interest while others may want to enhance their economic relations which refer to the idealist, realist, and neo-realist theories of motivations respectively (Berthelemy, 2005). The present inquiry is informed by a qualitative interpretive approach based on semi-structured interviews regarding financial aid donor’s motives. The overall results revealed people's perception that America has an inclination for both Pakistan’s nation and region for its own benefits whereas the United Kingdom is interested in human resources. Saudi Arab and China have dual motives, one is the development of Pakistan and the other is security and trade interest respectively. So America is proclaimed as realist donors, United Kingdom as Neo-realist while Saudi Arab and China have mixed motivations. Both are Idealists with some realist and neo-realist motivation correspondingly. However other financial aid donors are not prominent amongst the Pakistani nations.
Highlights
Over the last 30 to 40 years foreign aid remained a main source of external financing for developing nations
The findings revealed that citizens of Pakistan are aware of only few major financial aid donors that include USA, UK, China and Saudi Arabia
America is granting aid to Pakistan to influence the opinion of Pakistani nation; want to get benefits from both human and natural resources; to clear a route to Afghanistan and to create hurdles in the development of Pakistan
Summary
Over the last 30 to 40 years foreign aid remained a main source of external financing for developing nations. USA’s aid to Pakistan probably be for creating positive public viewpoint towards America (Reinhardt, 2011) Economic development is another significant motivation of donors for development assistance, because it promotes trade and investment and the ultimate benefits of which are shared by donors (Stone, 2010). The current study is an effort to explore the perception of Pakistanis regarding the motives of different financial aid donors to this nation. For general public, research findings will help to understand the varying perceived reasons behind donations and impact of financial aid branding by donor countries. Since the mid-2000s, the South Asian region has observed an influx of Chinese financial aid Such as, China has overtaken traditional donors by highly engaging in post-war infrastructure development activities in Sri Lanka. As the focus of this study is bilateral aid donors, so EU and ADB are not discussed
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