Territorial and Sectoral Distribution of the ODA Gross Disbursements Channelled Using Civil Society Organizations: Czechia Compared with Other Central European Countries

Abstract

Civil society organizations represent important actors in delivery of development assistance. International community recognizes them not only as actors on their own, but also as the contractors of the official governmental programmes and projects. Their involvement in development policies of donor countries has been especially emphasized since the 1990s, and it is generally regarded as valuable in fulfilment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Governments of the Central European Countries also cooperate with civil society organizations in development policies, and use them inter alia as the channels for aid delivery. However, the level in which governments use their services in delivery of the Official Development Assistance differs. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to identify and evaluate territorial and sectoral distribution of the ODA gross disbursements of Czechia channelled using civil society organizations, and to compare this distribution with the ones found in Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. Through civil society organizations Czechia has allocated nearly 1⁄4 of its total volume of ODA gross disbursements related to individual programmes and projects during the period between 2014 and 2018. However, the Hungarian government cooperated with civil society organizations marginally, and their participation reached a maximum level of 6% in 2018. Civil society organizations, participating in development policies of the Central European Countries, were involved mainly in the programmes and projects concerning social infrastructure and services, which complies with their traditional and most common roles.