Aid-funded Projects Research Articles

Terrain of Contestation: Complicating the Role of Aid in Border Diplomacy between Europe and Morocco

Abstract Theorists of border externalization have portrayed aid in border control cooperation as a bargaining chip that the European Union uses to “buy” the cooperation of countries of “origin” and “transit.” More recent scholarship, instead, has depicted aid as a rent that Southern actors try to extract from Northern donors by capitalizing on the presence of foreign, “undesirable” populations within their own borders. Both explanations overlook the manifold ways countries of “origin” and “transit” maneuver aid in diplomatic relations over border control, thus failing to conceptualize aid beyond the incentive/rent binary. This paper analyses the implementation of three aid-funded projects in the field of migration in Morocco. Building on postcolonial international relations and organizational sociology, I argue that countries of “origin” and “transit” do not always welcome aid in the field of migration with open hands. Rather, they decide to cooperate (or not) with Global North donors and their subcontracting partners depending on how specific aid-funded projects fit into their broader domestic and international foreign policy strategy. I identify a three-tiered typology of engagement (facilitation, negotiation, and obstruction) to argue that aid rather works as a terrain where countries of “origin” and “transit” display, contest, and renegotiate diplomatic relations with Northern partners in situations of power asymmetry.

CHINA’S DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE TO THE WESTERN BALKANS AND ITS IMPACT ON DEMOCRATIC GOVERNANCE AND DECISION-MAKING

China’s development assistance to the Western Balkans has been little researched and aid-funded projects are often mistermed as Chinese investments. This article aimed to shed light on specific ‘China Aid’ disbursement and management procedures by examining the signed agreements and contracted projects in five countries - Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, N. Macedonia, and Serbia during the period 2000-2020. The objective was to determine the impact of China’s development assistance on democratic governance and decision-making. Attride-Stirling’s thematic networks tool was used to analyze the procedures in each project cycle phase and their compliance with the principles of good governance and aid effectiveness. The findings suggest that the assistance, shaped by Chinese rules in combination with Western Balkans domestic agency, is marked by the opacity of the procedures, lack of accountability, disregard for rules in public finance management, and public procurement. Moreover, China could use its grant and loan agreements to influence sovereign decision-making on issues that affect China’s interests. To conclude, although China’s development assistance to the Western Balkans could benefit the recipients’ economic development, it also constrains their democratic governance and decision-making and serves China’s foreign policy interests.

Quest for development: An examination of more than a half-century of national planning and foreign aid practice in Nepal

Abstract This paper examines the national planning process and the effectiveness of foreign aid for the development of Nepal from 1956 to 2019 using archived planning documents, international publications, and facts gleaned from conversations with planning officials. The existence of the National Planning Commission predates the establishment of the Ministry of Finance in Nepal. However, the lack of coordination between the two agencies has turned the former into a weak organization by preventing it from executing its budget. In each of the national plans, there is recognition of failures, underachievement, and low capacity in administering foreign aid-funded projects. The stated targets of the plans are rarely met while areas without strategic objectives sometimes surpass expectations. Plans have been neither visionary nor realistic and are not implemented effectively. While 90% of peasants were engaged in agriculture contributing 59% of the national economy, they did not receive significant attention for a long time. Foreign aid has increased greatly in Nepal since the 1950s and the country continues to be very dependent on it. But there have been questions about donors’ tardiness in releasing committed funds as well as the country's ability to execute aid-funded projects. There is a lack of capacity and accountability in both the government and the donors. Consequently, aid cannot fulfill its economic mission and meet the conditions tied to its continuance until the country can be administratively strong enough to conduct development projects alone. Recommendations are offered for changes and innovations within the structure of Nepal's government which would modify the role of the National Planning Commission, rationalize the planning process, harness the technical capability of the country, and move responsibility for plan implementation to the ministries most able to perform effectively.

Taxing aid: the end of a paradox?

Taxing aid was often discussed, but never implemented. This issue has now returned to the fore. First, many developing countries reform their tax system becoming more “reasonable” and eliminating one of the main justifications for aid-related tax exemptions. Second, the International Conference on Financing for Development held in Addis Ababa in August 2015 emphasised domestic revenue mobilisation as the main source of development finance. However, the broadening of tax base faces the proliferation of special tax arrangements, fuelled in part by the tax-exempt status of Official Development Assistance. Exemptions for project aid could represent as much as 3 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in countries where tax revenues barely surpass 15 per cent of GDP. In addition to loss of tax revenue, tax exemptions for project aid have particularly damaging effects on the formalisation of the economies of recipient countries. Moreover, systematic exemption reduces the credibility of the policies of donor countries and the consistency of their aid policy. Last, the taxation of aid meets the commitment made by donors in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005) to use recipient countries’ national Public Finance Management systems. This note reviews tax exemptions of foreign aid-funded projects: their consequences in terms of domestic revenue mobilisation in recipient countries, the induced inconsistency of foreign aid policy, their main historical justifications, and recent moves from some donor countries towards the taxation of their aid.

Foreign Aid and Economic Growth in Vietnam: Empirical Study and Policy Implications

<p>This paper studies the impact of foreign aid on Vietnam economic growth. By analyzing Vietnam statistical data, the research results show a negative relationship between foreign aid and economic growth of Vietnam. The main reason may be due to wrong and ineffective usage of this aids, and also corruption in the country. On these basis, we propose some recommendations for improving the performance of aid usage by strictly managing and reasonably allocating aid fund. Accordingly, Vietnam Government should improve the State’s management capacity by implementing decentralized administration in a clear and transparent manner; by simplifying procedures; by improving aid-funded project appraisal; and by ensuring an independence of foreign aids.</p>

A Managerial Dance to a Broken Systemic Tune: The Effects of Institutional Environment on the Performance of Aid Funded Projects in Developing Nations

Recent calls by foreign aid experts for aid donors to channel more of their aid funds through national governments stems from the fact that researchers lack the necessary data to ascertain whether nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) manage aid funds better than national governments do. Aid-funded projects are the result of a World Health Organization (WHO), World Bank, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), or some other organization’s assessment of a gap or problem in a developing country such as Ghana. Donors and the NGO community find out about the issue, a donor agency decides to fund the project, and the donor signs an agreement with the government of the developing country to implement the project. Some of the projects funded through NGOs and private consulting firms have been successfully completed, but many have failed. Some researchers blame this failure on factors that the implementation partners usually cannot control. This research investigates the factors that affect the implementation of aid-funded projects as seen through the eyes and experiences of NGO leaders who have led aid-funded projects in Ghana. Using qualitative research and grounded theory approach to analyze the data, we found that the macro and systemic issues referenced in various aid-effectiveness and aid-accountability literature are prevalent in most aspects of the aid-delivery process. Interestingly the main reasons behind aid-project failure tend to be managerial in nature. We conclude that implementation fails because of lack of alignment with the receiving government’s agenda, lack of collaboration with stakeholders, improper planning practices and lack of accountability.

At the Edges and on the Margins: Hearing the Voices of Young People in South Pacific Island Countries

‘Youth’ are frequently referred to under the mantra of inclusivity in any aid-funded project, development initiative or government–donor initiative in the Pacific region. Indeed, ‘youth’ ranks alongside ‘women/gender’ as a catch term for communicating diversity compliance. But how are ‘youth’ framed and who speaks for this group of people who are not yet adults or are only just adults in law, and yet are beyond the voiceless or barely articulate stage of childhood? This question may be particularly pertinent in cultures such as those found in the Pacific, where the right to speak out is traditionally not afforded to those on the edge of adulthood, and where ‘youth’ for the purposes of inclusive dialogue frequently means people over the age of 20. Although they may seem isolated, the Pacific islands are linked to global, regional and national movements to give young people more voice, to recognise the valuable contributions they can make and to ensure that they are participants in determining their own futures.

Unwritten ground rules (UGRS) in public procurement in developing countries

This paper presents the outcome of research related to application of formal rules and standard procedures in EAsʼ procurement of goods and services for foreign aid-funded projects. Executing agencies are entrusted to implement foreign aid-funded projects on behalf of respective governments and they are required to satisfy a combination of rules of their multiple principals, mainly donor organizations and respective government ministries. The theoretical framework of this study is guided by agency theory. The findings indicate that the processing of procurement related information and awarding contracts by the executing agencies in the context of Bangladesh is heavily dependent on the informal working systems or “unwritten ground rules”. These are driven by downward hierarchical verbal and non-verbal instructions. The study has adopted a qualitative method following a grounded theory approach.

Impact of Community-Based Forest Management on Forest Protection: Evidence from an Aid-Funded Project in Ethiopia

Many African countries have adopted community-based forest management (CBFM) to prevent deforestation. However, empirical studies have not reached a consensus on the effectiveness of CBFM. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the establishment of participatory forest management associations in Ethiopia. We used remote sensing data to gauge the change in forest area and employed a two-stage least squares model to correct for possible biases. The results indicate that the forest area managed by forest associations declines more in the year of establishment than forest areas with no association. This finding suggests that villagers may engage in "last-minute" logging. However, 1 year after the establishment of the forest associations, the forest area of the associations increased substantially, most likely because the associations monitor illegal logging, enabling the regeneration of open areas within the registered forest area. On average, the forest area of the forest associations increased by 1.5 % in the first 2 years, whereas forest areas not managed as part of an association declined by 3.3 %. The cumulative impact over 2 years yields a net increase in the rate of change of 4.8 %. These results demonstrate that it is important to improve the monitoring of forest areas during the initial establishment of participatory forest management associations to maximize the effects of association establishment.

Counting Chickens when they Hatch: Timing and the Effects of Aid on Growth

Recent research yields widely divergent estimates of the cross-country relationship between foreign aid receipts and economic growth. We re-analyse data from the three most influential published aid‐growth studies, strictly conserving their regression specifications, with sensible assumptions about the timing of aid effects and without questionable instruments. All three research designs show that increases in aid have been followed on average by increases in investment and growth. The most plausible explanation is that aid causes some degree of growth in recipient countries, although the magnitude of this relationship is modest, varies greatly across recipients and diminishes at high levels of aid. Economists have spent decades debating, without resolution, the cross-country relationship between foreign aid receipts and economic growth. Some find that aid robustly causes positive economic growth on average. Others cannot distinguish the average effect from zero. Still others find an effect only in certain countries, such as those with good policies or governance. Wearied readers of this literature would be right to wonder what produces diverse findings from apparently the same aid and growth data. Here, we show that two traits of previous research help to explain why different studies reach different conclusions. Both traits relate to how these studies treat the timing of causal relationships between aid and growth. First, the most cited research has focused on measuring the effect of aggregate aid on contemporaneous growth, while many aid-funded projects can take a long time to influence growth. Funding for a new road might affect economic activity in short order, funding for a vaccination campaign might only affect growth decades later and humanitarian assistance may never affect growth. Second, because current growth is likely to affect current aid, these studies require a strategy to disentangle correlation from causation. They have tended to rely on instrumental variables but the instruments that have been used are of questionable validity and strength. When these issues are addressed, the divergence in empirical findings is greatly reduced. We show this by stepwise altering the research design of the three most influential papers in the aid and growth literature. We hold all else constant: we begin by

Sowing and Reaping: Institutional Quality and Project Outcomes in Developing Countries

Much of the academic debate on the effectiveness of foreign aid is centered on the relationship between aid and growth. Different aid-growth studies find conflicting results: aid promotes growth everywhere; aid has a zero or negative impact on growth everywhere; or the effect of aid on growth depends on recipient-specific characteristics, such as the quality of institutions and policies. Although these studies fuel an interesting debate, cross-sectional macroeconomic studies cannot be the last word on the topic of aid effectiveness. In this paper, Dollar and Levin introduce microeconomic evidence on factors conducive to the success of aid-funded projects in developing countries. The authors use the success rate of World Bank-financed projects in the 1990s, as determined by the Operations Evaluation Department, as their dependent variable. Using instrumental variables estimation, the authors find that existence of high-quality institutions in a recipient country raises the probability that aid will be used effectively. There is also some evidence that geography matters, but location in Sub-Saharan Africa is a more robust indicator of lower project success rate than tropical climate. The authors proceed to disaggregate the success rate of World Bank projects by lending instrument type and by investment sector, finding that different institutions are more important for different types of projects. The finding of a strong relationship between institutional quality and project success serves to provide further support to the hypothesis that aid effectiveness is conditional on institutions and policies of the recipient country.

Impact Evaluation of Aid-funded Projects

Impact Evaluation of Aid-funded Projects

How Significant and Effective Has Foreign Aid to Indonesia Been?

I. Introduction As the aid flow is becoming stringent and tied to policy reforms amidst growing or at best stagnant world poverty, the debate about the effectiveness of foreign aid has once again returned to the centre stage of development strategy. (1) After brief period of disillusion in the late 1960s and early 1970s about the effectiveness of aid, there was renewed hope that countries could be moved out of poverty through the allocation of aid. This saw rise in net aid flows to developing countries in real terms until the early 1990s (White 2004, pp. 235-36). However, disillusion about aid effectiveness again set in since the mid-1990s with little signs of world poverty disappearing (Hudson 2004). This has led to decline in net aid flows both in real terms and as percentage of donor countries' GNP. (2) Nonetheless aid is still regarded as essential for economic development and poverty reduction, especially for meeting the multilaterally agreed millennium development goals (MDGs). The need for increased aid flows has been highlighted at the March 2002 UN Summit on Finance and Development in Monterrey and the September 2002 UN Summit on Sustainable World Development in Johannesburg. Stern (2003, p. 14) has argued that meeting the challenges of the MDGs would depend on scaling up the international community's development efforts, which means not only increasing the quantities of aid, but also more importantly changing qualitatively from the past modes of doing business. Stern has also outlined the ways in which the World Bank and other donors are targeting and managing aid for improving efficiency or effectiveness of aid In short, donors have increasingly become selective in the allocation of aid to those countries with records of good policies and are attaching conditions on policy reforms and improving governance. Donors are now asking for detailed strategy for poverty reduction before agreeing to increased economic assistance. (3) However, recent work on aid effectiveness raised concerns about the manner in (and criteria by) which the reduced volume of aid is being allocated (Odedokun 2004, p. 229). Easterly (2003, p. 38) has expressed doubts about the effectiveness of selectivity in aid allocation. He has characterized the imposition of conditions as no than wistful hope, rather than policy with consequences in circumstances where a nation will selectively receive aid if it is 'good performer'--unless it is bad performer, in which case it will receive aid from the 'bad performer' fund. Easterly (2003) has also argued that donors are as much responsible for the past failure of aid as recipients. According to him, donors are judged by the amount of money spent and hence are driven by the desire to move money. (4) This creates potential moral hazard and incentive problems for both donors and recipients. He has, therefore, emphasized the need for independent evaluations of aid-funded projects as recommended by the Meltzler Commission (2000). Following the increase in aid-dependence (both in terms of volume and number of donors) in the wake of recent economic crisis, Indonesia has become almost test case for the issues pertaining to aid effectiveness, and both policy-makers and donors have devoted increased attention to aid effectiveness. It is widely believed that foreign assistance played significant role in Indonesia's success in terms of sustaining rapid growth for three decades until it was hit by the crisis in the late 1990s. Starting as an International Development Association (IDA) recipient in the late 1960s, Indonesia graduated to an International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) client, and the bulk of its foreign financing since the early 1990s until the crisis was from commercial sources. (5) As matter of fact, Indonesia's graduation from one of the poorest countries to second-tier newly industrializing economy in less than three decades is in itself remarkable achievement matched by only handful of East and Southeast Asian countries. …

How community volunteers can help make disaster response sustainable

Technology-based disaster response projects are only appropriate if they are built within the social, economic and institutional capacities of a disaster-hit community. Mobilising, training and monitoring community volunteers is the key, helping to ensure that aid-funded projects such as water wells and latrines do not fall into disrepair and disuse. Using case studies of water and sanitation projects carried out by UK charity Tearfund in post-civil war Sierra Leone, this paper shows how quick fixes can be converted into sustainable, long-term solutions when they are conceived, built and maintained by local volunteers.

How community volunteers can help make disaster response sustainable

Technology-based disaster response projects are only appropriate if they are built within the social, economic and institutional capacities of a disaster-hit community. Mobilising, training and monitoring community volunteers is the key, helping to ensure that aid-funded projects such as water wells and latrines do not fall into disrepair and disuse. Using case studies of water and sanitation projects carried out by UK charity Tearfund in post-civil war Sierra Leone, this paper shows how quick fixes can be converted into sustainable, long-term solutions when they are conceived, built and maintained by local volunteers.

Exploiting Curriculum Commonality in Small Island States: Some Strategies for Primary Science Curriculum Development in the South Pacific

Improving primary science education in the small, developing island nations of the South Pacific is of increasing importance if these countries are to improve the quality of life of their citizens and achieve sustainable economic growth. The education systems in the South Pacific are commonly legacies of old colonial powers and are dominated by external summative examinations that drive a teacher-dominated didactic pedagogy. Changing this situation is likely to be a long-term issue. However, in the short to medium term science education at the primary level would likely benefit from some strategies that are achievable, sustainable and relatively inexpensive when compared with many aid-funded projects. The authors propose a regional approach to curriculum development and the employment of simple readers to deliver science concepts to students through literacy as a means of improving the current situation.

US AID’s private sector housing programme in urban Zimbabwe: examining the terrain from the terraces

This paper discusses the role of the United States government’s Agency for International Development (US AID) in housing provision in Zimbabwe. While emphasizing that much of the Agency’s support has helped expand and improve housing for low-income urban groups, it also describes how a US AID-funded project in Harare contradicted the Agency’s own principles of good governance since it was developed without the approval of the local authorities and used a steel-frame technology that had not been approved. This technology subsequently proved to have many disadvantages and the participants in the project find themselves with mortgage repayments that they have difficulty meeting, and poor quality houses within a neighbourhood that the city authorities will not recognize as a legal development.

Iriaichi:Collective versus Individualized Management of Community Forests in Postwar Japan

Previous articleNext article No AccessIriaichi: Collective versus Individualized Management of Community Forests in Postwar JapanYoko Kijima Takeshi Sakurai Keijiro Otsuka Yoko KijimaMichigan State University Search for more articles by this author Takeshi SakuraiNational Research Institute of Agricultural Economics, Japan Search for more articles by this author Keijiro OtsukaTokyo Metropolitan University and International Food Policy Research Institute Search for more articles by this author Michigan State UniversityNational Research Institute of Agricultural Economics, JapanTokyo Metropolitan University and International Food Policy Research InstitutePDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Economic Development and Cultural Change Volume 48, Number 4July 2000 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/452481 Views: 52Total views on this site Citations: 15Citations are reported from Crossref © 2000 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Hiroyuki TAKESHIMA, Futoshi YAMAUCHI, Masahito ENOMOTO Agricultural, Economic, and Human Development: Joint Research Contributions of Japan and International Food Policy Research Institute, Japan Agricultural Research Quarterly: JARQ 55, no.SpecialSpecial (Dec 2021): 521–531.https://doi.org/10.6090/jarq.55.521Sarah Clement Cultural Landscapes and Novel Ecosystems, (Dec 2020): 145–185.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60350-2_5Hellen Nansikombi, Richard Fischer, Rubén Ferrer Velasco, Melvin Lippe, Felix Kanungwe Kalaba, Gillian Kabwe, Sven Günter Can de facto governance influence deforestation drivers in the Zambian Miombo?, Forest Policy and Economics 120 (Nov 2020): 102309.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2020.102309Sanada Kie Institutional analysis of regionalism in Japan: a sociological case study from Owase, Japan, Japan Forum 32, no.22 (Jun 2019): 284–307.https://doi.org/10.1080/09555803.2019.1626471Daisuke Takahashi, Tsaiyu Chang, Mikitaro Shobayashi The role of formal and informal institutions in farmland consolidation: The case of Shiga Prefecture, Japan, International Journal of the Commons 12, no.22 (Aug 2018): xx–xx.https://doi.org/10.18352/ijc.829Eunju Lee, Marianne E. Krasny Adaptive Capacity in Community Forest Management: A Systematic Review of Studies in East Asia, Environmental Management 59, no.11 (Oct 2016): 34–49.https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-016-0767-2Keijiro Otsuka, Ryo Takahashi, Ridish Pokharel In Search of Optimum Institutions for Forest Management, Journal of Sustainable Forestry 34, no.33 (Dec 2014): 300–314.https://doi.org/10.1080/10549811.2014.993085Narayan Raj Poudel, Nobuhiko Fuwa, Keijiro Otsuka The impacts of a community forestry program on forest conditions, management intensity and revenue generation in the Dang district of Nepal, Environment and Development Economics 20, no.22 (Jul 2014): 259–281.https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355770X14000473Nori Tarui The Role of Institutions in Natural Resource Use, (Jan 2015): 125–136.https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-800347-3.00008-XMangala Premakumara De Zoysa, Makoto Inoue, Utako Yamashita, Okuda Hironori Collective Forest Management System in Japan: a Case Study in Osawa Property Ward Forest, Journal of Forest Science 29, no.11 (Feb 2013): 58–70.https://doi.org/10.7747/JFS.2013.29.1.58Makiko Yashiro, Anantha Duraiappah, Nicolas Kosoy A Nested Institutional Approach for Managing Bundle Ecosystem Services: Experience from Managing Satoyama Landscapes in Japan, (Oct 2012): 191–205.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5176-7_10Stein T. Holden, Yuanyuan Yi, Xuemei Jiang, Jintao Xu Tenure Security and Investment Effects of Forest Tenure Reform in China, (Jan 2013): 256–282.https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137343819_11Stein T. Holden, Keijiro Otsuka, Klaus Deininger Conclusions, (Jan 2013): 380–395.https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137343819_16Ryo Takahashi, Yasuyuki Todo Impact of Community-Based Forest Management on Forest Protection: Evidence from an Aid-Funded Project in Ethiopia, Environmental Management 50, no.33 (Jun 2012): 396–404.https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-012-9887-5T. Sakurai, K. Palanisami Tank irrigation management as a local common property: the case of Tamil Nadu, India, Agricultural Economics 25, no.2-32-3 (Sep 2001): 273–283.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1574-0862.2001.tb00207.x

Local management of aid-funded projects

Local management means giving responsibility for the implementation and management of development projects to people and institutions in the recipient country. The main arguments for local management are that it offers the potential to increase the responsibility and accountability of national institutions and should help to build a cadre of experienced local project managers. These are all important contributions to sustainable development. There are, however, some constraints on the effectiveness of local management, including the limited supply of good managers and the difficulty of ensuring adherence by those implementing projects to donors' procedures and regulations. The role of donor agencies under local management is yet to be clearly defined. Donor agencies will face difficult professional judgments on whether, when and how to intervene where projects are not being competently managed by national institutions.