Aid Paradigm Research Articles

In the Quest for True Commitment: The Finnish Aid Paradigm and the 0.7 Target in Domestic Politics

In contrast to its Nordic neighbours, Finland has failed to fulfil the 0.7 per cent of GNI target for development assistance over the past three decades. This has been the case despite restated commitments ‘to reach 0.7’ by every government since 1993 and Finland’s otherwise progressive role as a Nordic donor. This inconsistency, but also the Finnish aid approach in general, has been charted by only a few academic contributions. In this article, we begin by revisiting the Finnish aid paradigm for background purposes and identify continuities and changes including degrees of change [Hall, P., 1993, ‘Policy paradigms, social learning, and the state: The case of economic policymaking in Britain’, Comparative Politics, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 275–296] since the early 1990s. Then we shift our focus to the 0.7 target in the context of domestic political forces [Lancaster, C., 2007, Foreign Aid: Diplomacy, Development, Domestic Politics, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press] that shape Finnish aid. In addition, we provide snapshots of the two most significant changes in Finnish aid that relate to aid volume (centred in 1991 and 2015) and address them through the conceptual lenses of de/politicisation [Wood, M., 2015, ‘Puzzling and powering in policy paradigm shifts: politicisation, depoliticisation and social learning’, Critical Policy Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 2–21]. We conclude that some strong underlying continuities can be identified in the Finnish aid paradigm (1993–2021) concerning particularly poverty reduction, the role of aid, foreign and commercial policy self-interests as well as global concerns. The aspirations to reach the 0.7 per cent target are also a part of this continuum. However, domestic political forces related to the Finnish government coalitions and budgetary politics hinder the fulfilment of the self-declared 0.7 target. Furthermore, the largely depoliticised nature of both aid and these dynamics make it difficult to change the course towards true commitment.

Contesting the Dynamics of Secular Development: An Ontology of Trinitarian Well-Being as Christian Rationale for Human Well-Being

Abstract Christianity has been instrumental in fashioning the contemporary Western paradigm of humanitarian aid and development. However, as a secular agenda increasingly defines this space, the question of what difference a religious cosmology makes to Christian faith-based development organisations (FBDO s) becomes significant. While faith convictions initiated early humanitarian efforts, Christian FBDO s have arguably acquiesced to secular pragmatic rationales for their work, rather than allow theology to have explanatory and regulatory influence. In many ways, therefore, FBDO s are devoid of the influence of “faith”, or more specifically, the influence of a robust theological foundation. To address this deficit, a critique of the philosophical moorings of Western international development is mounted, with consideration given to nascent trajectories of an alternate Christian rationale and praxis. In particular, the paper argues that the ontological foundation for the dynamics of human well-being is divine well-being. Employing a Trinitarian relational ontology, the dynamic characteristic inherent to the actualisation of divine well-being is identified as a triune kenosis (self-giving). Such an ontology of divine well-being provides the context to articulate principles for actualising human well-being as a reiteration of the divine archetype. From such a perspective, the Trinitarian doctrine of God provides the pivotal foundation for a Christian cosmology necessary to articulate an alternative paradigm for sustainable development.

China’s BRI developmental agency in its own words: A content analysis of key policy documents

Since its announcement in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has inspired an ever-growing stream of literature cutting across several disciplines, with highest concentration of studies in the social sciences. Unsurprisingly a great deal of these studies are concerned with the rationale behind this massive undertaking and its potential impact in the current world order. Here a clear rift is apparent between those who think of it as a tool serving China’s geopolitical interests and rise at the world stage, and those who see it as a more nebulous and fragmented undertaking driven by domestic economic and political pressures. A similar concern is reflected in a smaller body of literature that looks at the BRI from a development angle, the dominant inquiry line revolving around its likely impact in global development governance and the underlying neoliberal cooperation norms and practices. Here too there is a clear divide between those who see China’s increasing development agency as a positive complement and those who perceive it in a direct collision course with the neoliberal aid paradigm. This dichotomy of interpretations project two contrasting images of China’s development agency that are often difficult to reconcile. This study contributes to this body of literature by providing a profile of China’s development agency according to its own words. Since 2015 a raft of BRI policy documents have been published by Beijing to fill the initial void and regain control over the narrative. Through a content analysis of key policy papers and speeches, we attempt to uncover what are the initiative’s aims, governance mechanisms, normative under pinnings, and targeted areas as per the official discourse. In doing so we hope to bring more clarity as to the nature of China developmental agency. Based on our findings we argue that much like its domestic development model, China’s development cooperation approach is pragmatically hybrid with the rhetoric showing clear signs of convergence but also divergence with the dominant paradigm. The evolving discourse suggests a highly fluid approach and thus a work in constant progress, which progression hinges upon reactive and cumulative adjustments to feedback as the initiative is rolled out.

The next swing of the pendulum? Cross-border aid and shifting aid paradigms in post-coup Myanmar

The next swing of the pendulum? Cross-border aid and shifting aid paradigms in post-coup Myanmar

The role of foreign capital and economic freedom in sustainable food production: Evidence from DLD countries.

In many developing countries, the deficiency in public and private investment has resulted in lower growth rates and stagnation in productivity. The need for a new paradigm of foreign investment and aid in agricultural production is becoming exigent in developing countries. Given the decline in per capita arable land, the rise in production costs, and the increase in population and urbanization, major changes in agriculture have been proposed to boost agricultural production. This present study endeavours to contribute to the existing literature by proving whether foreign capital and economic freedom could catapult food production into the much-anticipated growth. In that regard, we performed GLS with correlated disturbances, system GMM dynamic panel data estimators and D-H causality test. The study found that foreign capital as a whole plays a positive role in food production in developing and least developed countries, but FDI is insignificant in least-developed countries. Moreover, economic freedom plays a positive role in food production in least-developed countries but negative in developing countries. Policymakers and governments should create an enabling environment for sustainable food production.

The Political Economy of Sino-African Relations: Reconciling Chinese-Style Development with the Western Aid Paradigm

Western analysts perceive aggressive Chinese foreign investment as a grave threat to sustainable development in the Global South. China’s more centralized and uncompromising strategies have the potential to lock recipient countries into a cycle of increasing unserviceable sovereign debt. On the other hand, they have often seen successes where the Washington Consensus had not. This paper seeks to explain why China’s monetary and financial systems are uniquely placed to offer the Global South – and Africa in particular – an alternative model for development. It also places reasonable doubt on Chinese investment as a monolithic expansionist project, emphasizing China’s constant need for new markets and Africa’s long-term ties to Asia and its export-oriented model. By examining the empirical realities of Chinese investment against dominant Western schools of thought, this article concludes that the two aid paradigms may be reconcilable, and that policy coherence between China and the West is possible and desirable. Also, as noted by the many scholars now reevaluating the issue with a focus on African agency, African governments will have to develop the bargaining power and policy ownership to guide the conversation in a regionally specific and Africa-centric direction.

US Security Assistance to Pakistan in Post 9/11 Period

This paper attempts to understand the dynamics of United States aid assistance to Pakistan in the light of post 9/11 security developments in the world. The analysis of US foreign policy aid instruments generally indicates three broad objectives: strategic/politico-security benefits, economic interests and humanitarian concerns. Although one consistently recurring theme in US foreign policy aid provision, both in the Cold War period and the newer post 2001 ‘War on Terror’ period has been security. This theme has also defined US-Pakistan aid relationship in different times, with the exception of Bush administration, who unlike the Cold War period made an alteration byspecifying funds forpurpose-basedusage in sub-fields. This paper argues that Bush administration sought to achieve US foreign policy objectives by providing strategic aid to Pakistan much at the expense of domestic public opinion. It further stresses that change in administration in the US brought obstacles in aid flows to Pakistan as President Obama not only reduced the amount of aid under specific heads, but also openly accused Pakistan of fomenting the militants (the good Taliban), which in turn hurt the US broader strategic goals in the region and raised irreconcilable issues of trust between the two countries. The new administration of Trump went a step ahead by suspending many of the aid programmes to Pakistan, bringing the all-time trust-deficit between the two countries to an all-time low. This paper primarily applies the realist and neo-realist theoretical framework to understand the aid and security relationship paradigm between the US and Pakistan.

‘The struggle isn’t over’: Shifting aid paradigms and redefining ‘development’ in eastern Myanmar

Abstract In recent years, international optimism about Myanmar’s fledgling democratization and peace process has contributed to a shift by many Western donors towards the ‘normalization’ of aid relations with the former pariah state, and from more ‘humanitarian’ to more ‘development’-style approaches. Yet these shifts are not necessarily seen as progress by members of community-based health organizations, which operate under para-state governance systems in the borderlands. Instead, members of these organizations often describe the emerging ‘development’ paradigm in Myanmar as doing more harm than good. This article draws on long-term ethnographic research conducted over a decade-long period with ethnic minority health workers operating in Myanmar’s eastern borderlands. It examines the meanings of ‘humanitarianism’ and ‘development’ – and of the ‘humanitarian-development nexus’ – from the perspective of local-level actors whose voices are still too often ignored in debates about international aid programs and their implementation. It finds that the reactions of the health workers to shifting aid paradigms and programs highlight what is at stake in an evolving politics of aid. These reactions are linked with a politics of suffering; with an ongoing struggle for recognition of non-state governance systems; and with impacts that international aid economies have in designating different socio-political actors as legitimate, and in territorializing border spaces in different ways, at different times. The health workers’ attempts to advance an alternative model for ‘development’ in their communities in turn illustrate how different actors, who are brought together in an unequal ‘aid encounter’, are involved in an ongoing struggle over the legitimacy of competing systems of government and over the territorialization of border areas. Finally, the article contends that, without understanding local perspectives and engaging critically with the political implications of evolving aid interventions, international aid programs risk impacting negatively on conflict dynamics in contested and transitional states.

Classical humanitarianism and resilience humanitarianism: making sense of two brands of humanitarian action

Humanitarian aid has long been dominated by a classical, Dunantist paradigm that was based on the ethics of the humanitarian principles and centred on international humanitarian United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations. While in previous decades alternative paradigms and humanitarianisms evolved, this classical paradigm remained the central narrative of humanitarianism. In recent years, however, this paradigm has been paralleled by a resilience paradigm that is focused on local people and institutions as the first responders to crises. Whereas classical humanitarianism is rooted in the notion of exceptionalism, resilience humanitarianism starts from the idea of crisis as the new normality. This paper discusses the two paradigms and the incongruent images they evoke about crises, local institutions and the recipients of aid. The article puts forward the case for studying the ways in which these contrasting aid paradigms shape practices, dealing with the importance of discourse, the social life of policy, the multiplicity of interests, the power relations and the crucial importance of understanding the lifeworld and agency of aid workers and crisis-affected communities. The article demonstrates how the stories that humanitarians tell about themselves are based on highly selective views of reality and do not include the role they themselves play in the reordering and representation of realities in humanitarian crises.

Governance Indicators for Strategic Business Decisions: Diversity of Western Asian Countries in Terms of Democracy

The main objective of the research is to configure the countries of Western Asia from the standpoint of governance with a particular focus on democracy indicator. We are interested in the government indicators because since the times of Washington consensus the foreign aid paradigm has changed: a priority is given to funding development programs in countries with good governance. In order to measure the progress there is the need to quantify differences in governments among nations and to measure its quality. Governance indicators and the Democracy Index as well, are also supposed to help business leaders in strategic decisions. Comparative analysis technique and a concept of correlation are used as a methodology of the research while configuring the countries of Western Asia in terms of democracy. It is verified whether the more democratic countries in the region are the more trustful and prosperous societies. It is debated whether there is the need for democracy so as to reach good governance and economic growth.

Investigating the molecular basis of rubella virus-induced teratogenesis: a literature review

Rubella virus (RV) is the etiologic agent of rubella, a disease more commonly known as German measles. The 1940 rubella epidemic in Australia allowed for the identification of RV as a teratogenic agent: infection early in pregnancy causes a variety of birth defects collectively referred to as congenital rubella syndrome (CRS). Although rigorous immunization policies have dramatically reduced the incidence of CRS, it is still estimated that around 100,000 infants are born with CRS every year. Furthermore, in light of the recent Zika virus epidemic which is now known to be a causative agent of microcephaly and other birth defects, a deeper understanding of RV may help elucidate the paradigm of viral teratogenesis and aid in the development of therapeutic agents to prevent the development of birth defects in fetuses after maternal infection. This review aims to give a summary of the current knowledge regarding the molecular biology of the virus followed by an overview of potential mechanisms of RV-induced teratogenesis as well as suggestions for possible future directions for research.

More harm than good? The questionable ethics of medical volunteering and international student placements

It has been argued that much of international medical volunteering is done for the wrong reasons, in that local people serve as a means to meet volunteers’ needs, or for the right reasons but ignorance and ill-preparedness harm the intended beneficiaries, often without volunteers’ grasp of the damage caused. The literature on ethical concerns in medical volunteering has grown tremendously over the last years highlighting the need for appropriate guidelines. These same concerns, however, and an appreciation of the reasons why current aid paradigms are flawed, can serve as indicators on how to change existing practices to ensure a better outcome for those who are in need of help. Such paradigm change envisages medical assistance in the spirit of solidarity, social justice, equality, and collegial collaboration.

The Virtue and Problems of Indonesian Development Trust Funds

Despite being the largest economy in Southeast Asia and a member of the G-20 major economies with a GDP over US$ 888 billion, Indonesia still faces a lot of challenges with its financial capacity to sustain national development. In this regard, external financing such as loans and grants, could serve a strategic role to fill the gaps and to provide vital inputs, for the government to fund national development. One of the alternatives in which the government can effectively make best use of prevailing resources is through a development trust fund. Development trust funds emerged along with foreign aid itself. They emerged with the evolution of aid conditionality provided by international donors to the recipient countries. The Paris Declaration in 2005, signed by over a hundred donor agencies and recipient governments, attempted to change the nature of contemporary aid relationships by adopting ownership and harmonization as the key pillars of a new aid paradigm. The Paris Declaration changed the pattern of aid and the conditions attached to aid.Development trust funds are funds established using money from either foreign or domestic grants that legally set aside from the regular state budget. The funds will be used for the development purposes and managed by the national trustee institution. Development trust funds have only recently been permitted in Indonesia based on Presidential Regulation No. 80/2011 regarding the Establishment of Trust Fund (Perpres No. 80/2011). The enactment of Perpres No. 80/2011 was followed by the establishment of two national development trust funds in Indonesia: the Millennium Challenge Account-Indonesia (MCA-I) and the Indonesia Climate Change Trust Funds (ICCTF). Despite Indonesia’s best effort to set up development trust funds to maximize its financial capacity for development, the legal and organizational framework of the trust funds has an uncertain conceptual foundation. This situation will lead to several fundamental problems, such as uncertain legal status of the trust fund, inadequate governance procedure, and lack of accountability of the organization’s activity. Using interviews with Development Trust Funds officers and case studies of the existing development trust funds, this article explores the problems with the Indonesian development trust funds as currently constituted. After providing introduction, this thesis discusses the historical background of the development trust fund, some precedents of development trust funds in several countries and development trust funds under international law. It also identify the key principles of the development trust funds which has been established around the world. Finally, this article evaluates the Indonesian development trust funds regulation as well as the implementation of the existing development trust funds.This research concludes that the current trust fund regulation is missing from some substantial provisions regarding the legal status, and provisions related to good and accountable governance of Indonesian development trust funds. This work suggests the government of Indonesia should amend the current trust fund regulation in order to make the development trust fund operated more accountable, effective, and efficient.

Foreign Aid, Aid Effectiveness and the New Aid Paradigm: A Review

This paper reviews the co-evolution of thoughts on development and foreign aid, and empirical findings on aid effectiveness. The review recognizes the emergence of a new aid paradigm. The new aid paradigm embraces a set of principles such as holistic long-term development strategy; enabling policy and institutional environment; good governance; country ownership; simplified and harmonized aid procedures; increased reliance on and alignment with government systems and procedures; mutual accountability and partnership; ex-post conditionality or selectivity; predictability of aid flows; and results-based management. The paper shows that these principles are largely knowledge-based and able to make aid more effective, in theory. Achieving results in practice, however, requires challenging changes within donor agencies as well as recipient country governments. The paper also outlines the major challenges ahead in implementing the new aid paradigm. Sri Lankan Journal of Agricultural Economics Vol.(12-13)No. 1 (2010-2011) pp. 39-81

Examining recent shifts in Australia's foreign aid policy: new paradigm or more incremental change?

ABSTRACTOn taking office in late 2013, the incoming Abbott government proclaimed the advent of a new aid paradigm. This article asks whether or not this is the case. It does so by situating the new coalition policy in the context of more than two decades of development thinking. Focusing on the way Australian aid policy reflects trends in both global development and geopolitical discourses, the article parses out continuity and change. It finds that Australia's new aid paradigm is in fact largely the old aid paradigm reincarnate, with aid policy continuing to follow the well-established parameters outlined over decades of global thinking and practice that emphasise the significance of private-sector-led economic growth. However, while the overarching paradigm remains relatively intact, incremental change is also apparent, including alterations to the geographic focus, level and administration of the program.

"Trentino con": la valutazione della cooperazione decentrata trentina tra sistema degli obiettivi e pratiche organizzative

Since the early 1990s Decentralised Cooperation (DC) has stepped into the international development arena as a modality considered able to promote relationships not focused on the paradigm of aid rather than on mutual interests of institutions and persons who despite living in distant places face common challenges. At the end of the 1990s (Italy) started four DC programmes Prijedor (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Peja Pec (Kosovo), Caia (Mozambique) and Kraljevo (Serbia). DC in is called cooperation between communities to emphasize the relationships between the institutions involved. These programmes, supported by the Autonomous Province of Trento and implemented by civil society organizations, represent one of the most significant international policies in Trentino. The article analyses how the system of objectives has evolved in relation to the political and institutional contexts of the territories in which Trentino with works. The analysis focuses on the relationships between the evolution of the objectives and the organizational structures of the four programmes. The research aims at reconstructing the history of these programmes, identifying significant practices and providing guidance for future planning through a learning process for the actors involved in the programmes.

“Sustainable Development” and CIDA’s China Program: A Saskatchewan Case Study

Through funding from the Canadian International Development Agency’s (CIDA) China Program, the University of Regina (UofR), Canada, implemented two major development projects with the Educational Institute of Jilin province (EIJP) from 1990 to 2001. This paper re-examines this historic cooperation. The paper argues that prevailing theories of sustainable development which had been percolating in education faculties of Canadian universities in the 1990s allowed the UofR/EIJP program to transcend a simple international aid paradigm and to focus on the mutual benefit of the partners. At the same time, we observe that despite the enormous goodwill and institutional learning achieved through the UofR/EIJP program the project failed to live up to its significant potential. The paper concludes with some practical measures that institutions might implement to ensure important cooperative projects can build robust international capacity sustainable for the long term.

The New Aid Paradigm: A Case of Policy Incoherence

From around 2000 onwards, donors and recipient governments embarked upon a new aid paradigm. The most important elements include increased selectivity in the aid allocation, more ownership of recipient countries based on nationally elaborated Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), and more donor alignment and harmonization via programme-based approaches such as budget support. The paper assesses the theoretical merits of this new paradigm, identifying some contradictions and limitations, and then examines its implementation over the past decade and its results. The empirical literature largely confirms the earlier identified weaknesses and limitations. The paper concludes with some suggestions for improving aid practices.

Applying the Maker Movement to Refugee Situations

The maker movement refers to the increase in access to tools, accomplished principally through shared access to community workshops called makerspaces. The maker movement has grown rapidly in the developing world since 2000, but its potential to shift the paradigm of international aid towards a do-it-yourself (DIY) development has not been explored. In this paper I define the Maker Movement and clarify how it can be applied to the refugee situations, followed by a discussion of organizations already implementing similar ideas in the developing world. I argue that Making can benefit refugees by empowering them to solve daily problems, gain employment training and by supporting entrepreneurship.

From mono-criterion to multi-criteria decision aid: a necessary but unfinished evolution in operational research

The aim of this paper is to discuss the evolution process from the mono-criteria decision making paradigm to the multi-criteria decision aid paradigm. This process is based on the fact; in general, the decision-maker desires to consider simultaneously several heterogeneous and conflicting dimensions instead of optimising one single objective such as minimising the cost or maximising the profit. This paradigm shift has led to a different way of using mathematical reasoning and tools within the discipline of operational research. Basically, a shift that has meant a return to the roots of the decision making process in order to develop models that attempt to integrate explicitly the decision-maker’s preferences where he/she will be playing the main role during the decision-making process. In this paper we will look at some epistemological aspects of this evolution and point out that this mission of integrating explicitly the decision-makers preferences within the multi-criteria decision aid models remains unfinished.