Development Aid Programs Research Articles

It’s not STI: It’s ITS – the Role of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in Africa’s Development Strategy

Abstract This article argues that the use of the term ‘science, technology and innovation’ (STI) as a proxy for innovative activity is not only conceptually wrong, it is also misleading. This is particularly an issue in policy analysis for low-income countries (LICs) where it tends to support resource allocation to scientific institutions at the expense of more relevant development interventions affecting the economy as a whole. The article focuses on recent sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) regional science policy initiatives and uses a relevant Department for International Development (DFID) aid programme to provide empirical support.

Ventilated tunnel solar dryers for small-scale farmers communities: Theoretical and practical aspects

ABSTRACTThe design of so-called “ventilated tunnel solar dryers" is presented in this work under theoretical and practical aspects. These dryers consist in a tunnel with a black floor and a plastic top, ventilated with fans supplied by a photovoltaic module. Along this tunnel, the air first passes through a heating part, which is product free and where the air is heated due to greenhouse effect. It then enters the second part of the dryer, the drying part, where the products to dry are spread. A rational and general design procedure based on the solving of energy and mass balance equations is developed and followed. This procedure allows designing the ventilation system and calculating the lengths of the heating and the drying parts of a dryer according to a scope statement and to design conditions insuring an efficient and homogeneous drying. Two dryers were designed, built and operated, in the frame of two development aid programs, in Cambodia and in Uganda. The fieldwork highlighted the importance of practical building and operating aspects, reported in the present paper, and of including people of the local communities in these programs. Results of field drying experiments are shown and demonstrate the validity of the design procedure. In particular, the validity of the energy balance equations at the basis of the procedure is demonstrated.

Role of Japanese official development assistance in enhancing infrastructure development in India

Assistance to India from Japan under its Official Development Aid (ODA) programme has been particularly important for infrastructure development. India has been the single largest recipient of Japanese ODA since 2003–2004. Most of it has been directed towards long-term participation in infrastructure, much of which comes from the enormous demand. With the Indian Prime Minister’s visit on 3 August 2014, Japan committed to invest $35 billion in different sectors focusing on infrastructure in the coming five years. This investment will boost India’s infrastructure sector. Poor infrastructure is a constraint to sustaining India’s high and inclusive growth rate. One major bottleneck in infrastructure development is infrastructure financing (along with many others, such as land acquisition, environment clearance, and cost-time overruns). In this context, the paper explores the impact of Japanese ODA on the infrastructure sector in India, the trends and priority sectors for Japanese ODA, and the problems and challenges of this developing relationship.

The Polish Development Programme for Ghazni Province (Afghanistan): Outputs and Challenges

Polish bilateral development aid program for Afghanistan is perceived as an integral part of international efforts to rebuild the war-torn country. It was focused on Ghazni province in South Eastern part of Afghanistan, where a Polish part of a local Provincial Reconstruction Team was established in 2008. This paper analyses the outputs and challenges of the Polish Development Program for Ghazni province. Based on a field research, it shows that Polish development aid program for Ghazni was not well thought out in the then and current development and security situation. Research results indicated that Polish development aid in Ghazni had some major weaknesses, and in fact, it was contributing mainly to the infrastructure development in the province capital.

Over-Reporting in Handwashing Self-Reports: Potential Explanatory Factors and Alternative Measurements

Handwashing interventions are a priority in development and emergency aid programs. Evaluation of these interventions is essential to assess the effectiveness of programs; however, measuring handwashing is quite difficult. Although observations are considered valid, they are time-consuming and cost-ineffective; self-reports are highly efficient but considered invalid because desirable behaviour tends to be over-reported. Socially desirable responding has been claimed to be the main cause of inflated self-reports, but its underlying factors and mechanisms are understudied. The present study investigated socially desirable responding and additional potential explanatory factors for over-reported handwashing to identify indications for measures which mitigate over-reporting. Additionally, a script-based covert recall, an alternative interview question intended to mitigate recall errors and socially desirable responding, was developed and tested. Cross-sectional data collection was conducted in the Borena Zone, Ethiopia, through 2.5-hour observations and 1-hour interviews with the primary caregivers in households. A total sample of N = 554 was surveyed. Data were analysed with correlation and multiple regression analyses and dependent t-tests. Over-reporting of handwashing was associated with factors assumed to be involved in (1) socially desirable responding, (2) encoding and recall of information, and (3) dissonance processes. The latter two factor groups explained over-reported handwashing beyond socially desirable responding. The alternative interview question—script-based covert recall—reduced over-reporting compared to conventional self-reports. Although the difficulties involved in measuring handwashing by self-reports and observations are widely known, the present study is the first to investigate the factors which explain over-reporting of handwashing. This research contributes to the limited evidence base on a highly important subject: how to evaluate handwashing interventions efficiently and accurately.

From humanitarianism to trade promotion: the changing emphasis of Japanese development co-operation to Africa

It is only in the last 20 years that Africa has become a region to which Japanese official development assistance (ODA) personnel have attached significance. Until then, in its development aid programs, Japan long focused on Asian countries with which it has strong relationships, not only in terms of history and culture, but also economically and politically. As Japan became the top bi-lateral donor in 1989, it started to explore its unique approach of leadership in international development and launched the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), which has convened every five years since 1993. The latest conference (TICAD V) was held in 2013. In this article, the author examines the diverse interests of stakeholders involved in the discourse on aid to Africa from business, diplomatic, and humanitarian perspectives. The background of these different motives will be analysed through published and unpublished documents, supplemented by interviews with people involved in the planning and implementation of TICADs, particularly those in 2008 and 2013. The paper find that while Japanese aid to Africa will likely be sustained at the current levels, the focus is likely to shift more toward pragmatic partnerships between African states and Japan economically and diplomatically.

The American style of development aid to Liberia

There is a growing corpus of literature on the critical issue of the various styles used by donors in giving development aid to recipient states in various parts of the world, including Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. This article seeks to contribute to the body of literature by examining the nature and dynamics of the American style of development aid to Liberia and the resulting implications for the latter’s social and economic development. Using the realpolitik model as its analytical framework, the article situates the American style of development aid giving within the broader context of Liberia-United States (US) relations. Based on this foundation, the article then interrogated the flows of US development aid to Liberia from 1946–2013. The findings indicate that the American style of aid giving is ostensibly designed to serve the economic, political, military and strategic interests of the US. In this vein, Liberia is required to serve as a foot soldier in the promotion of American national interests in the former and elsewhere. Accordingly, in terms of the implications for social and economic development, for the past six decades American development aid has not helped to advance the material conditions of Liberia’s subaltern classes. However, in order to change this situation, the US would need to rethink the realpolitik foundation of its development aid programme and the Liberian government would need to press for such a policy rethinking. However, both of these possibilities are highly unlikely, given the US’ determination to prosecute its imperial project and its clientelist relationship with the Liberian government.

Referral hospitals in the Democratic Republic of Congo as complex adaptive systems: similar program, different dynamics.

IntroductionIn many African countries, first referral hospitals received little attention from development agencies until recently. We report the evolution of two of them in an unstable region like Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo when receiving the support from development aid program. Specifically, we aimed at studying how actors’ network and institutional framework evolved over time and what could matter the most when looking at their performance in such an environment.MethodsWe performed two cases studies between 2006 and 2010. We used multiple sources of data: reports to document events; health information system for hospital services production, and “key-informants” interviews to interpret the relation between interventions and services production. Our analysis was inspired from complex adaptive system theory. It started from the analysis of events implementation, to explore interaction process between the main agents in each hospital, and the consequence it could have on hospital health services production. This led to the development of new theoretical propositions.ResultsTwo events implemented in the frame of the development aid program were identified by most of the key-informants interviewed as having the greatest impact on hospital performance: the development of a hospital plan and the performance based financing. They resulted in contrasting interaction process between the main agents between the two hospitals. Two groups of services production were reviewed: consultation at outpatient department and admissions, and surgery. The evolution of both groups of services production were different between both hospitals.ConclusionBy studying two first referral hospitals through the lens of a Complex Adaptive System, their performance in a context of development aid takes a different meaning. Success is not only measured through increased hospital production but through meaningful process of hospital agents’” network adaptation. Expected process is not necessarily a change; strengthened equilibrium and existing institutional arrangement may be a preferable result. Much more attention should be given in future international aid to the proper understanding of the hospital adaptation capacities.

A rivalidade entre Estados Unidos e União Soviética e a promoção do desenvolvimento na periferia global

The current article aims to analyze instrumental aspects from the “Modernization theory” and the “Non-capitalist development theory” underlying development aid programs respectively from United States and Soviet Union during the Cold War. Both theories were elaborated as a response to the growing systemic rivalry between superpowers and in synchrony with their respective and distinct geopolitical objectives. However, it is argued that despite the rivalry between superpowers there were substantial similarities on how each theoretical framework proposes the necessary politics to promote economic development in peripheral countries.

A School Feeding Supply Chain Framework: Critical Factors for Sustainable Program Design

School feeding is an established development aid intervention with multiple objectives including education, nutrition, and value transfer. Traditionally run by international organizations in low‐income settings, school feeding programs have had a substantial impact in many less‐developed countries. However, recent rethinking by the World Bank and the World Food Programme has prompted a shift toward long‐term, sustainable solutions that rely more upon local resources, local capacity, and community participation. Supply chain management, which is critical to program delivery, is vital to developing a sustainable approach to school feeding. We propose a theoretical framework that identifies the internal and external factors that shape the supply chain and connects them to the objectives and performance measures of sustainable programs. Drawing upon supply chain management theory, current school feeding practices, and expert feedback, this article contributes to development aid logistics and program transitioning with a focus on sustainable program design. It aims to provide a comprehensive introduction to school feeding and relevant supply chain issues, a framework to identify sustainability problems in school feeding supply chains, and a starting point for further research on program design.

Beyond the criminal justice orthodoxy? Australia’s overseas aid program and compliance with the trafficking protocol

Australia’s overseas development aid (ODA) program has played an important role in combating and preventing trafficking in persons since the inception of the Australian government’s anti-trafficking strategy in 2003. This article analyses Australia’s ODA policies related to trafficking in persons from 2004 to 2014 against international benchmarks, and assesses the extent to which it has been shaped by dominant trends in international anti-trafficking strategies and, to a lesser extent, the politics of the Australian aid program. It concludes that Australia’s aid policies and their implementation via AusAID largely satisfy the international standards pertaining to ODA established by the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children. However, several weaknesses and future risks are identified, relating to both program implementation and trends in contemporary Australian aid policy.

Turkish Influence on Education in Southeast Europe

This paper analyses Turkish presence in the education sectors of Southeast European countries. Turkish influence on education in the region spans from bilateral political negotiations concerning local curricula through vast development aid and scholarship programmes to investments of Turkish companies and NGOs. Despite certain suspicions, mainly among nationalist circles, about hidden agendas of Turkish educational institutions in the region, we can conclude that they contribute to the modernisation of Southeast European education through introducing new ideas and approaches, investing urgently needed capital and opening local institutions to international cooperation.

Why 'Sustainable Development' Is Often Neither: A Constructive Critique

Efforts and programs toward aiding sustainable development in less affluent countries are primarily driven by the moral imperative to relieve and to prevent suffering. This utilitarian principle has provided the moral basis for humanitarian intervention and development aid initiatives worldwide for the past decades. It takes a short term perspective which shapes the initiatives in characteristic ways. While most development aid programs succeed in their goals to relieve hunger and poverty in ad hoc situations, their success in the long term seems increasingly questionable, which throws doubt on the claims that such efforts qualify as sustainable development. This paper aims to test such shortfall and to find some explanations for it. We assessed the economic development in the world’s ten least affluent countries by comparing their ecological footprints with their biocapacities. This ratio, and how it changes over time, indicates how sustainable the development of a country or region is, and whether it risks ecological overshoot. Our results confirm our earlier findings on South-East Asia, namely that poor countries tend to have the advantage of greater sustainability. We also examined the impact that the major development aid programs in those countries are likely to have on the ratio of footprint over capacity. Most development aid tends to increase that ratio, by boosting footprints without adequately increasing biocapacity. One conceptual explanation for this shortfall on sustainability lies in the Conventional Development Paradigm, an ideological construct that provides the rationales for most development aid programs. According to the literature, it rests on unjustified assumptions about economic growth and on the externalisation of losses in natural capital. It also rests on a simplistic version of utilitarianism, usually summed up in the principle of ‘the greatest good for the greatest number’. We suggest that a more realistic interpretation of sustainability necessitates a revision of that principle to ‘ the minimum acceptable amount of good for the greatest sustainable number’. Under that perspective, promoting the transition to sustainability becomes a sine qua non condition for any form of ‘development’.

Norwegian Naivety Meets Tanzanian Reality: The Case of the Norwegian Sports Development Aid Programme, Sport for All, in Dar es Salaam in the 1980s

In the early 1980s, the Norwegian Confederation of Sports (NIF) initiated a sports development aid programme known as the Sport for All in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. One of the objectives of the Sport for All was to strengthen women's participation in sports in Dar es Salaam, an objective much in line with Norwegian domestic sport politics, as well as general aid policies at the time. Through the case of the Sport for All, this paper illuminates what conceptions the Norwegian initiative takers had of Tanzanian women and sport, and how a women emphasis fit the Tanzanian society at the time. The discrepancy between the ideals of recipient orientation and women emphasis is questioned, and it is argued that, in the case of the Sport for All, the NIF acted with a certain naivety. It is suggested that Western liberal ideas that works well in the societies of their origin may generate a cultural clash when meeting in a different milieu.

Waste disposal technology transfer matching requirement clusters for waste disposal facilities in China

Even though technology transfer has been part of development aid programmes for many decades, it has more often than not failed to come to fruition. One reason is the absence of simple guidelines or decision making tools that help operators or plant owners to decide on the most suitable technology to adopt. Practical suggestions for choosing the most suitable technology to combat a specific problem are hard to get and technology drawbacks are not sufficiently highlighted. Western counterparts in technology transfer or development projects often underestimate or don’t sufficiently account for the high investment costs for the imported incineration plant; the differing nature of Chinese MSW; the need for trained manpower; and the need to treat flue gas, bunker leakage water, and ash, all of which contain highly toxic elements.This article sets out requirements for municipal solid waste disposal plant owner/operators in China as well as giving an attribute assessment for the prevalent waste disposal plant types in order to assist individual decision makers in their evaluation process for what plant type might be most suitable in a given situation. There is no ‘best’ plant for all needs and purposes, and requirement constellations rely on generalisations meaning they cannot be blindly applied, but an alignment of a type of plant to a type of owner or operator can realistically be achieved. To this end, a four-step approach is suggested and a technology matrix is set out to ease the choice of technology to transfer and avoid past errors. The four steps are (1) Identification of plant owner/operator requirement clusters; (2) Determination of different municipal solid waste (MSW) treatment plant attributes; (3) Development of a matrix matching requirement clusters to plant attributes; (4) Application of Quality Function Deployment Method to aid in technology localisation.The technology transfer matrices thus derived show significant performance differences between the various technologies available. It is hoped that the resulting research can build a bridge between technology transfer research and waste disposal research in order to enhance the exchange of more sustainable solutions in future.

TRANSLATING DEVELOPMENT AID INTO CITY MANAGEMENT: THE BARRIO ACAHUALINCA INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME IN MANAGUA, NICARAGUA

SUMMARYThis article seeks to understand how development aid is translated into city management practice in the global South and the implications of this for the power dynamics between municipal governments and international aid agencies. The study examines La Chureca, the rubbish dump and slum of Managua, Nicaragua, and its regeneration programme, the Barrio Acahualinca Integrated Development Programme. In the article, we explore the formulation and initial implementation of the Programme in terms of the construction of an action net in which, by a chain of translations, the Programme was transformed from an aid programme managed by international aid organisations into the management practice of the city of Managua. Despite the silent infiltration of important issues brought to the municipal political agenda by the development aid programme, small acts of defiance and resistance were also enacted by local actors who twisted the Programme to fit local needs. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

17. New Zealand

New Zealand's international environmental law actions with regard to climate change in 2010 comprised formal notification of association with the Copenhagen Accord in January, hosting the inaugural meeting of the Global Research Alliance in April, adopting the Ambo Declaration in November, and attending the sixteenth Conference of the Parties (COP-16) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the sixth Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (MOP-6) in Cancun in December. In Cancun, New Zealand articulated agendas on forestry calculations and fossil fuel subsidies and led the focus on measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV). New Zealand signed the Convention Establishing the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (SPRFMO) and took actions relating to renewable energy, persistent organic pollutants, biodiversity, and bilateral environmental co-operation agreements (ECA). New Zealand decided not to become a party to the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from Their Utilization (Nagoya Protocol) (finalized at COP-10 to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in October 2010), when it opens for signature, due to unresolved domestic policy issues. In terms of New Zealand's regional activity, it refocused its Overseas Development Aid Programme on the Pacific on climate change, announced intentions towards sustainable forest management and illegal logging co-operation with Australia, and formed a Polynesian fisheries co-operative with other Pacific countries by way of the Te Vaka Moana Arrangement (TVMA). Domestically, 2010 developments included an assessment/projection of New Zealand's progress in meeting its first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol's obligations (a surplus of 11.4 million units or NZ $231 milliion), the entry of new sectors into the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS), a number of regulations clarifying the detail of the NZ ETS, and an announcement of a forthcoming review of the NZ ETS to, inter alia, assess the current situation whereby obligations will rise to 100 percent with no price cap when the transition period expires in December 2012. Other 2010 developments included changes to the Environmental Protection Agency (which is now to be a Crown agent), steps towards the sustainable management of fresh water, criticism of New Zealand's government for voting against two proposals to protect Atlantic bluefin tuna under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and for increasing its quota on its southern bluefin tuna catch, and the introduction of other catch limits and actions relating to funding, registration requirements, and national plans for highly migratory species, deepwater, and middle-depth fisheries. A coastal policy statement was also introduced, as was a review of the necessity of continuing with forestry schemes outside of, and predating, the NZ ETS. Finally, the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act was amended, various species protection programs were upgraded, and attempts to reduce New Zealand's biodiversity loss were launched.

Microfinance and the commercial banking system

By adopting microfinance as a core component in their development aid programmes, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other development groups aim to reduce poverty and also, raise the status of women and disadvantaged communities. Nevertheless, despite its enormous success in tackling poverty, the applicability of microfinance in formal banks remains a major challenge for developing countries where most of the world's poor reside without access to banking facilities. The authors of this article posit that central banks and the banking sector, in general, can promote good and inclusive financial governance in developing countries by adopting microfinance practice and by integrating pro-poor policies into their banking systems. Focusing on the case of Barbados, the article examines the importance of microfinance for commercial banks. It is argued that the integration of microcredit into the banking and credit schemes of commercial banks and microfinance institutions is a key to promoting good governance.

The Millenium Challenge Account

The U.S. and Germany each undertook a major effort to reform their respective development aid programs. Their paths were different, but both programs incorporate principles present in the AAA. To what extent have these reform efforts succeeded?

Analysing South Korea's ICT for Development Aid Programme

AbstractSince the year 2000, there has been a significant growth in the ICT4D component of South Korea's aid programme. Given Korea's ICT capabilities and demands for ICT4D support from developing nations, this may make good sense. In this paper, though, we analyse a little deeper, starting to ask some initial questions about underlying perspectives and actual performance. We provide an overview of ICT4D expenditure levels, programmes, and key actors. We then reflect field data to date, which suggests some question marks over Korea's telecentre projects, some potential inequity in impacts, and a focus on Korean production of ICT goods and services. We analyse Korean ICT4D in terms of some basic concepts to find it associated with technological‐determinism and techno‐optimism, with the modernisation paradigm, with tied aid, and with the potential for creating dependency. However, Korea may not be unique among ICT4D actors in this and, in some ways, its techno‐optimism may be a useful counter to the techno‐pessimism that seems to have infected some Western donors. We conclude by noting some recommendations for Korea's ICT4D programme, and reflecting that Korea may be representative of a wider new wave of ICT4D donors such as India and China which may not follow quite the same line as Western donors.