Development Cooperation Efforts Research Articles

Türkiye’s Vision for Africa: Humanitarian Diplomacy and Development Cooperation

This article aims to analyze Türkiye’s humanitarian diplomacy and development cooperation strategies toward Africa within a theoretical and conceptual framework, assessing their impact and significance on the continent. The research problem addresses how Türkiye’s unique approach, which integrates historical ties, cultural interactions, and development efforts, distinguishes it from other global and regional actors. The arguments presented highlight that Türkiye’s humanitarian diplomacy strategy, based on mutual benefit and sustainable development goals, has effectively enhanced its positive image and influence in Africa. The hypothesis posits that Türkiye’s humanitarian diplomacy and development cooperation efforts have strengthened its position as a humanitarian actor on the continent and contributed to achieving sustainable development goals. The findings suggest that the country’s activities in healthcare, education, agriculture, and socio-cultural fields have created significant impacts, improving local communities’ living conditions and fostering sustainable development. Furthermore, Türkiye’s distinct approach, unlike traditional Western policies, is characterized by an emphasis on mutual interdependence and cooperation, positioning it as a reliable partner in Africa.

Artisanal Businesses: Historical and Economic Context

The purpose of this paper is to examine the unique features of artisan enterprises in Ecuador and how cooperation programs and national peculiarities have influenced their development. Through descriptive and conceptual analysis, we can better understand how these organizations have evolved within the historical and economic context of rural regions in Ecuador. The primary findings suggest that poverty alleviation and control measures have significantly impacted the definition of artisan enterprises in Ecuador, which now closely resemble micro-enterprises. Development cooperation efforts in Ecuador have prioritized preserving artisanal production rather than replacing it with industrial production, promoting micro-enterprises growth as artisanal workshops.

캄보디아 성평등을 위한 개발협력 방안 연구 (Korea’s Development Cooperation for Gender Equality in Cambodia)

Korean Abstract: 본 연구는 캄보디아에 대한 성평등 개발협력 사업 분석을 통해 한국의 보다 실효성 있는 성평등ODA 사업 발굴 및 확대를 제안하기 위한 목적으로 수행되었다. 성평등 ODA 추진을 위해 이중전략이라는 국제사회 성평등 원조 담론과 현황에 기반하여 직업훈련, 농촌개발, 보건, 공공행정의네 분야를 선정해 성평등 ODA 사업을 분석하고, 향후 추진 방향을 제시하였다. 한국정부의 성평등 ODA 사업에 대한 정책적 시사점은 다음과 같다. 이중전략을 기반으로 장기적인 사업으로 수행될 필요가 있다는 점, 사업을 기획할 때부터 성평등을 고려할 수 있는 강제적 이행조치가 필요하다는 점, 고위급과 실무자들의 성평등 ODA에 대한 의지 및 인식 제고 향상이 필요하다는 점, 그리고 캄보디아 여성부를 활용할 것과, 사업의 방식에 있어서 프로그램 기반 접근방식으로 추진할 것을 제안하였다. English Abstract: The aim of this research is to suggest a more effective direction for Korea’s gender ODA projects through an analysis of gender-related development cooperation efforts in Cambodia. Based on the Korea- Cambodia Country Partnership Strategy and Cambodia's National Strategic Development Plan, we selected four areas (TVET, rural development, health and public administration) to analyze gender projects in related fields and suggest future directions.

The Development Compact

India’s development cooperation efforts began soon after the country gained its Independence in 1947. Indeed, there are some incidences that date back to even pre-Independence days. India is a strong believer of the fact that developing coun- tries should not be entirely dependent upon assistance from the developed world; they must pool their own resources and capabilities to help each other. This article examines the larger framework of Indian external assistance through the concept of ‘development compact’. The new development compact is between actors of the South, rather than the North–South exchange that characterized earlier arrangements; it is no longer about the imposition of conditionalities for recipient countries but more on the principles that govern South–South Cooperation (SSC) such as mutual gain, non-interference, collective growth opportunities and indeed an absence of conditionalities. The modern concept of a development compact provides for development assistance that works at five different levels, namely trade and investment, technology, skills upgrade, lines of credit (LOC) and, finally, grants. The engagement of emerging economies with other Southern countries has provided a major pull factor for a wider engagement across these five elements, which emphasizes the comprehensive support for economic development. These factors are discussed in this article to provide an analytical taxonomy with some illustrative evidence from the Indian experience.

Does South-South Cooperation Really Work? Some Evidences from Korea's Bilateral ODA Programs to Facilitate HRD in ICT in Bangladesh

[ Abstract ] While North-South cooperation (NSC) continues to play a considerably dominant role in international development cooperation efforts, there is growing criticisms across the world as to the role and effectiveness of the NSC to support the developing countries to meet their development needs. As such, South-South cooperation (SSC) has become a subject of discussion in recent years across the world in international development and has increasingly become popular as an effective aid modality. However, there is unavailability of sufficient empirical studies about the efficacy of the SSC in the context of Bangladesh. The present paper attempts to examine two KOICA’s projects to facilitate HRD in ICT in Bangladesh taking into consideration of Korea as a southern country. The study revealed that Korea’s bilateral development cooperation efforts have been effective so far to fulfill their objectives. The findings of the study put forward that SSC may work in the form of technical cooperation to support the developing countries, pro vided that technical cooperation is demand-driven, and that there is sufficient level of absorptive capacity and supportive policy as well on the part of developing partner country to utilize external skills and technology.

Les matières premières et la Suisse: défis pour les politique de développement et options stratégiques

EDITOR’S NOTE This paper, written in December 2012, is a contribution to the ‘Policy Debate’ section of the International Development Policy. In this section, academics, policy makers and practitioners engage in a dialogue on global development challenges. Papers are copy-edited but not peer-reviewed. Instead, an initial thematic contribution is followed by critical comments and reactions from different stakeholders. This paper by Werner Thut is followed by reactions and analysis from a non-profit policy institute (Alexandra Gillies, Revenue Watch Institute, New York, ‘Crafting a Strategic Response to the Commodity-Development Conundrum’), a Southern scholar (Prof. Humberto Campodonico, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima ‘Going Beyond Transparency and Good Governance’ | ‘Mas alla de la transparencia y una buena gobernanza’) and a representative of the trading sector (Stephane Graber, Secretary General of Geneva Trading & Shipping Association – ‘Reassessing the Merchants’ Role in a Globalized Economy’). PAPER’S ABSTRACT Switzerland is one of the world’s largest commodity trading hub. The author, senior policy adviser at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), reviews experiences and policy options related to commodity trading from a development policy perspective. While this sector has become of strategic importance to Switzerland’s economy, it also entails a number of risks. On the other hand, Swiss development cooperation efforts focus on several resource-rich countries, whose mineral and agricultural commodities are traded via Switzerland. How can Switzerland assist these countries to reap the benefits of their natural resource wealth? This paper looks at development policy aspects of commodity trading in relation to Swiss foreign and domestic policy. It examines ongoing policy debates in Switzerland and discusses development policy options.

Brazil's engagement in health co-operation: what can it contribute to the global health debate?

Brazil and other emerging powers, such as China and India, are becoming increasingly influential world players. As they expand their global recognition and the associated diplomatic influence and access to markets, these countries are multiplying their development co-operation efforts with low-income countries often located in the southern hemisphere (Kragelund 2008). Within this ‘South–South co-operation’ these so-called ‘emerging donors’ are progressively turning to health interventions as effective foreign policy soft-power tools (Feldbaum and Michaud 2010). In the debate on the relationship between health and foreign policy objectives, it has been argued that the two interact in more than just one way and end up exerting mutual influence (Kickbush 2011). Although the former are often regarded as tools for the latter, public health objectives are also seen as benefiting from foreign policy action, as demonstrated by Brazil’s diplomatic efforts for worldwide tobacco control and access to antiretroviral (ARV) drugs (Lee et al. 2010). However, many take the view that there will always be a tension between global health and foreign policy, and that co-operation projects need to be read through the lenses of foreign policies to understand the potential and limitations of this new form of ‘health diplomacy’ (Feldbaum and Michaud 2010). The tension between foreign policy and development goals is in part reflected in emerging donors’ questioning of the traditional principles of aid effectiveness affirmed in the 2005 Paris Declaration and subsequent Accra Agenda. Such principles of aid effectiveness aimed, among other things, at separating aid from non-aid goals by seeking traditional donors’ commitment to measurable results and sustainability of co-operation projects. In more than one way, the recent Busan High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness has come to bridge the existing rift between old and new donors, not only by hailing ‘horizontal partnership’ and ‘development cooperation’ instead of vertical aid (Martini et al. 2012) but also by relaxing contentious aid principles like that of alignment to national governments’ policies, and donor harmonization (HLF4 2011). As a result, the new consensus emerging from Busan puts forward a more inclusive model of development cooperation focused on ownership, focus on results, global partnership, transparency and accountability, but based on donors’ differential commitments (Hill et al. 2011, Russo et al 2013). This commentary draws on a study on Brazilian projects in Africa (Russo et al. 2011) and the authors’ direct involvement with Brazilian health co-operation to argue that, although shaped by its foreign policy goals, Brazil’s engagement is contributing to a shift in the discourse on health development co-operation, by offering home-grown examples of health development, by adopting new concepts of health co-operation and by leading unusually bold action on key global health issues. The consideration also emerges that Brazilian health co-operation, being relatively young and still learning its trade, would also benefit from a deeper engagement in the discussion on effectiveness and sustainability of development interventions.

Integrated Mountain Development: A Question of Gender Mainstreaming

“Development without women is like a bird trying to take off with only one wing,” according to Abeba Habtorm, director of the Ministry of Education in Asmara, Eritrea. Are mountain women adequately integrated in development cooperation efforts internationally, by region, nationally, and in local communities? Has the vital role of women in sustainable development of mountain communities been sufficiently documented, understood, and especially taken into account in development projects? Mountain women's concerns have been the subject of debate during the last 3 decades, and some efforts have been made to develop more gender-sensitive policies and programs as well as more opportunities for mountain women, especially at the local level. Yet, there is still a great lack of disaggregated data on women's roles and responsibilities, on their access to and control over natural resources, services, and infrastructure, and on their knowledge of and participation in the elaboration of strategies to improve the situation they face as a result of male out-migration, globalization, and hence marginalization. The “bird” can take off only if women and men have equal opportunities to design policies and take part in decision making on more sustainable forms of mountain development at all levels.

Private Sector Development: Policies, Practices and Problems

Private Sector Development (PSD) has become a central concern of most donors' development cooperation efforts during the last decade. This paper is a critical review of policies in the area. Donors' work with concepts of PSD which are highly abstract, treat developing countries' private sectors as tabula rasa, and focus mainly on macro level preconditions. In practice, however, concrete PSD policies are mostly micro level ones. The paper argues that they are shaped mostly by the nature and interests of private sectors in donor country themselves, incorporate a high proportion of tied aid, and fail basic tests of coherence.

Tracking Change in Canadian ODA

IN MARCH 1999, the Canadian Council for International Cooperation (CCIC) and a group of over thirty prominent Canadians urged Prime Minister Jean Chretien to make the goal of ending global poverty the central, and not merely the rhetorical, purpose of Canadian aid. In August of that year the government appointed Maria Minna as minister for international co-operation and, two months later, Len Good as president of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Both appointments were important signals for the future of Canada's aid programme. Both bring new energy and vision to their positions. Minna was a committed Canadian social activist involved with the rights of immigrants in Canada; Good was a Canadian executive director to the World Bank from 1994 to 1998 when James Wolfenson, the president of the Bank, launched his reform initiatives.These appointments were greeted with high expectations by Canadian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) looking for a deeper commitment to poverty reduction in Canada's development co-operation efforts. But have those expectations been fulfilled?Two years later the outlook is cautiously optimistic, but a definitive answer will have to wait for a number of years. Leadership and decisions that demonstrate the efficacy of new approaches for focusing Canada's aid resources and interventions on the elimination poverty will determine change, but some directions can be discerned by looking at some important benchmarks and aspects of a poverty focus in Canadian aid, arising from Canadian NGO assessments of over 30 years of development practice, and by analyzing the 'tracks of change for CIDA,' as articulated by Minna and Good.ASSESSING A POVERTY FOCUS IN CANADIAN ODACanadian NGOs and others have been strongly critical of the use successive Canadian governments have made of Canadian aid resources for a wide array of foreign and domestic policy concerns. The goal of ending poverty has never been the sole focus of Canadian aid; indeed, it usually runs a poor third to Canadian investment and commercial interests. This confusion of purpose, combined with a bureaucratic 'culture of compromise' and CIDA's need to demonstrate measurable 'results,' has resulted in an aid programme that is spread thinly across countries and over many sectors. Both the diffusion of efforts and the concern over results has led to the micro-management of a large number of projects undertaken by a variety of Canadian institutional or 'stakeholder' interests (the private sector, Canadian NGOs, and other Canadian institutions). At the same time, financial resources have declined sharply.Since the early 1990s, Canadian official development assistance (ODA) has been the victim of shrinking funds. Despite modest increases in the federal budget for 2000, it remains at a 30 year low. For fiscal year 2000-1 the projected amount is approximately $2.5 billion or 0.26 per cent of gross national product (GNP).(f.1) Aid has been cut in real terms (removing the impact of inflation) by more than 34 per cent since its peak of $3.5 billion, or 0.49 per cent of GNP, in FY1991/92, significantly closer to the United Nations target of 0.7 per cent.Among the 21 countries in the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Canada had dropped to 12th position by 1999, down from 7th earlier in the decade. Only Finland and Italy cut deeper in the 1990s, while 13 countries increased their aid (only four countries consistently exceed the UN target). Canadian NGOs and others have argued that significant increases - at least $350 million per year in Canadian aid resources are necessary if ministerial efforts for new aid priorities and Canada's commitment to the UN social development targets - one of which is to half the proportion of people living in absolute poverty by 2015 - are to become anything more than rhetoric.(f.2)Despite the massive cuts and the urgent need for reinvestment in international co-operation, the quality of Canadian aid - its mixed and confusing purposes and its impact on reducing poverty - is just as important for NGOs and others who want to reform Canadian aid practices. …