Foreign Aid Programs Research Articles

Beyond the Debates of Which is Best: Investigating the Complementarity of Chinese and Western Aid, and Possible Lessons from China’s Development

This paper will argue that contrary to popular opinion, Chinese engagement in the developing world is not too different from traditional donor engagement. In fact, the composition of similarities and differences among China and the broad variety of traditional donors indicate that it should be seen as complementary. In order to justify this view, an ideological categorization of foreign aid determinants is employed to analyze China’s foreign aid program since the 1950s; finding that Chinese foreign aid since 1978 falls broadly within the category of liberal internationalism. The preferred modalities of Chinese aid are presented, contextualized by China’s own developmental experience, its experience as a donor, and its own developmental needs. The complementarity with traditional donor modalities is assessed. Finally, lessons from China’s own development will be presented and their transferability assessed. This paper will conclude that while China’s aid is not too dissimilar from traditional donor aid, and areas of complementarity do exist; the most important lesson from China is that a country leadership committed to socio-economic development, employing policy design mechanisms that identify instruments most suited to local socio-economic and political conditions, is most conducive to socio-economic development.

Freedom of movement for workers

Most developed countries have foreign aid programs that aim to alleviate poverty and foster economic growth in less developed countries, but with very limited success. A large body of evidence indicates that the root of the economic development problem is cross-country differences in the productivity of labor. If workers are much more productive in one country than in another, the obvious way to help people in less developed countries is to allow them to help themselves by moving to places where they can be more productive. Yet immigration laws severely constrain such movement.

Bahasa

This paper discusses the main motives behind Japan’s foreign aid to Palestine. It is likely that Japan starts to play its role as foreign aid broker. Recently, this country has been inviting other countries, especially in East Asia, to be involved in its foreign aid programs. CEAPAD (Conference on Cooperation among East Asian Countries for Palestinian Development )is the example to be mentioned. This is the first time East Asia countries talk together to support Palestine in order to be able to manage foreign aid efficiently. Surprisingly, although this conference used East Asia as its tagline, six of ten ASEAN members (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapura, Vietnam) attended this conference but China as major state in East Asia region did not. At one side, it seems that Japan is trying to get good image from Asian countries in order to challenge the increasing image China has got so far. At the other side, potential market in Arab and Palestine region as well as in Asia—especially East and Southeast Asia— are still in grasp. Whether political or economic motives which drives Japan to put CEAPAD into surfaces, Palestinian Authority and people has had huge expectations from this.

How Should Donors Respond to Resource Windfalls in Poor Countries? From Aid to Insurance

Natural resources are being discovered in more countries, both rich and poor. Many of the new and aspiring resource exporters are low-income countries that are still receiving substantial levels of foreign aid. Resource discoveries open up enormous opportunities, but also expose producing countries to huge trade and fiscal shocks from volatile commodity markets if their exports are highly concentrated. A large literature on theresource curseshows that these are damaging unless countries manage to cushion the effects through countercyclical policy. It also shows that the countries least likely to do so successfully are those with weaker institutions, and these are most likely to remain as clients of the aid system. This paper considers the question of how donors should respond to their clients'potential windfalls. It discusses several ways in which the focus and nature of foreign aid programs will need to change, including the level of financial assistance. The paper develops some ideas on how a donor like the International Development Association might structure its program of financial transfers to mitigate volatility. The paper outlines ways in which the International Development Association could use hedging instruments to vary disbursements while still working within a framework of country allocations that are not contingent on oil prices. Simulations suggest that the International Development Association could be structured to provide a larger degree of insurance if it is calibrated to hedge against large declines in resource prices. These suggestions are intended to complement other mechanisms, including self-insurance using Sovereign Wealth Funds (where possible) and the facilities of the International Monetary Fund.

Deadly professions: violent attacks against aid-workers and the health implications for local populations

War has devastating implications for families, communities, cultures, economies, and state infrastructure. Similarly, the last decade has seen an increase in the number of attacks against health workers in conflict zones and unstable environments. Unfortunately, these attacks have grave consequences for local populations which often rely on foreign aid programs for their health and well-being. As such, this paper will examine why aid-workers have increasingly been targeted for abductions, ambushes, assassinations, and various forms of intimidation. Furthermore, examples of terminated health programs, as well as populations served by current medical and humanitarian interventions, will be provided to impart a sense of magnitude and importance of health programs to the reader. Lastly, suggestions will be presented which could serve to minimize aid-workers' risk and exposure to acts of violence in the field.

Governance and transparency at PEPFAR.

The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has been one of the most effective foreign aid programmes in history. It reached 6.7 million people with antiretroviral therapy in 2013, and has also strengthened country health systems, provided billions of dollars in aid to prevention programmes, and helped to drive substantial declines in morbidity and mortality in many countries. However, transparency within PEPFAR has declined rather than improved with PEPFAR ranked 50th out of 67 aid agencies worldwide. It is time for PEPFAR to become a leader in transparency, to share its data. If published as soon as they are approved for the coming year, with details about the interventions funded, geographic areas of activity, and specific goals and targets, then Country Operational Plans could be important instruments for partner governments and civil society. Knowledge of exactly what PEFPAR-funded non-governmental organisation are doing, what gaps they are filling, and what outcomes they are expected to achieve should be central to the planning of the AIDS response in these countries. Civil society in countries that receive PEPFAR funding could be mobilised to help to monitor the effectiveness of PEPFAR programmes, as well as their own government's efforts alongside donor-funded efforts. Meanwhile, PEPFAR costing studies could be crucial for national programme planners — how much the delivery of antiretroviral therapy costs in a given region should be essential information to be shared with the world.

Need a Hand? No Thanks! Media Representations and Peace Building Indicators: The Case of UK Foreign Aid Programmes in Colombia

This article considers research approaches often associated with media and journalism studies as complementary assessment strategies to inform decisions associated with evaluating foreign aid. In order to do so, the case of British foreign aid towards Colombia in the context of the War on Drugs is examined as a case study. The authors explore the relationship between aid giving and the receipt of aid by focusing on how the media can be used as a peacebuilding indicator. There is a dearth of academic inquiry into these issues. This article attempts to flesh out some future lines of scholarly enquiry using the UK–Colombia case study example. It uses research interviews with state officials, multilateral organizations and NGO representatives as well as a review of press coverage in Colombia over a two-year period. The article argues that media could potentially be used as an important indicator of peacebuilding success and failure in the context of aid giving and receipt but that to achieve that there are specific pre-conditions and issues to be addressed by the different parties.

Gender and foreign policy in the Clinton administration

Though recent US government attention to global women's rights and empowerment is often presented as a new phenomenon, Karen Garner argues that nearly two decades ago the Clinton administration broke barriers to challenge women's unequal status vis-a-vis men around the world and to incorporate their needs into US foreign policy and aid programs. Garner draws on a wide range of primary sources, including interviews with government officials and feminist activists who worked with the administration, to present a persuasive account of the emergence, evolution, and legacy of US global gender policy in the 1990s.

Having, Giving, Taking: Lessons on Ownership in China's Domestic Development and Contributions of its Engagement

During recent years, the impact of China's engagement with Africa has gained increased attention. Discussions have revolved around the negative impact China potentially has on governance, human rights and debt sustainability, as well as the positive impacts of increased aid, trade and investment in Africa, especially the construction of much needed infrastructure. A number of researchers have also looked at some of the lessons of China's development that can be applied in Africa. One of the most important lessons from China for Africa is that countries should be responsible for their own development, and not rely on foreign donors. However, recipients are often restricted in their development strategies by donor requirements. The article will then analyse how China's engagement with Africa contributes to increasing the negotiating capital of countries in Africa helping them to take ownership of their own development processes. It will conclude that China's foreign aid programme is not geared specifically towards increasing recipient ownership, although there are a number of direct and indirect contributions. In addition, its international relations principles prevent more direct involvement in improving recipient ownership. For China to make a greater contribution to recipient ownership, a number of principles need to be revised.

Canada’s foreign aid before and after CIDA: Not a Samaritan state

This article reviews Keith Spicer’s 1966 book on Canada’s foreign aid program, A Samaritan State? External Aid in Canada’s Foreign Policy. Spicer’s essentially realist perspective on the reasons why Canada did and should provide development assistance is not only inconsistent with more recent views that justify aid at least in part on humanitarian grounds; it is also difficult to support even from the evidence he presents. The article concludes by comparing Spicer’s views with recent developments in Canadian foreign aid policy, suggesting that Spicer might well approve of the self-interested nature of current policy—but that he would be unlikely to embrace the narrow, short-term perspectives that underpin it, which could hurt Canada’s standing internationally.

Review: Struggling for Effectiveness

STRUGGLING FOR EFFECTIVENESS CID A and Canadian Foreign Aid Stephen Brown, ed. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queeris University Press, 2012. 384 pp, $32.95 (paper) ISBN 978-0-7735-4057-6Canadians - and scholars of Canada - have made a national pastime of assessing Canada's relative position in the world. Is Canada a power? Is Canada a major foreign policy (or development) actor? What is the future of Canada's place in the world? Struggling for Effectiveness: CIDA and Canadian Foreign Aid, edited by Stephen Brown, fits with this mode of questioning. Several of the volume's fifteen authors seek to understand Canada's relative ranking in the global foreign aid hierarchy through comparisons to donors such as Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Surprisingly absent from the volume are comparisons to the United States or other donors, such as Japan, who deviate from some of the standards of the international aid donor community that this volume stresses.A less-than-complete understanding of Canada as a foreign aid donor emerges from the comparative approach thatmarks the book's early chapters. While these chapters highlight the positive aspects of other countries' aid programs, the reader learns that on many indicators Canada is simply a middle of the pack country. In multiple rankings in areas ranging from donor size to generosity, Canada sits squarely in the of developed country aid donors, if not ranking slightly above the average for donor performance (53, 89, and Chapter 1). While this situation is clearly a concern for those who see foreign aid as an integral part of Canada's humanitarian ethos and believe that this ethos should define our foreign relations, it may not be a concern for most Canadians: the book provides evidence that prior to the 2000 elections only a minority of Canadians favoured increased foreign aid spending (251). This volume therefore reflects a perpetual tension between how Canadians see themselves and their country and the policies they and their government support. The domestic political context for the recent changes in Canadian foreign aid policy that form the key interest of the volume is laid out well in the chapters by David Black and Adam Chapnick.The overarching message of Struggling for Effectiveness is that Canada's foreign aid policy has lacked a clear and inspiring vision for quite some time. The result of this absence of vision has been policy incoherence, which implies that Canada will remain a middle of the pack country in the area of foreign aid for the foreseeable future. The objective of the book is twofold: to identify precisely where Canada's shortcomings lie and to offer advice and potential solutions for raising Canada from its status. While the authors largely succeed in the former task, their ability to make progress on the latter is limited by the overly critical focus of much of the volume. Indeed, the vast majority of contributors focus on policy failings since Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party came to (minority) power. Rare exceptions to this focus on Harper's failings are found in Stephen Brown's critique of the contraction of Canada's aid budget under Prime Minister Jean Chretien (95) and David Black's acknowledgement in a chapter titled Between Indifference and Idiosyncrasy: The Conservatives and Canadian Foreign Aid to Africa that the Liberals presided over the deepest cuts in the history of the Canadian aid program (248). While this book may not have been edited according to a political agenda, it certainly reflects the contentious domestic politics of Canada of the past decade.Tensions also exist between the consensus of the international aid donor community (which many of the authors in this volume use as a foil to Canada's policies) and some of the prescriptions offered in the volume. The Harper government's focus on Latin America actually reflects the current aid donor consensus that Canada should have greater geographic or sectoral concentration in its foreign aid program (53 and 90). …

The politics of effectiveness in Canada's international development assistance

Despite promoting innovations in multilateralism and aid, Canadian development assistance often operates in politically instrumental ways and has been criticised as wasteful and ineffective. Aid effectiveness has thus become a central rubric for programming and assessing aid at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and a primary means for reforming the global aid architecture. The meaning of effectiveness, however, is not straightforward; it refers variously to development progress, operational efficiency and political utility. This article examines CIDA's effectiveness agenda, focusing on the 2009 Food Security Strategy and the geographic concentration of aid in countries of focus. It argues that this agenda is unlikely to resolve longstanding tensions and contradictions related to the politicisation of foreign aid programs, CIDA's place in the Canadian state and the development impact of Canadian aid. Résumé Malgré son soutien pour le multilatéralisme, l'assistance canadienne dans le développement international est très politisée, souvent critiquée d'être trop inefficace et inutile. L'efficacité de l'aide est devenue un critère central dans la configuration et l'évaluation de l'aide à l'ACDI (L'agence canadienne du développement international) et un moyen essential de restructurer l'aide au niveau global. La définition de l'efficacité, toutefois, n'est pas claire comme elle réfère simultanément au progrès développemental, à l'efficience opérationnelle et à l'utilité politique. Cet article examine l'ACDI et ses initiatives d'efficacité, particulièrement sa stratégie sur la sécurité alimentaire en 2009 et sa concentration géographique de l'aide dans les pays cibles. Il argumente que malheureusement, cette emphase sur l'efficacité ne résoudra pas les tensions et les contradictions liées à la politisation des programmes d'aide international, au rôle de l'ACDI dans l'État canadien et finalement, l'impact de l'aide canadien sur le développement.

Inter‐Indigenous development aid: markets, corporations, and biases

The Canadian government and the Meadow Lake Tribal Council sponsored a forest extraction corporation in eastern Nicaragua that restructured 16 Miskitu and Mayangna villages and transformed local human‐environment interactions. The Central American aid project demonstrated paternalistic and interventionist tendencies and exposed biases in inter‐Indigenous aid that rendered it inseparable from conventional aid. This case encourages reflection on social and ecological impacts from the marketing of collective resources, the creation of Indigenous development corporations, and the decision‐making criteria and processes driving foreign aid. The case study demonstrates how foreign aid programs targeting Indigenous Peoples may actually thwart the self‐determination that they set out to encourage. Aid agencies and business partners, who had limited knowledge of local cultures and institutions, created externally defined rules that instigated resource conflicts and undermined the authority of customary leaders without resolving poverty or uneven development.

Can Bad Governance be Good for Development?

Very few of the world's most rapidly developing countries have enjoyed good governance during their periods of rapid growth – China is only the most recent example. This is not a coincidence. Bad governance is, in some cases, good for development. This has broad implications for the design of effective foreign aid programmes.

Managing Cooperation Programs in Developing Countries: A Case Comparative Analysis in Kenya, Pakistan, Brazil, Somalia, and Egypt

Cooperation programs contribute significantly to the delivery of social, health, and infrastructure policies in developing countries, but relatively little empirical work has been made on how they are managed. This paper aims to contribute filling this gap through a case comparative analysis of the implementation of cooperation programs conducted by Italy in Kenya, Pakistan, Brazil, Somalia, and Egypt. The analysis of the cases provides evidence for explanatory research arguments which hold that cooperation programs' management practices can be affected by the developing countries' administrative system, the foreign aid policy subsystem's structure, and the cultural and social environment. These findings suggest that context features need to be taken into account to qualify extant generalizing arguments about the role played by incentives on the behavior of donor agencies and principal recipients of foreign aid programs.

Accountability, Participation and Foreign Aid Effectiveness

Foreign aid involves a chain of accountability relationships stretching from international donors through national governments and implementing agencies to a set of ultimate end users of the goods and services financed by the aid. In this paper, I review five different accountability relationships that exist in foreign aid projects among donors, governments, implementing agencies and end users. Then I summarize existing empirical evidence demonstrating that foreign aid functions better—both at the macro-level of aid flows and at the micro-level of individual aid projects—when there is more government and implementing agency accountability. Specifying several mechanisms that facilitate accountability, I emphasize that participation is a tool often used to produce accountability within aid projects. However, in terms of donor accountability to aid-receiving countries and the end users in them, recent pushes for increased participation have not resulted in more accountability in the design of aid programs. Ultimately, although enthusiasm for participatory models of aid design and delivery is warranted, participation is not a panacea for all the accountability problems in foreign aid programs.

China, Africa and the Global Aid Architecture

This paper analyzes China’s growing foreign aid and export credit program as an element of the changing international aid architecture. The international aid architecture is defined as the institutions, norms, and practices that govern the transfer of concessional resources for development. It comprises four major areas: (1) Institutions and actors; (2) Volumes and composition; (4) Instruments and modalities; and (4) Rules and standards. The section on rules and standards includes five areas: transparency; tied aid and export credits; environmental and social protections; corruption and governance; and the management of debt. China’s approach to aid and export credits is outlined, with a focus on four distinct instruments: concessional loans; preferential export buyer’s credits; mixed credits; and natural resource-backed lines of credit. It is compared with the norms and practices of the current aid architecture. Three areas were selected for greater investigation: tied aid and export credits; debt management; and conditionality relating to environmental, social, and governance standards. A final section notes areas where the Chinese have cooperated with other donors, and areas where African countries might seek to strengthen their capacity to engage fruitfully with this important rising partner.

Explaining generosity: a comparison of US and European public opinion on foreign aid

Whereas European public opinion generally supports foreign aid, the U.S. public is relatively critical of its proportionally smaller aid programs. This research uses cross-national, multivariate analysis of data from the World Values Survey to examine transatlantic differences in attitudes toward foreign aid programs. We find that a well-informed and financially comfortable public that associates foreign aid with their core values is more supportive of aid appropriations. Our research indicates that support for foreign aid is stronger in Europe because it coincides with European perceptions about the role of government in addressing social problems and greater European confidence in government institutions. This study provides evidence that the attitudes which provide the foundation for public support for domestic and international programs are linked. It also demonstrates that there are core value differences underpinning transatlantic gaps in public opinion.

Échec de la prévention : le poids croissant des droits engendrés par l'aide américaine au financement du traitement mondial contre le VIH/SIDA et la voie à suivre

Résumé Les dépenses américaines pour la lutte contre le VIH/SIDA dans le monde contribuent à rallonger la vie de plus d’un million de personnes et sont largement perçues comme un double succès humanitaire et de politique étrangère. Pourtant, ce succès contient les germes d’une crise future. En effet, les coûts de ces traitements à vie ne cessent d’augmenter du fait d’une part de l’espérance de vie accrue des personnes sous traitement, et d’autre part du nombre de nouvelles infections qui dépasse largement celui des personnes mises sous traitement. Les coûts de traitement cumulés associés à une négligence de la prévention menacent d’évincer les dépenses américaines du financement des autres problèmes de santé dans le monde, dans la mesure où ils pourraient consommer plus de la moitié du budget de l’aide extérieure d’ici à 2016. Cet article analyse le problème évoqué plus haut et soutient que les États-Unis ont involontairement créé un nouveau « droit » mondial au traitement antiSIDA dont le coût est actuellement d’environ 2 milliards de dollars par an et pourrait s’élever à 12 milliards par an d’ici à 2016, ce qui représente plus de la moitié de ce que les États-Unis ont dépensé pour l’aide au développement en 2006. En outre, le coût de ce « droit » au traitement devrait continuer à augmenter, réduisant ainsi la part des dépenses consacrées aux activités de prévention et à d’autres besoins importants de développement, lesquelles deviendraient par là-même « discrétionnaires » par rapport au traitement du VIH/SIDA. L’auteur propose des pistes qui permettraient de restructurer substantiellement le Plan d’Urgence du Président pour l’Aide dans la lutte contre le VIH/SIDA (PEPFAR) de manière à éviter le dilemme qui serait offert aux Américains : le choix entre allouer l’aide extérieure aux dépenses croissantes pour le « droit » au traitement pour une durée indéterminée (ce qui éliminerait la moitié des autres programmes d’aide étrangère) ou retirer à des millions de personnes un traitement dont elles dépendent pour rester en vie. Plus spécifiquement, l’auteur propose d’adopter les mesures suivantes : renforcer le succès du traitement et créer une synergie entre le traitement et la prévention en rendant le financement de traitements futurs conditionnel au succès en matière d’adhérence et à la capacité à atteindre le plus grand nombre en matière de prévention, se recentrer sur la prévention en souscrivant aux efforts en matière de circoncision masculine et en étendant le dépistage et le conseil aux couples, et plus seulement aux individus, intensifier les effets de la prévention en faisant une carte des lieux à haut risque en les ciblant avec des programmes de prévention conçus sur mesure. Classification JEL : I12, I18, O15

Non-Tariff Barriers in Ukrainian Export to the EU

The economic relations between the EU and Ukraine have intensified in recent years. Following the 2004 enlargement, Ukraine became the direct neighbour of the EU. At the same time, the country has been developing rapidly and both local production capacities and demand for foreign produce have been increasing. Ukraine also become more open to external partners. All this is reflected in the gradual effective trade integration with the EU; i.e. in growing bilateral trade flows. The overall EU tariffs for Ukrainian products are rather low and other tradition protection measures apply to selective sectors only. Moreover they are expected to disappear gradually within the next few years, following Ukraine WTO entry and expected establishment of the free trade area in manufacturing goods between the EU and Ukraine. However, there exist other so called 'non-tariff’ barriers to trade that protect and will protect the EU market. For a relatively poorer country these barriers may turn to be prohibitive. This is probably the cause that there is general perception about Ukrainian export to the EU still being below its potential. The goal of this report is to explore whether the non-tariff barriers impede Ukrainian export to the EU and to what extent.This report is published about the time when the free trade agreement between the EU and Ukraine is negotiated. The authors hope that the findings will turn useful for designing the extent of this agreement and contribute to the discussion about it by showing the extent of non-tariff barriers faced currently by Ukrainian exporters. The report starts from the overview of Ukraine trade policy (chapter 1), with the special emphasis put on economic relations between the EU and Ukraine. Evolution of bilateral trade flows is discussed next (chapter 2). This is supplemented with the brief discussion of recently conducted surveys on barriers hampering Ukrainian exports (chapter 3).The experience of some current EU members from Central and Eastern Europe, which together with gradual phasing out of tariff and traditional protection measures in the 1990s faced growing non-tariff barriers to trade with the EU, seems to be relevant for Ukraine. Chapter 4 reviews the exposure of CEECs exports to the EU’s non-tariff barriers, and describes how the countries were changing its trade-related legislation towards the EU laws in order to tackle these barriers. Chapter 4 also shows the extent of the EU’s technical barriers to trade in different sectors and how well CEE enterprises were prepared to meet them, once the EU commodity markets opened up completely for the new EU members in 2004. Results of the survey on non-tariff barriers to trade that are faced by Ukrainian exporters to the EU are presented in chapter 5. This is the main empirical contribution and the focus of this paper. The survey covered such areas as certification of origin, customs procedures and technical standards. Finally, chapter 6 concludes with policy recommendations.The authors are grateful for the assistance received from the State Committee of Ukraine for Technical Regulation and Consumer Policy and Association of Light Industry Producers of Ukraine. This publication was made possible due to the financial support provided by the 2006 Foreign Aid Programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland.