Largest Donor Research Articles

Learnings from the vaccines taskforce: an apotheosis in mission, purpose and handling risk.

The Vaccines Task Force was established by the UK government in April 2020, with the objective of securing early access to effective COVID-19 vaccines for the UK population and internationally. The VTF was successful in securing the earliest access to the Oxford/Astra Zeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, allowing the UK to be the first country in the world to deploy an approved COVID-19 vaccine. The VTF also played a critical role in supporting efforts to distribute vaccines globally, as one of COVAX's earliest and largest donors. This article presents the perspectives of senior members of the VTF on the features of the task force model which enabled this success, and considers lessons for when and how a similar approach should be applied to other public health and public policy challenges. We seek to identify principles for mission led government, and implications for how the structure and apparatus of governance can be organised to support this, including the application of the Task Force model where appropriate.

Strategising solidarity: an examination of the Visegrád group’s role and motivations in EU migration policies

ABSTRACT The V4’s opposition to common internal migration policies has often been explained through their lack of affectedness by migration and their anti-immigrant publics. Yet, the V4 have taken a key role in external EU migration policies and become the third largest donor under the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa. Through this theory testing case study, we argue that international standing and reputation, as well as an attempt to remain both responsive to their electorates and responsible towards their European partners, were key motivations in adopting this role. Our evidence suggests that the V4 supported external and border policies to demonstrate cooperativeness and responsibility to those European partners who had previously criticised their lack of solidarity. They did so in the external dimension, as this area was much less salient for their domestic audiences, allowing them to also remain responsive to domestic voters as well.

Роль Афганистана в выстраивании гуманитарного сотрудничества Казахстана и Индии

Over the past few years, expert circles have come to a consensus on changing the balance of economic forces in the world. In particular, this is a trend of shifting economic power from West to East. The global economy is projected to grow by less than 3% in 2023, with India and China accounting for half of the global growth. India's foreign policy has always been characterized by pragmatism, a realistic assessment of current events in the world, and a global coverage of the main economic and political problems facing the international community. Delhi adapts flexibly to changes in the world, based on national interests. In the last two decades before the Taliban came to power, India became Afghanistan's largest regional donor in South Asia, providing about $3 billion in humanitarian aid, infrastructure development and capacity building of various government institutions. In turn, Kazakhstan is Afghanistan's largest donor in the Central Asian region. The annual trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Afghanistan previously amounted to about 500 million dollars, where Kazakhstani exports significantly predominate. The Kazakh side is also working on participation in the implementation of railway and infrastructure projects in Afghanistan. This article aims to identify the main areas of humanitarian cooperation between Kazakhstan and India in view of the geopolitical and geo-economic situation around Afghanistan. The issues of work correspond to world trends, since the issues of stabilization and the mutual development of measures to improve the life of Afghanistan are of great importance to the international community. As President K.K.Tokayev said, a secure and stable Afghanistan will open up new horizons for expanding trade and economic ties and sustainable development of Asian countries.

Small north and big South: the ownership-donorship nexus in the Amazon Fund

The Amazon Fund is a Brazilian creation with the aim of raising funds to implement national strategies for the reduction of deforestation and sustainable development in the Legal Amazon. This article explains the governing structure of the Amazon Fund and argues that it is an example of an innovative instrument for sustainable development which to a large extent secures national ownership. The innovative elements include pay-for-performance funding, participatory governance and independent monitoring. The fund differentiates itself from traditional development aid by avoiding economic and political conditionalities, emphasizing recipient ownership and responsibility, yet it involves donations from the North to the South. The article further investigates the donors’ scope of influence, focussing on the largest donor, Norway. Notwithstanding the institutional safeguards from donor influence, the article shows that donors remain in power to withhold disbursements if breaches occur, which is illustrated by the example of the 2019 donor freeze of donations and funds use to new projects, and that donors use their partnership with Brazil to discuss how sustainable forest management contributes to the climate and to income generation for local peoples.

Aid allocation decisions of bilateral donors in Ugandan context

ABSTRACT Aid allocations choices bilateral donors make can be influenced by the institutional environment of a recipient government and the way this environment is perceived. This study examines bilateral donors’ approaches to their aid allocations in Uganda. Uganda provides an interesting case study since the government’s control over the aid funds decreased considerably over the past decade-with donors significantly tightening aid fungibility while the total aid funds Uganda received increased compared with the previous decade, 2002–2009. The donors seemed to control aid fungibility through aid modalities, sectors and/or channels; most aid was carried out as projects, in health-related sectors and through non-state actors, leaving small leverage for the Ugandan government over the aid funds. These might be the donors’ tactical responses to the cloudy political environment of Uganda by increasing their supervision over the aid funds, instead of cutting them. The largest donor, the United States, mostly shaped the aid portfolio of Uganda showing specific preferences in aid modalities, sectors and channels. Uganda should refine its effort towards an improvement of the national political context. This would increase donors’ confidence and willingness to loosen aid fungibility and lead better use of aid resources.

Помощь развитию во внешней политике ФРГ

The article discusses the conceptual approaches and policies of Germany in the field of official development assistance (ODA). The FRG is the second largest donor country in terms of the absolute amount of financial resources that the government donates as ODA. However, there is an obvious gap between the official rhetoric and the actual practices of the German ODA policy. Development assistance has been actively used by Berlin to promote its political and economic interests and to address its security policy problems. Germany’s ODA policy is built primarily on a bilateral basis, the belief being that this form of cooperation allows a better control of financial resources and enables the donor country to more effectively articulate its interests. The fate of the most needy countries is of much less concern to the German authorities. The FRG, as well as the European Union, are trying to make their own priorities a platform for building cooperation with partners. The entry of the “Alliance 90/Greens” into a governmental coalition after the 2021 parliamentary elections will further shift the focus of Germany’s ODA policy towards combating climate change. However, the “Greens” are careful to avoid discussing what energy resources should become the basis of industrial development in least developed countries. Berlin is interested in maintaining its place among the world’s largest donors. In the arsenal of Germany’s foreign policy tools, development assistance serves to counter from afar new threats and challenges – terrorism, conflicts and illegal migration. It can be adapted to strengthen the position of the donor in the markets, political and public life of the recipient countries. With Germany having a significant influence on the formation and financing of the EU coordinating mechanisms, the FRG’s ODA policy can, when necessary, rely on the latter. However, the Germany’s ODA policy is not without vulnerabilities. Berlin often looks like a mentor who knows what to do and how to do it, although the reality almost always turns out to be more complicated than the speculative recipes. The main weakness of this policy lies in that its conceptual framework has been built according to European patterns and so is largely out of touch with the real needs of developing countries.

THE PRIVATE FINANCING PRACTICE OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS ON THE EXAMPLE OF MAJOR PRIVATE FUNDS OF THE USA

The article provides a detailed analysis of the experience of private international funding of social projects of civil society organizations using the example of private foundations in the United States. In the last few years there has been a growing interest in third sector organizations, as they are fundamental components in the formation of a democratic state. The term "civil society organization" is understood by the author as an umbrella concept that includes non-governmental organizations, churches, social movements, etc. However, the financial issue is the most important element for every third sector organization. Moreover, the number of funders of civil society organizations can be potentially large, while in reality funding comes from a limited number of large actors or the government. Moreover, the issue of successful funding is the weakest aspect of civil society organizations in most countries. Over the past decade, research on private funding of civil society organizations' social projects has increasingly shown that private foundations will become the largest donors in the near future. By the term "private foundation" the author means an organization that is usually formed to fund charitable purposes or projects through grants. This study has focused on the analyses of the philanthropic activities of the largest American private foundations, namely: the "Open Society Foundation" of George Soros, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the John and Catherine MacArthur Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. A significant amount of this study was devoted to an analysis of the sectoral and regional structure of the total value of grant portfolios, which is based on official statistical information. This study also analyzes the main areas and programs of charitable activities of the studied private foundations. In addition, the author conducted a comparative analysis of the private foundations under study. The main trends and patterns of grant funding of social projects of civil society organizations by international private donors in the United States were revealed.

The Influence of News Coverage on Humanitarian Aid: The Bureaucrats’ Perspective

ABSTRACT We examine if and how news coverage influences governments’ humanitarian aid allocations, from the perspective of the senior bureaucrats involved in such decision-making. Using rare in-depth interviews with 30 directors and senior policymakers in 16 of the world’s largest donor countries, we found that the majority of these bureaucrats believed that sudden-onset, national news coverage can increase levels of emergency humanitarian aid allocated to a crisis. They said that this influence operated by triggering other accountability institutions (the public, civil society, elected officials) who put pressure on aid bureaucracies to announce additional funding. However, these practitioners claim that annual humanitarian aid allocations—which are much larger—are unaffected by news pressure. Intriguingly, we also find that many respondents interpret a lack of news coverage as grounds for increasing their annual aid allocations to what they call “forgotten crises”. We argue that “bureaucratic mediatisation”, rather than the “CNN Effect” or the “Cockroach Effect”, provides the most appropriate theoretical perspective to understand these multiple, concurrent and indirect forms of media influence. These findings have important implications for government donors, news organisations and aid agencies, and for our wider understanding of how news coverage may influence foreign policy.

International Aid for Agricultural Development of Timor-Leste

Background: The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste is the newest nation in the 21st century, which became independent in 2002. Yet continued violent tensions kept the country from stabilizing its sociopolitical situations and it remains as a least developed country with many challenging issues, including food/nutrition insecurity. The international community has been supporting Timor-Leste to ameliorate it by aiding the agricultural development of the country. Objective: The objective of this study is to examine the aid profile of the donors for Timorese agricultural development. The findings of the study intend to provide the Timorese government and donors with a useful dialogue point for more efficient collaboration. Methods: The aid data reported to the Creditor Reporting System are sorted for the profile examination. The analysis is based on the aid disbursement between 2002 and 2019. Results: Australia was the largest donor, mostly shaping the agricultural aid profile of the donors. Japan, USA, and New Zealand were the major donors in that order, following Australia. Yet, their prioritized sub-sectors or interests appeared to vary; Australia prioritized strengthening Timorese seed systems and focused on nutrition-sensitive agriculture, Japan emphasized rice production, USA was mainly interested in cash/horticultural crops value chains, and New Zealand invested mainly in agricultural cooperatives. Of the multilateral organizations, the European Union was the principal donor. Conclusion: The Timorese government and donors may need a strategic collaboration to utilize available resources more efficiently as its food/nutrition insecurity is rooted in complex issues and improving it also hinges on development of other sectors.

ФІНАНСУВАННЯ ПРОЕКТІВ ЕЛЕКТРОННОГО УРЯДУВАННЯ У КРАЇНАХ ЄВРОПЕЙСЬКОГО СОЮЗУ ТА УКРАЇНІ

Анотація. Визначено, що важливим напрямом реалізації сталого розвитку та реформи публічного управління є ефективний процес електронного урядування, який має бути забезпечений відповідним фінансуванням. Мета статті — визначення подальших можливостей фінансування електронного урядування України в рамках реалізації проєктів та реформи публічного управління з урахуванням досвіду країн Європейського Союзу для реалізації цілей сталого розвитку та цифровізації країни. Методичною базою дослідження є аналітичні дані ПРООН України, Національного агентства з питань державної служби України, Європейської Комісії, дослідження цифрового уряду Організації економічного співробітництва та розвитку. Визначено ключові фактори держави в напрямі цифрового суспільства і сталого демократичного урядування (права людини, прозорість і доброчесність, парламентська реформа, громадянське суспільство та робота з молоддю, реформа охорони здоров’я та підтримка державних закупівель, цифрова трансформація). Проаналізовано особливості фінансування Стратегії реформування державного управління України, найбільшу частку фінансування якої становить бюджетна програма «Підтримка реалізації комплексної реформи державного управління» і бюджетна підтримка ЄС. Визначено особливості фінансування електронного урядування у країнах ЄС. Обґрунтовано необхідність зовнішніх джерел фінансування цифрових проєктів в Україні через недостатнє їхнє фінансування. Визначено найбільші країни — донори з фінансування проєктів електронного урядування в Україні (Данія, Естонія, Великобританія, Швеція, Швейцарія, Німеччина і Польща). На основі дослідження європейського досвіду моделей фінансування проєктів розвитку електронного урядування визначено чинні інструменти фінансування для України (кошти спільної міждержавної стратегії розвитку, гранти, благодійність, державно-приватне партнерство) і перспективні інструменти фінансування, використання яких дозволить підвищити відкритість, прозорість та ефективність роботи державних органів і забезпечити розвиток відкритих даних. Ключові слова: електронне урядування, фінансування проєктів, цифрова трансформація, реформа публічного управління. Формул: 0; рис.: 2; табл.: 2; бібл.: 14.

China’s Official Development Assistance: An Implication of the Transport Infrastructure Development in Cambodia

China’s ODA in Cambodia had been executed since the 1950s with the remarkable evidence of the four factories’ construction in Cambodia during the 1960s, while the United States of America had also experienced providing funds to build roads and bridges and other humanitarian reliefs in Cambodia during the 1950s and 1960s. After the national election in 1993, foreign assistance was given to Cambodia to support the economic infrastructure and to fill the gap of government expenditure budgets of each year, since there was a huge amount of the trade balance deficit. China has been the largest donor and investor in Cambodia in exchange for high commitment of the country to support the “One-China Policy” and the Belt and Road initiative right after its commencement in 2013. Since then, Cambodia has received huge amounts of ODA from China in several sectors, especially the transportation infrastructure sector. This research focuses mainly on China’s ODA for transportation infrastructure development contributed to the GDP growth of Cambodia by focusing mainly on the public sector foreign aid and ignoring the private sectors (investment scheme). The researcher used a mixed-method to analyze the data collected by using Eviews 10 with the least-squares’ method to analyze the data. The research result showed that China’s ODA for the transportation infrastructure development in Cambodia significantly contributed to the GDP growth of Cambodia, with the scientific evident chance of occurrence of 99.81 percent, with only a 0.19 percent-chance of error.

The Effect of Geostrategic Competition on Public Attitudes to Aid

AbstractChina’s rise is ushering in a new era of geostrategic contestation involving foreign aid. In many traditional OECD donors, aid policy is changing as a result. We report on a survey experiment studying the impacts of rising Chinese aid on public opinion in traditional donors. We randomly treated people with vignettes emphasising China’s rise as an aid donor in the Pacific, a region of substantial geostrategic competition. We used a large, nationally-representative sample of Australians (Australia is the largest donor to the Pacific). As expected, treating participants reduced hostility to aid and increased support for more aid focused on the Pacific. Counter to expectations, however, treatment reduced support for using aid to advance Australian interests. These findings were largely replicated in a separate experiment in New Zealand. Knowledge of Chinese competition changes support for aid, but it does not increase support for using aid as a tool of geostrategy.

Addendum to “HCG Found in Tetanus Vaccine”: Examination of Alleged “Ethical Concerns” Based on False Claims by Certain of Our Critics

This updated addendum to “HCG Found in WHO Tetanus Vaccine in Kenya Raises Concern in the Developing World” (published October 28, 2017 by OALibJ) addresses arguments claiming to discredit it from John Broughall, a retired microbiologist, and from an unnamed person (or persons) going by the pseudonym “The Original Skeptical Raptor” (hereafter, “Raptor”). Our paper (Oller et al., 2017), hereinafter referred to as the “hCG-paper”, judging from the Web of Science and PubMed databases, was the first peer-reviewed scholarly work showing the scope of the WHO anti-fertility program focusing on “less developed countries” from 1972 to the present: (1) It examined official policy statements from the UN’s largest donor nation dating from 1975 about the perceived need for “far greater efforts at fertility control” especially in “less developed countries” (National Security Council, 1975, 2014). (2) It documented the stream of published research in that program directly or indirectly sponsored by the WHO. (3) It compared the stepped-up dosage schedule used by the WHO in the Kenya 2013-2015 vaccination campaign which was appropriate to their “birth-control” vaccine but radically different from any previously published schedule for ordinary tetanus vaccine. (4) It analyzed and documented the sources of laboratory data from accredited laboratories in Nairobi finding ?hCG in at least one-third of the samples of vaccine actually collected at the 2014 administration sites. (5) It revealed the convergence of all the foregoing sources of information supporting the charge of the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association leveled against the WHO (Kenya Catholic Doctors Association, 2014). In emails to OALibJ, Broughall claimed “ethical concerns” about the hCG-paper urging the publisher to retract it. Raptor said, “Open Access Library Journal . . . is a predatory journal” and the hCG-paper is a “pseudoscientific . . . outright lie” (The Original Skeptical Raptor, 2017).

Development assistance for health and the Middle East and North Africa

BackgroundDonor countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been among the largest donors in the world. However, little is known about their contributions for health. In this study, we addressed this gap by estimating the amount of development assistance for health (DAH) contributed by MENA country donors from 2000 to 2017.MethodsWe tracked DAH provided and received by the MENA region leveraging publicly available development assistance data in the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) database of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), government agency reports and financial statements from key international development agencies. We generated estimates of DAH provided by the three largest donor countries in the MENA region (UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia) and compared contributions to their relative gross domestic product (GDP) and government spending; We captured DAH contributions by other MENA country governments (Egypt, Iran, Qatar, Turkey, etc.) disbursed through multilateral agencies. Additionally, we compared DAH contributed from and provided to the MENA region.ResultsIn 2017, DAH contributed by the MENA region reached $514.8 million. While UAE ($220.1 million, 43.2%), Saudi Arabia ($177.3 million, 34.8%) and Kuwait ($59.8 million, 11.6%) as sources contributed the majority of DAH in 2017, 58.5% of total DAH from MENA was disbursed through their bilateral agencies, 12.0% through the World Health Organization (WHO) and 3.3% through other United Nations agencies. 44.8% of DAH contributions from MENA was directed to health system strengthening/sector-wide approaches. Relative to their GDP and government spending, DAH level fluctuated across 2000 to 2017 but UAE and Saudi Arabia indicated increasing trends. While considering all MENA countries as recipients, only 10.5% of DAH received by MENA countries were from MENA donors in 2017.ConclusionMENA country donors especially UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have been providing substantial amount of DAH, channeled through their bilateral agencies, WHO and other multilateral agencies, with a prioritized focus on health system strengthening. DAH from the MENA region has been increasing for the past decade and could lend itself to important contributions for the region and the globe.

Current tendencies of migration process development: global features and implications for Ukraine

The article considers and summarizes the main global features and consequences of migration processes, including Ukraine. The purpose of the article is to establishing current trends in the development of migration processes, namely the global features and consequences for Ukraine. The grouping and generalization methods are used in the article (to represent the main effects of migration processes for donor countries, intermediate countries and recipient countries). The graphic method is applied to reflect the dynamics of changes in the number of emigrants from Ukraine, who were granted the first residence permits in the EU from 2009 to 2018. Methods of concretization and synthesis were used in determining the main consequences of migration processes for Ukraine. As a result of the research, the classification of world countries depending on the directions of migration flows (donor countries, countries of intermediate location and recipient countries) was determined. The list of the largest donor countries, recipient countries in the world with the indication of the number of migrants in these countries was determined. The main consequences of migration processes for world countries were determined, concretized and grouped according to the degree of their influence. The list of countries that are the largest centers of emigration for Ukrainian citizens (Poland, USA, Germany, Canada, Czech Republic) was determined. The main reasons for the increase in the number of emigrants from Ukraine in the periods from 2009 to 2012 and from 2012 to 2018 have been identified. The main consequences of migration processes for Ukraine, as a country-donor of human capital, a country of intermediate location and a recipient country, have been identified and grouped. The predominance of negative consequences of migration processes for Ukraine, as a donor country of human capital, a country of intermediate location, have been determined.

The impacts of agroforestry on agricultural productivity, ecosystem services, and human well-being in low-and middle-income countries: An evidence and gap map.

The impacts of agroforestry on agricultural productivity, ecosystem services, and human well-being in low-and middle-income countries: An evidence and gap map.

Strategies of Foreign Universities on the ASEAN Educational Market

ASEAN is characterized by a steady growth of the economy, a growing middle class and a large population of school age, it is one of the most promising growing markets for the export of educational services. The scale of student mobility from this region has been constantly increasing. At the same time, there is a noticeable trend towards the diversification of its geography with the emergence of new destinations and the weakening positions of traditional countries like the USA, France and Germany. The ASEAN is becoming promising not only as the largest donor of foreign students, but also as a notable player in the global educational market as a study destination. Special attention is given to the analysis of the markets of Singapore and Malaysia, as the largest regional educational hubs. The strategies of these countries are based on the creation of special economic zones in the field of education, thereby attracting leading foreign universities. This approach has a positive effect on the quality of education, increasing the attractiveness of the country as a study destination. The purpose of this article is to analyze the specifics of the strategies of foreign universities in the ASEAN countries in order to identify the potential for export of educational services by Russian universities. The strategies of foreign universities are based on a number of mechanisms, such as setting up international branch campuses in ASEAN countries, opening joint universities and operating through the franchise system. The article identifies the main problems which constrain the expansion of Russian

The politics of development in Palau

Purpose The Republic of Palau in the Micronesian region of the Pacific illuminates the complexities of how the political geography of development is shaped through diplomacy, defense and migration policy. The Compact of Free Association (COFA) between Palau and the US has been a topic of debate and for some resistance. Design/methodology/approach Through discursive analysis of grey literature and post-development and political geography frameworks, this paper analyzes the way in which development, through unconventional pathways, is used to exert power by Palau’s largest donor, the US. Findings The donor–recipient, government-to-government framework fails to explore the ways in development is used as power through military operations, zonal capitalism, redefined citizenship and tourism as new aid modalities. These graduated sovereignties in Palau show that political geography is taking shape through new pathways of development, which has resulted in more actors, institutions and discourses. Originality/value With limited research on the region of Micronesia and particularly the politics of development, this paper contributes important analysis to the lead up to the COFA renewal negotiations between the US and Palau in 2024.

A Road Through Pakistan, and What This Means for India

ABSTRACTPakistan’s largest donor has been the United States of America, granting around $ 70 bn in aid. In 2015, China, as part of its One Belt One Road global ambitions, promised Pakistan $ 46 bn (since revised to $ 60 bn), for a road running from its border to the port of Gwadar. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), is being seen as a ‘fate-changer’ for Pakistan. CPEC could change Pakistan’s fate in more ways than one; this article explores the domestic and regional consequences of China’s involvement in Pakistan, and what this will mean for South Asia and for India.

The funding of interest groups in the EU: are the rich getting richer?

ABSTRACT Governmental subsidies are demand-side factors, which allow governments to ‘mould’ interest group communities. The EU is the worlds’ largest donor and has claimed to use public funds to promote the participation of organized interests in public policy. Previous studies found support for this claim and concluded that EU subsidies help to alleviate existing biases in the system of interest intermediation. In this article, we challenge these findings and argue that scholars paid too little attention to the applications for funding filed by interest groups. Using data collected from a survey of applying organizations, we consider the effect of four types of bias on the attainment of funds. Our results suggest that an organization's financial resources and its past success with applications increase the likelihood of winning a grant. These results question the redistributive aspect of EU funds and compare biases in EU funding with existing biases in the interest intermediation system.