Foreign Aid Research Articles

Inviting foreign direct investment for sports development projects in relation to economic development and development challenges

The present study aimed to investigate attracting foreign direct investment for sports development projects in relation to economic developments and challenges. The researchers utilized a descriptive approach, using a questionnaire, due to its appropriateness for the nature of the research. A total of 300 workers from the General Office of the Ministry of Youth and Sports participated in this study. They were selected using a stratified purposeful sampling method from the following categories: undersecretaries, general directors, department directors, department heads, and administrators. The findings of this study showed support for foreign trade exchanges through investment in export industries, especially in contexts where the host country has an advantage over the country of origin and where banking facilities are available in commercial banks. Additionally, it was demonstrated that lower risk and higher returns lead to an influx of investments. Consequently, this increases capital formation, particularly by reducing the state's dependence on external debt and decreasing the volume of foreign aid.

Bilateral agricultural aid to Ghana and Uganda: donor practices under different institutional quality

Bilateral agricultural aid to Ghana and Uganda: donor practices under different institutional quality

Multilateral financial flows and state–business relations in Morocco

ABSTRACT Political economy explanations of regime resilience often look at domestic support bases and patronage systems. Foreign aid to the state is seen as a direct form of propping up regimes. This article attempts to track the flow of foreign assistance to one part of the domestic support base of a regime, namely the economic elite, thereby making a connection between domestic explanations and foreign support explanations of regime resilience. The core argument of this article is that multilateral financial flows from Western dominated institutions may preserve regimes in the Middle East and North Africa. Multilateral flows from the World Bank Group, the European Investment Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development went to regime insiders and thus potentially strengthened existing economic elites during the time in which the former Islamist opposition party led a coalition government. I draw on the linkage dimension of Levitsky and Way’s model to show the importance of specifying the nature and destination of multilateral financial ties with Morocco’s private sector. This contribution helps us link the international dimension to the domestic political economy. It thus potentially adds to our understanding of monarchical regime resilience post-Arab Spring by highlighting how multilateral financial institutions support an important part of the economic elite.

Achieving the sustainable development goals in developing countries: The role of remittances and the mediating effect of financial inclusion

This study investigates the pivotal role of remittances in advancing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within developing countries. While previous literature has acknowledged the potential of remittances in fostering growth, empirical analyses on their impact on SDGs remain scant. Utilizing data from 109 developing countries spanning 2000 to 2022 and employing system GMM and the Lewbel's (2012) estimator to tackle endogeneity issues, we unveil significant positive effects of remittances on SDGs. Additionally, we identify financial inclusion as a mediating factor enhancing remittances' impacts on SDGs. Moreover, we show that remittances, international aid, and government spending exhibit complementary roles in SDGs attainment.

Does Aid Induce Foreign Direct Investment: Updated Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment

Abstract While the catalytic effect of aid on foreign direct investment (FDI) has long been an implicit consensus among many policymakers and practitioners, assessments of this causal relationship remain limited and are not always reliable. To mitigate this evidence gap, this study applies an instrumental variable approach that leverages the graduation of the International Development Association (IDA) income threshold as a quasi-experiment to identify the causal linkage between foreign aid and FDI. The analysis reveals that a 1 percent drop in the ratio of aid to gross national income leads to a decline in FDI relative to gross domestic product by 0.9 percent in 42 developing countries from 1987 to 2019. In face of the aid shock induced by IDA graduation, governments in recipient countries restrict their financial policy openness, through which aid could significantly impact subsequent foreign private investment. Results emphasize the necessity of concerted policy interventions to mitigate this negative aid shock.

Manipulating the masses? Right‐wing populist messages, political ideology, and public support for multilateral development aid in Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom

AbstractHow does right‐wing populism affect public preferences for foreign development aid spending across the liberal/conservative ideological spectrum? This research examines the complex interplay between exposure to right‐wing populist messages targeting aid and political ideology at the mass level in Germany, the United States (U.S.), and the United Kingdom (UK) with data from original survey experiments. First, the experiments indicate that populist rhetoric reduces public support for foreign aid across all countries albeit to varying degrees. Second, the moderating role of political ideology is variable and complex across the different countries. In Germany, populist anti‐aid messages reduce support among voters on the center of the ideological spectrum and among those without clear ideological preferences. In the U.S., anti‐aid messages affect those on the left. In the UK, the effect of populist anti‐aid rhetoric surprisingly does not vary cross ideological groups. Our results have implications for the prospects of public support for development cooperation in the shadow of populism.

NGOization and Politicization of Aid

Abstract This paper focuses on the political economy of aid to determine its impact on Lebanon’s politics of sectarianism. I approach NGOization as a political process that normalizes a situation where citizens are accustomed to functioning without the state, and as an economic process creating a parallel economy. Both trends have expanded with the current crisis. I posit that politics of sectarianism feeds on NGOization: they allow sectarian elites to outsource aid, manage discontent and depoliticize ngo s and cso s, while silencing potential challenges to their order. Thus, organizations aiming to transform the political system lack visibility and leverage, while their space of operation has been shrinking. I also explore the role of international aid on the continuity and durability of the Lebanese state and its neo-patrimonial and clientelist governance mode. NGOization is further reinforced by the fact that national ngo s have been co-opted by foreign donors, which has the effect of depoliticizing their discourse and action.

Interest, Need, or Reputation? Determinants of Qatar's Foreign Aid

Abstract The literature on the motivations behind emerging donors’ foreign aid contributions—with the exception of larger countries such as China, India, Brazil and Turkey—lacks original data and empirical analyses. This article addresses this gap by providing a novel, detailed dataset of the foreign aid allocations of one resilient, relatively small emerging donor, Qatar, for the period from 2014 to 2021. The contents of our database, which we dub Qatar Aid Database, encapsulate the features of Qatar's international aid. To illustrate our dataset's efficacy, we investigate whether Qatar's foreign aid operations aim to satisfy donor interests, recipient needs, or something else. Our empirical findings affirm that although Qatar's aid allocation decisions prioritize recipient needs, its aid provision depends more on Qatar's foreign policy interests in the targeted countries.

The Impact of Foreign Aid on Local Development: A Grid Cell Analysis

We examine whether geocoded World Bank foreign aid projects affect economic activity at the level of equally sized grid cells with a spatial resolution of 0.5 decimal degrees latitude and longitude. We use geospatial data for 58,676 grid cells during the period 1997-2013 with about one million grid-by-year observations. Using fixed effects estimating techniques, we evaluate the impact of World Bank foreign aid projects on grid cell night-time light growth. The estimates reveal that World Bank foreign aid projects contribute significantly and positively to grid cell economic activity measured by night-time light growth. We complement the fast-growing literature using geocoded data to assess aid effectiveness at the subnational level. We provide evidence that the lack of robust empirical findings at the country and subnational (e.g., ADM1 and ADM2) level can be explained due to spatial aggregation and the choice of spatial units. Additional estimates and robustness tests further corroborate our main findings.

Rural Development Projects in Latin America: The Need to Integrate Socio-Economic, Political, and Empowerment Lenses for Sustained Impact

Latin America has witnessed a significant influx of foreign aid aimed at fostering development, particularly in rural areas, over recent decades. Despite these considerable investments, persistently high levels of poverty endure, and rural communities have not consistently witnessed improvements in livelihoods. Rural development initiatives frequently achieve their inherent objectives at the output level but less frequently attain the intended outcomes and are seldom successful in establishing the prerequisites for enduring impact over the long term. The existing literature on this topic is extensive but often fragmented, with some scholars examining the context through socio-economic and political lenses, others scrutinizing the intrinsic characteristics of projects, and still others emphasizing levels of empowerment and local participation. This paper synthesizes and critically evaluates key aspects that influence the sustained impact of rural development projects across these three analytical streams. Through an integrative compilation of insights from these disparate perspectives, this work lays the foundation for a comprehensive analysis, shedding light on crucial considerations that may have previously “fallen into the cracks” through an examination of the segmented discourse.

Analysis of the features and identification of problem issues of the legal regulation of ensuring the defense forces of Ukraine within the limits of international aid: assessment of risks

Analysis of the features and identification of problem issues of the legal regulation of ensuring the defense forces of Ukraine within the limits of international aid: assessment of risks

Is There a Chinese “Developmental peace”? Evidence from the Belt and Road Initiative’s Impact on Conflict States

ABSTRACT In the ten years since its inception, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has attracted significant attention for its transformative impact on geopolitics, international developmental aid and the environment of member countries. A comparatively understudied aspect is the clustering of BRI investments in conflict-affected states. Here, the BRI’s impact is potentially even greater, but highly ambiguous: on the one hand, it is providing much-needed development financing to countries with unattractive risk profiles, thus potentially contributing to their stabilization. On the other, this influx of capital risks exacerbating antagonisms over resource distribution and project control, creating additional grievances resulting from a lack of oversight, and reigniting conflicts along existing political fault lines. This article examines the BRI’s transformative impact on conflict-affected states, by focusing on effects on local conflict dynamics, the legitimacy of governing institutions and outright political violence. It establishes general patterns of BRI investments and their conflict exposure, and investigates these dynamics in more detail through case studies on Pakistan and Myanmar. Finally, it analyzes which BRI-specific practices have shaped its conflict impact, and how these could be improved.

The Social Enterprise Craze: CSO Financial Sustainability in Ghana

Abstract As a relatively stable democracy, Ghana has long been a popular country for international donors. However, recent changes in its classification by the World Bank and government proclamations have led to a reduction in foreign aid, forcing Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) to confront the financial sustainability of their organizations. In this study, we test the typology proposed by Arhin et al. (2018. “Facing the Bullet? Non-Governmental Organisations’ (NGOs’) Responses to the Changing Aid Landscape in Ghana.” Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 29 (2): 348–60) which finds that CSOs in Ghana are using six different strategies to work toward financial sustainability. Based on an original survey of 42 CSOs, our findings indicate an almost exclusive focus on income generation in the form of social enterprises. The challenges this poses to the sector are discussed.

The role of governance in mitigating an epidemic disease: evidence from HIV prevalence in 45 Sub-Saharan African countries, 1996–2019

PurposeThis study proposed a theoretical framework to illustrate how governance can be instrumental in preventing the proliferation of HIV. It decomposed governance into six multidimensional facets and empirically examined their effects on HIV prevalence.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilized panel data from 45 sub-Saharan African countries from 1996 to 2019. HIV prevalence, the dependent variable, was estimated based on the number of adults aged 15–49 years infected with HIV, irrespective of the progression to AIDS symptoms. The independent variables included governance and its six dimensions: voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption. The analysis incorporated the random and fixed effects models while controlling for economic development, economic inequality, foreign aid, sanitation, and population.FindingsThe findings revealed a significant association between good governance and lower HIV prevalence. Improved governance quality in sub-Saharan African countries has led to a reduction in HIV prevalence among adults. Specifically, governance dimensions, such as voice and accountability, political stability, rule of law, and control of corruption, contributed to reducing HIV prevalence. Conversely, government effectiveness and regulatory quality did not show significant impacts on HIV prevalence.Originality/valueThis study underscores the significant role of good governance in effectively curbing the spread of epidemic diseases, highlighting its importance in controlling HIV in sub-Saharan African countries.

Examining Qatari humanitarian diplomacy: key features, challenges and prospects

In recent years, Qatar has emerged as a key actor in humanitarian diplomacy (HD), which has received limited academic attention. This paper provides an analysis of Qatar’s engagement with HD, drawing on a literature review and extensive interviews with officials and humanitarian workers in Qatar, observations of state activities and humanitarian agencies, and personal interviews with international humanitarian aid workers. The study reveals Qatar’s unique strategy, characterised by its diplomatic stance and the integrated efforts of its governmental and non-governmental sectors, as foundational to its HD efforts. The study also reports challenges hindering those efforts, namely the impacts of the political tensions, the lack of diplomatic immunity for humanitarian workers, and a scarcity of specialised expertise in HD. These are explored in terms of their implications for the effectiveness of Qatar’s efforts, emphasising the critical need for enhanced supportive frameworks, targeted capacity-building initiatives, and well-defined protocols for HD engagement. To add to the dialogue on HD, this paper reflects on Qatar’s engagement in HD, suggesting that smaller nations can meaningfully contribute when leveraging their strengths and international relationships.

Under siege: The role of settler colonialism in targeting healthcare systems.

This article looks at the effects of armed conflict on healthcare systems in Gaza at the intersection of international humanitarian aid, settler colonialism and the ethics of war. Since October 7, 2023, there has been a systemic assault on the health services in Gaza, rooted in colonial expansion. I begin with an overview of human rights and the concept of medical neutrality. This is followed by biopolitics within Gaza and the contradictions in international law regarding the ethics of war. Explained through the lens of historical revisionism, postcolonial theory and biopolitics, I attempt to highlight how healthcare systems are increasingly becoming targets of armed conflict in Gaza as a war strategy.

Bottom-up development as framed freedom: developmentality and donor power

ABSTRACT International development assistance is founded on and reproduces a set of conceptual and structural binaries. Development actors themselves have attempted to alter lopsided aid relations, as illustrated by the prominent policy agendas of ownership and localisation in the 2010s. These are both expressions of bottom-up approaches to international aid, which challenge the very hierarchical nature of development as a particular Western instrument and historical project of intervention. This article argues that the top-heavy, donor-driven policies to turn development bottom-up fail not simply because of these discursive challenges. Aid asymmetries also persist because of the neoliberal audit culture evolving in tandem with the liberal contours of ownership and localisation agendas. This is analysed in terms of developmentality, which, as a tacit and indirect form of power, is both produced by and simultaneously undermines the liberal tenets of bottom-up approaches.

Food insecurity: The resilient, but “silent poverty” perspectives of older ethnic minority individuals within UK communities

AbstractFood insecurity is acknowledged as a key social determinant of health among older adults. Despite recording significantly higher levels of poverty in comparison to white ethnic groups, older individuals from ethnic minorities are under‐represented as recipients of food aid. Thus, there are knowledge gaps in our understanding of older people and their experiences of food insecurity within ethnic minority communities. Through the theoretical lens of Individual and Community Resilience, we empirically advance our understanding of food security and resilience within South Asian communities via in‐depth interviews with community stakeholders and older individuals from Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities across the Greater Manchester region. Our findings reveal that the integration of temporal, environmental and social constructs within a resilience framework reveals significant potential for further negative social, cultural and economic impact on older ethnic minorities in the future, especially as current food support services do not appear to cater for ethnic dietary preferences, language accessibility and/or cultural norms regarding asking for help/charity outside the home. We predict therefore, in combination with the identified persistent stressors, that food insecurity issues within older ethnic minority communities are likely to get much worse, resulting in the need for extensive resilient capacities to cope with future cost‐of‐living challenges. In acknowledging previous limitations within previous resilience frameworks, we propose an incremental contribution to theory and conclude by identifying culturally and operationally appropriate food support system approaches, which can be used to address the increasing prevalence of “silent poverty” within ethnic minority communities.

Reshaping an issue-based field: assessing the impact of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) on the global development aid agenda

PurposeThe paper studies how the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) positioned itself in the process through which capacity building in developing countries was interpreted and enacted within the global development aid agenda from 1999 to 2016.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is an in-depth case study drawing on a comprehensive analysis of publications, reports and archival materials.FindingsThe paper unveils how IFAC shaped the interpretation of capacity building and its associated practices in a manner aligned with its expansionary aims thereby transforming itself into a prominent actor within, what we term, the capacity building issue-based field. It unpacks the strategies pursued by IFAC as it mobilised economic, social and cultural resources in support of its global capacity building ambitions for the accountancy profession. It reveals how key interactions between actors in the international development exchange field and the professional exchange field of accounting underpinned IFAC’s infiltration of, and impact on the evolution of, the capacity building issue-based field. We show how IFAC increased its influence in this field despite initially operating on the periphery of the global development aid agenda.Practical implicationsThe paper reveals how the global accountancy profession’s engagement with the capacity building activities of international development agencies became central to its commitment to serving the public interest. Our analysis suggests that deeper explorations of capacity building by the global accountancy profession in specific developing countries are required in order to determine whether these efforts have effectively catered to the needs of the citizens of those countries.Originality/valueThe work of professional accountancy organizations (PAOs) operating at the global level in the area of capacity building has been addressed in a fragmented fashion in prior research. This paper presents a unique analysis of developing alliances between the global accountancy profession and international aid agencies aimed at supporting the globalising efforts of IFAC within the realm of capacity building in international development aid. Theoretically, the paper advances prior work exploring the evolution of issue-based fields, in particular the role of inter-field relations in interstitial spaces within these processes.

Acute physiological effects on macromolecule digestion following oral ingestion of the enzyme blend Elevase® in individuals that had undergone an ileostomy, but were otherwise healthy-a randomized, double blinded, placebo-controlled exploratory study.

Digestive enzymes can selectively degrade proteins, carbohydrates and lipids; and their supplementation alongside food may accelerate the breakdown of complex food matrices, facilitate greater nutrient absorption, decrease food sensitivities and aid in the management of certain disease states. Several intrinsic and extrinsic factors govern food digestion and for every individual this phenomenon is unique. This study was conducted as a randomized, crossover, placebo-controlled design where each participant served as their own control. This post-hoc analysis investigated the impact of a dietary enzyme supplementation blend known as Elevase® on dietary macromolecule digestion in samples from otherwise healthy participants that had previously undergone a small bowel resection, resulting in an ileostomy (NCT04489810). This is the first time this study-paradigm has been used for the assessment of in vivo dietary breakdown following enzyme supplementation. Arguably, this technique offers superior data when compared to that generated in artificial gut digestion models, preclinical animal models, or indeed conventional clinical studies using stool analyses, as it allows real-time access to samples in situ in the small intestine where the majority of nutritional absorption takes place. It was demonstrated that after 4 h, Elevase® significantly increased monosaccharide levels (predominantly glucose and fructose) in the ileostomy samples taken from the same individuals on the same diet on a different day. In addition, the bile salt taurohyodeoxycholic acid was also increased, suggesting a physiological host response to the macromolecule digestion induced by the enzymatic blend. Overall, these findings suggest Elevase® could accelerate food digestion and potentially increase nutrient availability from the diet.