Official Development Assistance Research Articles

OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE (ODA) KANADA DALAM UPAYA MENGURANGI KEMISKINAN DAN MEMPERKUAT HAK ASASI MANUSIA DI NEGARA BERKEMBANG DAN AFRIKA TAHUN 2018-2022

This article aims to analyze the provision of Official Development Assistance (ODA) from the Canadian government to developing countries and African countries to reduce poverty and strengthen human rights in 2018-2022. Canada is a developed country that provides a lot of humanitarian assistance to developing countries and African countries. This raises the question, “What is the role of Canadian ODA in reducing poverty and strengthening human rights in Africa in 2018-2022?” To help answer the question, the authors use the concept of Humanitarian Financing. ODA provided by Canada in Africa is in the form of financial assistance. In conducting research, this article uses a qualitative research method, namely a literature study by collecting various books, journals, articles, and other sources to be able to answer this problem.

Türkiye's Health Diplomacy Activities: A Qualitative Research

Health diplomacy is a field that facilitates the implementation and governance of global health policies. Assisting, such as transferring expertise, experience, and human and medical equipment to different countries, constitutes the content of health diplomacy. The main argument of this study is that Türkiye provides official development assistance abroad, establishes and operates health enterprises, and provides medical rescue and emergency health services in disasters and emergencies. For this reason, it has been tried to reveal Türkiye's perception of health diplomacy, how the health service process is carried out across the border, and the possible contributions of these services. A case study design was used to examine Türkiye's health diplomacy process. In this context, interviews were conducted with the public (n=1) and non-governmental organization personnel (n=8). The research findings were evaluated within the framework of four main themes: perception of health diplomacy, difficulties experienced in the health diplomacy process, solutions to the difficulties encountered in the health diplomacy process, and contributions of health diplomacy. The perception of health diplomacy is fieldwork, experience transfer, support, joint action, foreign policy, soft power, and health priority. In the process of health service delivery, it has been determined that there are difficulties in terms of medical equipment, service delivery, personnel, and politics, and these difficulties are tried to be solved through cooperation, communication, and other means. It has been concluded that health diplomacy contributes to the health of the recipient country or region and supports employment with newly opened health institutions. In addition, it was determined that Turkish health personnel gained experience, sympathy for Türkiye developed, and prejudices were broken.

The impact of foreign investment in financing sustainable development in Sub‑Saharan African countries

This study outlines the features of financing investment development in Sub-Saharan African countries. Using the financial determinants of GDP, a model was developed based on the method of least squares employing data covering 2004–2018. It was revealed that a positive correlation exists between economic growth and bank loans as well as official development assistance. The results of the model indicate that bank loans and remittances significantly increase economic growth. However, both foreign direct investment and official development assistance (ODA) were found to be ineffective in promoting development, and this is attributable to its investment model (resource-seeking) and the conditions under ODA financing, respectively, in the region. Bank loans were found to be the most influential in promoting sustainable growth in the region. Hence, it is instructive that the reforms are needed and incentives are to be developed to improve the level of the region’s financial and banking sector development and facilitate the sustainable socioeconomic development of these economies.

The nexus between human development, official development assistance, carbon emissions, and governance in developing countries for the realization of sustainable development goals

The nexus between human development, official development assistance, carbon emissions, and governance in developing countries for the realization of sustainable development goals

Local Leader Traits, Local Values and Citizens’ Political Participation in Vietnam

ABSTRACT This study investigates the impacts of local leader traits and local values on citizens’ political participation. Specifically, it examines how leadership traits (measured by the term of office and gender) and local values (measured by protests and the status of receiving official development assistance (ODA)) affect citizens’ political participation. It finds that leaders in their first term, protests and receiving ODA positively associate with citizens’ political participation, while female leaders negatively associate with it. The paper contributes to the literature that short-termism and face-saving theories should be appropriately integrated with career path theory to explain political behaviors of local leaders and that preventing short-termism and prejudices against local female leaders are potential solutions for citizens’ political participation. These findings shed light on understanding the roles of local leader traits and local values in promoting citizens’ political participation in communist one-party-led countries.

The Relationship Between Health aid and Health Outcomes and the Role of Domestic Healthcare Expenditure in Developing Countries

Foreign aid is a controversial tool for helping developing countries achieve economic growth and welfare. Nevertheless, the early 2000s saw a rise in development assistance dedicated to the health sector. The concept of sustainable development highlights the importance of a healthy population to achieve overall development. Using a dataset containing Official Development Assistance channelled towards 100 countries between 2002 and 2020, this paper studies the effect of health aid on health outcomes. To test aid effectiveness, regression models are estimated using infant mortality and life expectancy as proxies for health outcomes. The analyses show that health aid has a positive effect on population health. Moreover, this study tests whether domestic government health expenditure can give further insights into the complex relationship between aid and health improvements. Results yield no significant effect of health aid on public health expenditure; hence no mediation effect can be found. Findings are robust to varying controls and an instrumental variable approach, where two-year lagged health aid is used as instrument. Results also suggest that socioeconomic factors like urbanisation have a positive effect on health outcomes, which implies that population health depends on many factors besides monetary resources.

China’s foreign aid as a proxy of ODA: preliminary estimate 2001-2022

ABSTRACT By establishing the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) in 2018, China has attempted to enhance foreign aid as a diplomatic means and has been more assertive in providing foreign aid through both bilateral and multilateral channels. However, China only publishes aggregated foreign aid statistics in white papers, and data beyond 2019 are not available. This paper aims to estimate China’s foreign aid from 2001 to 2022 as a proxy for Official Development Assistance (ODA) defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The results revealed that China’s foreign aid, on a grant-equivalent basis, decreased from US$6.4 billion in 2019 to US$5.0 billion in 2020. China has mobilized a large amount of funding for international cooperation on COVID-19. It is unclear how much of this was financed by regular foreign aid budgets. Thus, two cases were set in the current study. In the upper case, all donated vaccines, estimated at US$3.9 billion, came from other sources while in the lower case, it was assumed that the regular foreign aid budget covered all costs. China’s foreign aid in 2022 was estimated at US$7.9 billion in the upper case and US$5.0 billion in the lower case. Compared with major ODA donors, China ranked 6th in the upper case and 13th in the lower case. Currently, the CIDCA is attempting to mobilize new financial resources to expand its activities under the Global Development Initiative. It is important to continue to comprehensively examine how China proceeds in improving its development cooperation.

The impact of official development assistance on foreign direct investment: the case of Japanese firms in India

While there is no clear answer to the overall impact of Official Development Assistance (ODA) on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), it has been pointed out that Japanese ODA promotes its FDI. However, the mechanism of ODA’s impact on FDI has not been fully examined at the micro level, as most previous studies have used macro-level data. Therefore, this study examines the impact of ODA on FDI at the micro level in India, where an increase in ODA and FDI from Japan have been observed in recent years. Interviews were conducted with three Japanese firms and five Japanese public organizations, while questionnaires were administered to 33 Japanese firms. The results reveal that ODA effectively promotes FDI, albeit to a lesser extent than other FDI determinants. Economic infrastructure development through ODA, the expectations of such development, and the reception of orders for ODA Loan projects, promote FDI. Furthermore, the role of public institutions, including providing information to firms and acting as intermediaries with the government, is more effective in promoting FDI than ODA. Based on these results, in light of the OLI theory, it is suggested that a possible mechanism is that Japanese ODA promotes FDI by enhancing the “Ownership Specific Advantages” of Japanese firms and the “Location Advantages” of recipient countries. The novelty of this study lies in its clarification of the mechanism through which ODA promotes FDI from a micro-perspective, as revealed by a questionnaire survey conducted among firms. The FDI-promoting effects of ODA for economic infrastructure and ODA Loan suggested in this study not only contributes to the academic community but also have important implications for ODA policymakers.

Fragile States and Aid Allocation for Sub-Saharan African Countries: An Empirical Research

State fragility has received increasing attention in recent decades as a result of the nexus between development and international stability. This study investigates the empirical drivers of state fragility in sub-Saharan Africa from 2007 to 2019. We shed light on the explanatory variables of government effectiveness, political stability, per-capita GDP, grow GDP%, International Monetary Fund loans, and official development assistance. Using panel data analysis and a 39-country sample, our study finds that government efficiency and political stability, in contrast to foreign aid, has a significant effect on reducing fragility in sub-Saharan Africa. In light of these findings, the article proposes delivering foreign aid in ways that strengthen state capacity.

Two Sides Of The Same Coin? A Panel Data Approach To The Innovation-Standard Relationship

Previous studies have shown an ambivalent relationship between standards and innovation while emphasizing the need to clarify the relationship and uncover their possible causal link. This paper revisits the standard-innovation relationship with the ISO 9001 standard, and patents applications as indicators of standards and innovation, respectively. Using a panel dataset of 81 countries covering the period 1993-2019, we find that ISO 9001 certification is positively associated with innovation. Our fixed-effects and system GMM estimates show that doubling the number of ISO 9001 certificates obtained at the national level increases innovation by 1.3-2.2%. The results vary according to the edition of the standard and the countries’ level of development, whereby developed countries seemed to benefit more from the international quality management standards. The paper also suggests that official development assistance (ODA) may be a vehicle through which wealthier countries can help developing ones harness the benefits of standardization.

Current Status and Sustainable Development Strategies of Traditional Korean Medicine Official Development Assistance (ODA) in Global Health

Objectives: Korea has a unique history of being both a recipient and a donor of Official Development Assistance (ODA), and the international community expects Korea to contribute to the development of developing countries by utilizing this experience. Traditional Korean medicine (TKM) seeks to contribute to global health, however the concept of ODA has been unclear and there has been no clear strategy and sustainable initiatives.Methods: This study examines the concept of ODA and its application in global health, including business objectives, scale, evaluation principles, and development strategies. Additionally, we reviewed the current status of Traditional Korean medicine globalization projects and conducted a SWOT analysis of the internal and external environment of the TKM sector. Based on these findings, we redefined the concept of ODA for TKM and proposed suggestions for its development.Results: The current study identified key ideas for TKM ODA. It should prioritize the improvement of primary healthcare in recipient countries, aligning with the international evaluation criteria of the SDGs. Secondly, TKM's 70 years of experience can be leveraged to enhance both the competence and economic benefits of recipient countries' medical systems. Based on these concepts, a TKM ODA development model was proposed, comprising two core visions, three development strategies and goals, and six core values.Conclusion: This study systematically examined the TKM in global health and suggested sustainable development strategies for TKM ODA. Through its expansion, TKM could contribute to the advancement of global traditional medicine and its overall engagement in healthcare.

Technical and Vocational Education and Training toward Sustainable Development of Japan’s Aid Effectiveness for Industrial Human Resource Development in Lower Mekong Basin Countries

The Official Development Assistance (ODA) is Japan’s salient foreign policy in the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) Country, especially for industrial human resource development. Japan has established KOSEN, a Japanese engineering vocational education system in the region to promote the industrial acceleration agenda and the region’s economic, social development, and poverty reduction toward the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, ODA is about more than giving and receiving; it is about actors and administration, including the vis-à-vis mutual benefit for both donor and recipient country, which becomes a debatable issue. This research intends to shed light on the efficacy of Japanese ODA toward LMB by applying the principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005) and its impact on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) attainment. A qualitative technique with a deductive approach was used to analyze the efficiency of Japan’s aid for KOSEN, including an in-depth interview with a purposive sampling technique of three key informants in this study. The study showed that the donor country predominantly adheres to the assistance ownership concept. Nonetheless, developing the KOSEN system as an assistance program in the area can contribute to the SDGs as hard tool mechanisms and KOSEN values as a soft mechanism related to the 2012 Global Agenda for Greening TVET.

Remittances, exports, ODA, and economic growth in Bangladesh: A time series analysis

ABSTRACT This empirical study has explored the symmetric and asymmetric associations among GDP, remittances, Official Development Assistance (ODA), and exports by employing both the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) and the Non-Linear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (NARDL) frameworks from 1986–2021. The ARDL model has found the positive impact of ODA and exports on economic growth, whereas remittance has a negative impact on growth. The NARDL framework has also supported the findings of the ARDL method. This study also provides policy recommendations to help achieve steady economic growth in the context of Bangladesh’s economy.

International promotion of Japanese aging-related health services and products: Perspective of an international agency.

Asia is at a critical juncture of health development. The population is aging and shrinking. At the same time, the economy is developing rapidly. These two factors, which necessitate a new paradigm of health development: departing from dependence on Official Development Assistance (ODA) and transitioning towards a model with more involvement of industries (private sector), academia, and health care providers, the so-called public-private partnership (PPP) model. The Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) is studying the potential for broader application of the new concept for collaboration between Asian countries and Japan. In this article, the authors attempt to introduce the complete picture of a new health ecosystem advocated by Japan. We first look at the impacts of population aging and shrinking, followed by introducing two new approaches; regional and country-specific, with the involvement of ERIA. Then, the outcomes of the projects and Japanese technology, services and products relevant to the older population are introduced. Finally, based on the various projects and products, we focus more closely on the new health development model, the PPP model. We start from the theory and move to examine a tool for implementation, which is the formulation of a dialogue forum named the MEX (Medical Excellence X, where X can be substituted by the acronym of any participating country) project. The experience of these projects and case studies will benefit all ASEAN member countries and beyond. ERIA finds that the facilitation works of the Institute catalyze the progress. ERIA will remain committed to helping the endeavors initiated by Japan for the benefit of all.

Analyzing Korea’s official development assistance strategies toward United Nations sustainable development goals: A Delphi method approach

Analyzing Korea’s official development assistance strategies toward United Nations sustainable development goals: A Delphi method approach

OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE IN COLOMBIA: CHANGES AND CONTINUITIES OF THE PEACE AGREEMENT. CASE STUDY OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE EUROPEAN UNION (2012-2021)

The objective of this research article is to conduct the identification of the possible changes and continuities presented in the dynamics and the Official Development Assistance (ODA) received by Colombia from the United States of America and the European Union, after the signing of the Peace Agreement between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army (FARC-EP). A qualitative case study methodology is used by consulting databases and information from official sources on ODA projects granted to Colombia. The period 2012-2021 was set at four years prior to the signing of the agreement and five years after it. The results show significant changes in the amounts and number of projects financed by the United States and the European Union since the signing of the Agreement.

Assessing economic effects of foreign aid and capital flows on real economic growth

The study sought to investigate the effect of foreign aid and capital flow on real economic growth for the SADC region. Eleven member states of the SADC region are selected for analysis based on data availability. In the study, foreign aid is represented by official development assistance (ODA), external debt (EXTD), and debt service cost (DSC) while the inflow of foreign direct investment represents capital flow (FDI). Annual percentage growth of per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDPpc) is used as a proxy of real economic growth. Trade balance (TRO) is included in the model regression as a control variable. The study employed panel econometric models.  The results of panel ARDL indicate that ODA and FDI were found to have a negligible effect on real growth in the short run but contribute positively and significantly in the long run. This revelation supports the view that ODA and FDI are essential determinants of growth. On the other hand, EXTD together with its associated costs was found to have a detrimental effect both in the short run and long run. Based on the results of the study, the authors put forward the following policy recommendations for the SADC region: most importantly, there ought to be effective management of external debt by SADC countries to reduce their overdependency on external debt for their domestic needs. Given the positive effect of FDI in the region, the SADC region needs to intensify its efforts in devising measures that will attract foreign investors to the region which among others include pursuing inclusive and sustainable economic growth. Lastly, there is a need for effective management and official development aid to ensure sustainable growth.

Formal education in Nauru: A Pacific development assistance story

Formal education in Nauru can only be fully understood in the light of the external influences, mostly Australian in origin, acting upon it as a small island state in the Central Pacific. Australia's influence began in the early 1900s as a leading stakeholder in Nauru's lucrative phosphate reserves. In the last few decades Nauru's dramatic economic decline has meant it has come into the orbit of Australia's official development assistance (ODA) to the Pacific region. However, Australia has ties to Nauru that go beyond mere economic and development assistance, for example, the country is a crucial site in Australia's own immigration policy and the offshore processing of asylum seekers bound for Australia. Geopolitically, Nauru is also important to Australia as one of a decreasing number of Taiwan‐loyal Pacific nations in the face of China's increasing assertiveness in the region. The nature of the relationship with Nauru has meant that for many decades Australia has provided an almost exclusive conduit of educational ideas, values, beliefs and practices flowing into the country to uniquely shape formal education provision. The purpose of this article is twofold. Firstly, via a synthesis of research literature and debate, it critiques the long‐running, primarily, Australia‐facing relationship Nauru has in terms of the educational assistance it receives, including the Nauru Education Program, a significant Australian development assistance initiative about to commence through to 2030. Secondly, with a basis in the advocacy literature of the Rethinking Pacific Education Initiative, the article highlights the possibility of a much more Pacific regionally facing Nauru over the next few decades as a result of relatively recent regional instrumentalities such as the Pacific Island Forum's 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.

국제개발협력 분야 경과적 일자리 근로자에 대한 사회적 지지가 직무소진에 미치는 영향 분석

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence on job burnout of KOICA Program Coordinators, one
 of transitional jobs generated by South Korea's Official Development Assistance(ODA) program. Transitional
 jobs, one of the direct job creation projects, are expected to have stepping-stone effects, facilitating the
 transition to better jobs with more work experience and capacity. However, there have been less interest and
 analysis on work condition and positive organizational behavior of transitional workers, especially in the field of
 international development cooperation, in spite of their contribution toward aid effectiveness and their potential
 as key human resources in the future. In this respect, this study analyzed the influence of perceived support
 from Coordinators' supervisor and organization on their job burnout, and how subfactors of
 self-determination--autonomy, competence, and relatedness-- moderate these effects. Specifically, the analysis
 used 86 valid responses from a survey conducted on Coordinators who worked for more than one year
 between 2011 and 2020, and a OLS Regression was performed. The findings indicate that percieved support
 from superiors has a direct and significant effect on alleviating job burnout, and all self-determination
 subfactors also have positive moderating effects that amplified this alleviation. These insights deepen the
 understanding of the work environment and burnout among workers in transitional positions, underscoring the
 significance of perceived supervisor support and self-determination factors in managing their job burnout. This
 study extends the research domain of organizational behavior toward transitional jobs in international
 development cooperation and offers implications for the necessary to establish organizational management
 strategy promoting their positive work experiences.

Making development assistance work forAfrica: from aid-dependent disease control to the new public health order.

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has revealed the fragility of pre-crisis African health systems, in which too little was invested over the past decades. Yet, development assistance for health (DAH) more than doubled between 2000 and 2020, raising questions about the role and effectiveness of DAH in triggering and sustaining health systems investments. This paper analyses the inter-regional variations and trends of DAH in Africa in relation to some key indicators of health system financing and service delivery performance, examining (1) the trends of DAH in the five regional economic communities of Africa since 2000; (2) the relationship between DAH spending and health system performance indicators and (3) the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of aid substitution for domestic financing, policy-making and accountability. Africa is diverse and the health financing picture has evolved differently in its subregions. DAH represents 10% of total spending in Africa in 2020, but DAH benefitted Southern Africa significantly more than other regions over the past two decades. Results in terms of progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) are slightly associated with DAH. Overall, DAH may also have substituted for public domestic funding and undermined the formation of sustainable UHC financing models. As the COVID-19 crisis hit, DAH did not increase at the country level. We conclude that the current architecture of official development assistance (ODA) is no longer fit for purpose. It requires urgent transformation to place countries at the centre of its use. Domestic financing of public health institutions should be at the core of African social contracts. We call for a deliberate reassessment of ODA modalities, repurposing DAH on what it could sustainably finance. Finally, we call for a new transparent framework to monitor DAH that captures its contribution to building institutions and systems.