Recipient Countries Research Articles

Dissecting the Role of Donors in Capacity Building for HIV/AIDS Treatment, Care and Support: A Case Study of an Antiretroviral Therapy Programme in Zimbabwe

Donor involvement in development activities in the Global South has been questioned for failing to capacitate communities in the recipient country. Therefore, the need to establish whether the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) antiretroviral treatment (ART) programme in Zimbabwe contributed to capacity building for HIV and AIDS support, care and treatment triggered this study. A qualitative methodology involving semi-structured interviews with purposively selected participants was adopted. As a result of the MSF programme, community-based clinics created ART support groups which facilitated easy access to medication and health-related information. Dispensing of medication and testing could also be done in these clinics, which were previously the district hospitals. These interventions reduced waiting periods and long-distance travel to access HIV and AIDS care, support and treatment, thus improving the healthcare quality. Community-influenced strategies are recommended to sustain these improvements.

Does Climate Finance Really Affect Ecological Quality in Developing Countries? Fresh Evidence From the Method of Moments Quantile Regression Approach

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the impact of climate finance on the ecological footprint (EF) of 111 developing countries from 2002 to 2018 to determine its real effects on ecological quality. The study applied the method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) to address nonnormality, individual heterogeneity of the EF and outliers. Additionally, the connection between climate finance and the EF is revisited, considering recipient countries' income diversity and the nature of climate finance. In addition, the analysis is repeated by splitting the sample periods into 2002–2009 and 2010–2018, subject to COP15. The results indicate that climate finance has negative and significant impacts on EFs across all quantiles (Q0.25, Q0.5, Q0.75 and Q0.9), inferring that climate finance robustly improves the ecological quality of developing countries. These findings further imply that mitigation finance has a robust effect on improving ecological quality across all distributions. In addition, adaptation finance has heterogeneous effects on EFs, positively impacting ecological quality at higher quantiles. Moreover, the effects of climate finance on ecological quality depend on income heterogeneity, having a negative effect on the EF of middle‐income countries and an insignificant effect on low‐income countries. The results further showed that the positive effects of climate finance on ecological quality became stronger after COP15. The findings are robust to alternative methods. Policy implications are suggested based on the findings.

India’s Vaccine Diplomacy and Global Health Governance: A Soft Power Approach in the Context of Public Policy and Religious Values

Research Problem: India's vaccine diplomacy during the Covid-19 pandemic has not only emerged as a significant tool of soft power but also involves moral and ethical dimensions closely tied to religious values and public policy. In the midst of a global crisis, the interaction between India’s vaccine diplomacy and the religious and public policy frameworks of recipient nations requires deeper exploration. Research purposes: This article aims to analyze the role of India’s vaccine diplomacy in relation to public policy and religious values in recipient countries, examining how India’s global health initiatives influence moral and ethical perceptions of vaccine distribution, fairness, and international solidarity. Research methods: The study employs policy analysis through a comprehensive literature review, focusing on the relationship between vaccine diplomacy, public policy, and responses from religious communities in the recipient countries. It also explores the ethical and spiritual dimensions of India’s health diplomacy approach and its impact on public health policies. Results and Discussion: The findings reveal that India’s vaccine diplomacy, through initiatives like "Vaccine Maitri," not only strengthens political ties with neighboring and global countries but also interacts with religious value systems, influencing public acceptance of vaccines. Moral values such as solidarity and justice, integral to many religious traditions, reinforce positive responses to the vaccine initiatives. Additionally, in some nations, religious communities have played a significant role in promoting vaccine acceptance by framing the health response in moral terms. Research Implications and Contributions: This research highlights the importance of integrating religious values into public health policy, particularly in global health contexts. Vaccine diplomacy rooted in moral solidarity and universal ethical principles, aligned with religious values, has the potential to enhance international cooperation and reduce vaccine hesitancy. Thus, this study contributes to understanding how religion and public policy can collaborate effectively in addressing global health challenges.

Determinants and effects of climate finance in the transport sector

We examine the determinants of climate-related development finance flows to the transportation sector and their relationship with CO2 emission levels. The mitigation fund allocation is particularly correlated with the demographic characteristics of recipient countries; however, the correlation with per capita income and emissions seems to be weak. In contrast, equity considerations appear to be the main determinants of adaptation fund allocation. Finally, we find some evidence of a significant negative relationship between mitigation investments and emissions per capita and while the overall effect is modest, it tends to be most marked in countries with the highest per capita emissions. Thus, the fact that countries with the highest emissions per capita are not receiving relatively more investments may be hampering the effectiveness of climate finance.

Who funds whose infrastructure? Country dyadic analysis of global project finance loans

Global project finance investments have become one of the primary funding mechanisms for large infrastructure projects worldwide over the past few decades. This paper examines the country-level dynamics of global project finance loans from 1981 to 2018, using data from all project finance deals reported in the DealScan database. Our analysis reveals that most international project finance loans originate from banks and financial institutions in advanced democracies, while the recipient countries vary widely in terms of regime type and economic development. Through systematic visualization and statistical analysis, we find that transnational capital flows for infrastructure projects are more likely to occur between countries with similar political systems or between those with starkly different regimes. This finding indicates significant lending and borrowing between full democracies and closed autocracies, suggesting that investments raised in liberal democracies enable some of the most closed dictatorships to finance their infrastructure development. The study suggests that closed and repressive regimes might substantially benefit from the globalized project financing system, warranting increased attention from scholars in International Political Economy on political implications of the globalized project finance market.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Vaccine Imperialism

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed and exacerbated the global inequalities regarding the availability and access to vaccines. Many terms have appeared in the academic literature (“vaccine colonialism,” “vaccine nationalism,” “vaccine apartheid”) trying to capture and interpret these inequalities, failing in most cases to realistically explain the upstream causes of the observed injustices. A Marxist perspective on the contrary emphasizes the structural causes of inequalities in capitalism and attributes them to the existence of economic exploitation. “Vaccine imperialism,” which refers to the control that advanced industrialized countries exert on the development, production, and distribution of vaccines at the expense of less-developed economies, can describe and explain in a more realistic way the observed inequalities during the pandemic. Our study proposes a circuit of vaccine imperialism that explains how economic imperialist exploitation takes place via transfers of value from less-developed economies (vaccine recipient countries) to imperialist economies (vaccine producing and patent holder countries) using four different channels: (a) protection of intellectual property (IP) rights (patents), (b) earnings from royalty payments for the use of vaccines (monopolistic prices and profits), (c) exercise of monopoly power on the production and distribution of vaccines (control over the quantity of vaccines supplied, exclusion of competitors through vaccine licensing), and (d) public debt servicing. JEL Classification: I14, I18, D43, F54, F55, H51

Impact of Remittance Income on Women’s Empowerment in Nepal

Remittances are a crucial component of the global economy and a significant source of income for developing nations. They contribute significantly to the economic growth of recipient countries by providing investment opportunities, boosting consumption and women's empowerment, and reducing poverty. The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of remittance income on women’s empowerment in Nepal. The research used a descriptive cross-sectional design and collected primary data through a questionnaire. Five-point likert type scaling technique was used to obtain a response to each question. Data were collected by interviewing individuals who receive remittances from banks and cooperatives in Bhimad City Tanahun. Household were randomly selected as samples including 16 from Bhimad Municipality, 8 from Rishing Rural Municipality, 10 from Ghiriing Rural Municipality, and 6 from Myadge Rural Municipality. All the households in the study area receiving remittance income throughout the year 2023 were considered as the population of the study. Descriptive statistics were employed to present the data through mean, t-test, and percentages. The results of the study showed that remittances significantly contributed to women's financial independence, education, and healthcare access, poverty alleviation, enhancing decision-making power within households, and promoting participation in community development. The consistently high p-value was 17.30 and lowest p-value was 13.30, high and low p-value indicates that there was a strong consensus among respondents regarding the positive impact of remittances on women's empowerment. The findings have significant implications for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. It highlights the need the targeted interventions that maximize the positive impact of remittances on women's empowerment while addressing potential challenges. Overall, the study emphasizes the need to recognize the critical role of remittances in promoting women's empowerment and the importance of developing effective strategies to harness their potential.

Core funding and the performance of international organizations: Evidence from UNDP projects

AbstractScholarship on the administration of international organizations (IOs) has extensively discussed how autonomy influences their performance. While some argue that autonomy increases performance through greater adaptability, others warn that it may increase the risk of agency slack. Authors typically distinguish between three types of performance: output, outcome, and impact performance. We focus on core funding as a key source of IO autonomy and argue that projects with more core funding show decreased output performance but an increased outcome and impact performance. Our empirical analysis relies on results from data on up to 3590 development projects run by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 128 recipient countries between 2004 and 2020. Subsequently, we test the impact of more core funding on project volumes (output performance), objectives achieved in individual projects (outcome performance), and their effects on sub‐national human development in project regions (impact performance). Our findings suggest that, although reliance on core resources is associated with lower output performance (less funding), it may result in stronger outcome and impact performance, as reflected by more objectives achieved and a higher sub‐national HDI where UNDP projects are implemented. Our findings have important implications for debates on the effectiveness of global governance.

Multilevel actor networks in China’s growing fossil-fuel based role in the global electricity sector

Abstract Chinese investments into fossil fuel-based electricity generation capacity under its Belt and Road Initiative will create lock-in for decades. Despite China’s recent rise as major public finance provider for the electricity sector of the developing world and the related environmental impacts, there is limited knowledge of the extent and characteristics of non-Chinese participation in Chinese-funded projects. We apply complexity theory approaches and network modelling on a new dataset that links funding activities of Developmental Institutions (Chinese Developmental Institutions (CDIs), Western-backed Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs)) and the involvement of companies in different roles (i.e., as direct investors, contractors, equipment suppliers, and other service providers) to power plants around the world at the unit-level (1999-2020). Previous literature suggests that CDI funded projects show preference to Chinese commercial partners, but we find more than 70% include non-Chinese participants. This also applies for fossil-fuel based technologies where we observe increasing shares of international actors that together account for nearly every third commercial linkage. However, involvement levels and interaction patterns not only differ by technologies (fossils, hydro, non-hydro renewable, nuclear) but also by the time period and types of commercial partners and we observe overall convergence between the CDI- and MDB-supported power plant networks over time. The decreasing involvement of Chinese companies in CDI-funded projects, across technologies, in favour of increasing Western involvement, has important implications for development and climate policy on which we elaborate. However, the failure of both MDB and CDI funding to promote domestic company involvement in the recipient countries may be the largest failing of both sets of agencies in the pursuit of development outcomes.

Can China's aid promote the position upgrading of recipient countries in the global value chains

AbstractThis paper examines the effect of China's aid on the position upgrading of recipient countries in the global value chains (GVCs). It is found that China's aid can significantly promote the position upgrading of recipient countries in the GVCs. Mechanism tests have shown that China's aid has ultimately contributed to upgrading the recipient countries' position in the GVC through the three channels of upgrading their technological level, improving their infrastructure, and promoting their level of industrialization. The findings of this paper contribute to promoting research on the effectiveness of foreign aid in the development of recipient countries.

Impact of foreign remittances, disaggregated energy use, on environmental pollution in the top recipient countries for remittances

AbstractForeign remittance has become an essential source of wealth in recent decades, with far‐reaching effects on various economic indices and CO2 emissions. This research examines the impact of remittances and disaggregated energy consumption on CO2 emissions in an ‘Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC)’ framework utilising a global sample of 46 top remittance‐receiving countries during 1996–2020. The study confirms the EKC proposition and demonstrates that a decline in CO2 emissions is connected to remittance, renewable energy use and financial development. Additionally, our results stand up to various robustness tests, ensuring the reliability of our findings. Our research suggests that to reduce the adverse effects of non‐renewable energy on environmental quality, governments, regulators and other stakeholders should implement rigorous market regulations and allocate substantial financial resources to R&D for innovating environmentally friendly production technologies. The government may also provide incentives for importing environmentally friendly production tech, such as tax rebates and subsidies. Lastly, foreign remittance and renewable energy are two tools governments may employ to cut CO2 emissions and improve environmental quality.

Following the Money: Is Humanitarian Aid for Gender-Based Violence Responsive to Heightened Risk Factors of Gender-Based Violence?

Women and girls suffer disproportionately from humanitarian emergencies, especially in terms of heightened risks of gender-based violence (GBV). Despite a wealth of evidence documenting these risks and long-term consequences, humanitarian funding for GBV remains minimal. Through statistical analysis of the recently published and first-ever national-level estimates of humanitarian aid for GBV, this article explores whether humanitarian aid for GBV is responsive to rates and heightened risk factors of GBV in emergencies. The results indicate that humanitarian funding for GBV is generally not significantly associated with rates of known risk factors of GBV. While these findings are not surprising, they are important in exposing humanitarian shortfalls and identifying tangible entry points for improved humanitarian practice. HIGHLIGHTS Disparities between required and actual humanitarian aid for gender-based violence (GBV) are widening. Humanitarian aid for GBV is not associated with levels of GBV in recipient countries. Humanitarian aid for GBV is not associated with many known risk factors of GBV in emergencies. Results suggest the need to scale up humanitarian aid for GBV and for better systems to track allocation of funds.

Влияние трудовой миграции на технологическое развитие стран ЕАЭС

The formation of a single labor market in the EAEU creates new opportunities and risks for national economies: the free movement of labor resources within the integration association affects not only the level of wages or employment, but also leads to more complex, complex consequences for donor and recipient countries. Using correlation analysis, the paper verifies the hypothesis that the reverse spillover effect associated with the return of migrant workers to their home countries contributes not only to the growth of value added in labor donor countries, but also stimulates demand for new technologies and services, which ultimately leads to an increase in the level of technological development of EAEU countries. As a result of the analysis, it was found that there is no statistically significant relationship between the variables under study – labor migration does not have a significant impact on the level of technological development of the EAEU countries. The results of the study can be used to develop a strategy of technological development of the EAEU countries, taking into account the parameters of external labor migration.

Does donor country impact the efficacy of health aid?: Evidence from the COVID‐19 pandemic

AbstractDuring the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic, many nations relied on unprecedented amounts of health‐sector aid to efficiently vaccinate their populations. These vaccines and supporting materials came from a variety of traditional and nontraditional donors, with the majority donor differing by recipient country. Previous research has examined the political benefits to donor states of providing health aid before and during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Less is known, however, about how recipients view health aid based on the donor and whether this impacts health aid resource use. This research aims to investigate whether recipient preferences over the source of health assistance affects the efficacy of aid, while using a novel vax‐score method to account for existing trends and predictors of vaccine uptake. Using COVID‐19 vaccine donation and uptake statistics collected by the Duke Global Health Innovation Center, the IMF, and the World Health Organization, we compare vaccine uptake across many vaccine recipient countries to investigate the impact of vaccine origin (Chinese vs. non‐Chinese source). We find that while increased donated vaccines per capita significantly raises the proportion of the population vaccinated at 12 months, the source of the donated vaccines has no impact. Previously reported recipient‐side concerns over vaccine origin have no impact on population‐level uptake at 12 months. Additionally, we observe that a vax‐score metric derived from vaccine uptake of a suite of childhood vaccines predicts COVID‐19 vaccine uptake beyond differences in GDP and GDP per capita. These results have implications for health aid policy and future research into foreign aid efficacy.

How to Read Donor Development Policies: Developing Aids for Reading and the Case of Finland 1993–2023

Since the 1990s, and accelerating with the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the goals for development aid in donor-government development policies have proliferated. Goal structures have also become complex. It is, therefore, often difficult to read a given donor’s intentions from officially declared policy: what exactly it claims being committed to accomplishing with aid in recipient countries and through what means? Furthermore, when goals and means for aid are non-transparent, it becomes more difficult to evaluate or assess donor development policies as officially promised action plans. Related to but not identical to Hall’s policy paradigm concept [Hall, P, 1993, ‘Policy paradigms, social learning, and the state: The case of economic policymaking in Britain’, Comparative Politics, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 275–296] this study aims to develop an analytical framework for reconstructing given donor’s aid logic of goals and means. The framework keeps attention on tracking everywhere two elementary answers from direct or implied statements in official policy documents: what change or changes exactly a given donor claims to promote in recipient countries and through what actions or measures? With interest in Finnish development policies, all the main policy documents for three decades (1993–2023) were analysed. The finding was an apparently enduring core of policy understanding used in Finnish development policies, giving similar stated logic for aid for three decades.

Foreign Aid, Economic Growth, and Poverty Reduction in Bolivia

ABSTRACT: Foreign aid has been a critical instrument in addressing economic development and poverty reduction in many low-income countries. This article investigates the relationship between foreign aid, economic growth, and poverty reduction in Bolivia, shedding light on how various factors, including institutional quality, human capital, economic freedom, and the level of democracy influence the effectiveness of foreign aid. Employing smooth transition autoregressive models, the analysis highlights the intricate interplay between foreign aid, economic growth, and poverty reduction. The empirical findings provide evidence that foreign aid exerts a positive influence on both economic growth and poverty reduction, especially when aligned with investments in human capital and the enhancement of economic freedom. However, the revelations brought forth by this study challenge the conventional wisdom, revealing that these relationships are not linear. In emphasizing the nuanced nature of aid’s impact on economic development and poverty reduction, this study contributes significantly to the ongoing discourse on foreign aid efficacy. It underscores the importance of tailoring aid interventions to the specific contextual intricacies of the recipient country. The interplay between foreign aid, institutional quality, human capital, economic freedom, and democratic governance makes clear that a tailored, context-specific approach is needed for foreign aid to have the best possible impact. If the case of Bolivia serves as a useful example for other developing nations, the principal recommendation emanating from these findings is that foreign aid must be carefully tailored to the unique needs and challenges of the recipient nation. A one-size-fits-all approach is insufficient in harnessing aid’s full potential to foster sustainable economic growth and meaningful poverty reduction. The findings presented here serve not only as a contribution to the academic literature but also as a roadmap for policymakers and development practitioners navigating the complex terrain of foreign aid. By emphasizing the intricate dynamics of foreign aid and other important institutional, economic, and human capital factors, the empirical findings in this article advance the understanding of foreign aid’s role as a catalyst for transformative change and set the stage for more targeted, effective interventions in the pursuit of economic development and poverty eradication.

Does foreign aid play a role in promoting economic development? Evidence from US aid

Does foreign aid always contribute to economic development in recipient countries? This question has never been fully addressed. Using data on US aid to 128 countries worldwide from 2000 to 2019, this paper examines the relationship between US aid and economic growth in recipient countries, and the moderating role of institutional quality and absorptive capacity in shaping this relationship. Different types of US aid are considered, including economic aid and military aid. The results show that the relationship between economic aid and economic growth is U-shaped, while military aid has a positive linear relationship with economic growth. Moreover, we find that the institutional quality of the recipient country negatively moderates the relationship between US aid and economic growth. Additionally, the absorptive capacity of the recipient country positively moderates the relationship between economic aid and economic growth, whereas the relationship between military aid and economic growth is not affected by absorptive capacity.

Aid for trade and value chain cooperation: evidence from China

ABSTRACT The impact of Aid for Trade (AfT) on the development of global value chains (GVCs) has attracted much attention in recent years. Based on the cross-country panel data of China’s AfT and value chain cooperation (VCC) between China and recipient countries from 2000 to 2016, this paper examines the impact of China’s AfT on VCC between China and recipient countries. The study found that China’s AfT can significantly increase the degree of VCC between China and the recipient countries. Further mechanism tests show that China’s AfT has mainly promoted VCC between China and recipient countries through two channels: improving their infrastructure and reducing trade costs. The research shows that AfT can effectively promote win-win cooperation and common development between donor and recipient countries. In addition, from the perspective of GVCs, aid is effective for developing recipient countries.

Does aid for trade promote FDI from enterprises of donors to recipient countries? Based on the spatial spillover effect of China's Aid for Trade

AbstractThis paper investigates the direct and spatial spillover effects of China's Aid for Trade (AfT) on Chinese enterprises' foreign direct investment (FDI) in recipient countries. The results show that China's AfT can effectively promote FDI by Chinese firms in recipient countries, and the promotion effect is determined by both the direct effect and the spatial spillover effect. The mechanism test finds that China's AfT can promote FDI by Chinese firms through improving the infrastructure of the recipient countries and enhancing the image of the residents of the recipient countries toward China. The study suggests that the introduction of spatial spillover effects in the study of aid is of great significance in promoting the development of research in the field of aid. This paper enriches the conclusions of aid research in the field of economics on the one hand and broadens the boundaries of aid effectiveness research on the other hand.

Foreign Aid and Recipient Countries’ Participation in Global Value Chains: A Comparative Study Based on Chinese and U.S. Aid

Foreign Aid and Recipient Countries’ Participation in Global Value Chains: A Comparative Study Based on Chinese and U.S. Aid