Role Of Official Development Assistance Research Articles

Impact of Foreign Direct Investment, Official Development Assistance, and Financial Development on Economic Growth: An Empirical Analysis in Selected Asian Countries

This research analyses the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) and official development assistance with financial development in determining the economic growth (EG) of selected Asian countries by using data from 2003 to 2018. In this research, we investigate the important role of official development assistance (ODA) and foreign direct investment along with other variables affecting GDP in selected Asian countries. By using panel data, a random effect technique is used to highlight the impact of ODA and FDI on GDP in selected Asian countries. The study results showed that official development assistance, urban population growth, and financial development have increased GDP in these countries. Findings suggest that a stable economic and political environment must be provided for further foreign aid and foreign direct investment. More credit facilities must be provided to the general public for more investment and economic growth.

Role of Official Development Assistance, Foreign Direct Investment and Trade Openness in Reducing Income Inequality: An Empirical Analysis from Selected Asian Countries

Income inequality has been increasing steadily in developing economies. Many factors are responsible for such income inequality and deteriorated economic growth in Asian economies. For this reason, a lot of debate has been made about reducing income inequality. Though the existing study also takes into account the important role of official development assistance, foreign direct investment, and trade openness in reducing income inequality in selected Asian countries, the study found that official development aid, foreign direct investment, trade openness, and labour force participation have greatly reduced income disparity in 10 Asian nations. For growth, good production and exports require more jobs. Globalization and international ties should be prioritized. Finally, economies need a stable economic and political environment to attract aid and foreign investment and grow and expand.

A Comparative Analysis of ODA and Growth in East Asia Pacific and Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper reports a comparative empirical analysis on the role of official development assistance (ODA) in influencing growth in East Asia Pacific (EAP) and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) regions. The distinct difference in growth patterns between these two regions in the past five decades motivates our research to examine what factors contributed to the difference in growth. This study examines, from the financial gap perspective, the role of foreign aid in promoting growth in the two regions. On this basis, our study constructs a theoretical framework by specifying a behavioral equation to examine the relationship between foreign aid and growth supported by capital formation and human resource development. The empirical inquiry uses: two-stage least square instrumental variable estimator; and the generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation of dynamic panel data model. The analytical results induce two conclusions: ODA impacts positively on economic growth in the EAP region but with time lagged effects, and ODA influences economic growth differently by region. The results from the dynamic GMM approach have shown that ODA contributed positively to economic growth in the EAP region but not in the SSA region. Hence, donors, recipients, and aid practitioners must reexamine aid effectiveness especially in the SSA region.

Development assistance for human resources for health, 1990–2020

BackgroundInvesting in the health workforce is key to achieving the health-related Sustainable Development Goals. However, achieving these Goals requires addressing a projected global shortage of 18 million health workers (mostly in low- and middle-income countries). Within that context, in 2016, the World Health Assembly adopted the WHO Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030. In the Strategy, the role of official development assistance to support the health workforce is an area of interest. The objective of this study is to examine progress on implementing the Global Strategy by updating previous analyses that estimated and examined official development assistance targeted towards human resources for health.MethodsWe leveraged data from IHME’s Development Assistance for Health database, COVID development assistance database and the OECD’s Creditor Reporting System online database. We utilized an updated keyword list to identify the relevant human resources for health-related activities from the project databases. When possible, we also estimated the fraction of human resources for health projects that considered and/or focused on gender as a key factor. We described trends, examined changes in the availability of human resources for health-related development assistance since the adoption of the Global Strategy and compared disease burden and availability of donor resources.ResultsSince 2016, development assistance for human resources for health has increased with a slight dip in 2019. In 2020, fueled by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it reached an all-time high of $4.1 billion, more than double its value in 2016 and a 116.5% increase over 2019. The highest share (42.4%) of support for human resources for health-related activities has been directed towards training. Since the adoption of the Global Strategy, donor resources for health workforce-related activities have on average increased by 13.3% compared to 16.0% from 2000 through 2015. For 47 countries identified by the WHO as having severe workforce shortages, the availability of donor resources remains modest.ConclusionsSince 2016, donor support for health workforce-related activities has increased. However, there are lingering concerns related to the short-term nature of activities that donor funding supports and its viability for creating sustainable health systems.

COVID-19 pandemic in Africa: Is it time for water, sanitation and hygiene to climb up the ladder of global priorities?

In the current pandemic context, it is necessary to remember the lessons learned from previous outbreaks in Africa, where the incidence of other diseases could rise if most resources are directed to tackle the emergency. Improving the access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) could be a win-win strategy, because the lack of these services not only hampers the implementation of preventive measures against SARS-CoV-2 (e.g. proper handwashing), but it is also connected to high mortality diseases (for example, diarrhoea and lower respiratory infections (LRI)). This study aims to build on the evidence-based link between other LRI and WASH as a proxy for exploring the potential vulnerability of African countries to COVID-19, as well as the role of other socioeconomic variables such as financial sources or demographic factors. The selected methodology combines several machine learning techniques to single out the most representative variables for the analysis, classify the countries according to their capacity to tackle public health emergencies and identify behavioural patterns for each group. Besides, conditional dependences between variables are inferred through a Bayesian network. Results show a strong relationship between low access to WASH services and high LRI mortality rates, and that migrant remittances could significantly improve the access to healthcare and WASH services. However, the role of Official Development Assistance (ODA) in enhancing WASH facilities in the most vulnerable countries cannot be disregarded, but it is unevenly distributed: for each 50–100 US$ of ODA per capita, the probability of directing more than 3 US$ to WASH ranges between 48% (Western Africa) and 8% (Central Africa).

Identifying differences and similarities between donors regarding the long-term allocation of official development assistance

ABSTRACT Advanced countries have pledged to mobilize additional financial resources to developing countries, including funding from multiple sources other than official development assistance (ODA), known as foreign aid. However, the effect of the novel coronavirus pandemic has raised doubts about the feasibility of such a pledge, highlighting, once again, the possible role of ODA and the importance of explaining its allocation, which could be of vital relevance for understanding its effectiveness. This study analyzes a vast number of bilateral and multilateral donors by applying a novel methodology in the context of aid allocation – principal-component factor analysis – covering the period 1990–2015. The results revealed four distinct clusters of donors: (i) the proportionally largest Western European donors, characterized by a significant number of beneficiaries, especially low-income countries; (ii) donors that are predominantly driven by structural links with recipients, especially links derived from colonial connections; (iii) a group of mainly Eastern European donors who are engaged with lower-income countries in Eastern Europe and Western Asia; and (iv) a group of Asian and Oceanian donors that select their partners mainly based on the geographical proximity criterion.

Foreign Aid and Adolescent Fertility Rate: Cross-Country Evidence

AbstractThis study examines the role of official development assistance (ODA) in affecting adolescent fertility rates in low- and middle-income countries. Approximately 95% of adolescent births occur in middle- and low-income countries, and the average adolescent fertility rate in low-income countries is five times higher than in high-income countries. Aid donors typically pursue multiple objectives when providing development aid, many of which can go beyond changes in per capita GDP and include human capital factors such as adolescent fertility and infant mortality. Using data over the period from 1995 to 2015, our results suggest that total ODA has a beneficial impact by lowering the adolescent fertility rate either directly or through the channel of income growth. Our results also show that this beneficial effect on the adolescent fertility rate is stronger in low-income countries than in middle-income countries. Findings based on sectoral aid suggest that health aid has a stronger effect than aid in other sectors.

President Trump’s Declarations on Official Development Assistance: A Change of Policy?

For years official development assistance (ODA) has been one of the most important forms of financial assistance provided to developing countries by highly developed countries. Despite the controversy over the effectiveness of assistance, it has become a permanent element of the international aid system. With the election of Donald Trump and one of the key slogans of his campaign – America first – the political climate around official development assistance is changing. The aim of the article is to analyze the role of official development assistance in political declarations of the current president of the United States.

NEW DIRECTION FOR EXTERNAL BORROWING MOBILIZATION AS A DEVELOPMENT FINANCING SOURCE OF THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM

The paper firstly provides an overview of the country’s public debt status before looking in more detail on its external borrowings. By reviewing the regional experiences in mobilizing external loans for their development when these neighboring countries reached the LMIC status, the paper argues the key role of Official Development Assistance (ODA) in such countries not as filling the savings gap. Instead, it is to reduce the burden of importing essential capital good and technology during industrialization, given that ODA flows are significant to the size of the economy and consistent over time. The paper concludes with key lessons and recommendations for Vietnam in formulating its new strategy on external borrowings, including using oversea aid to relax the balance of payment constraint; using ODA to finance growth-enhancing projects; directing ODA flows to viable projects to enhance the country’s productive capacity; and developing transparent, consistent and predictable project selection system.

Role of Official Development Assistance in Enhancing Resilient Coastal Community in Small Island Developing States

Choi, Y.E.; Jin, J. Y.; Chang, Y. S.,; Jang, B., and Chon, J., 2018. Role of Official Development Assistance in Enhancing Resilient Coastal Community in Small Island Developing States. In: Shim, J.-S.; Chun, I., and Lim, H.S. (eds.), Proceedings from the International Coastal Symposium (ICS) 2018 (Busan, Republic of Korea). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 85, pp. 1466–1470. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.The purpose of this study was to discuss the role of official development assistance (ODA) in improving the resilience of coastal communities through a case study of a marine science cooperation project supported by Korea International Cooperation Agency for Caribbean small-island developing states (SIDS). Resilience characteristics (social-technological-environmental domain, spatial scale, transformability, adaptability, and self-organizing ability) were examined. As a result of the scale-domain matrix and cascading effect analysis, this project formed a multi-level governance model and attracted voluntary participation from various stakeholders. The role of this project to improve the resilience of the Caribbean was spatially extended from fisheries and coastal tourism infrastructure to coastal communities, regions, countries, and Caribbean Islands. Regarding aspects of transformability, adaptability, and self-organizing, a coastal expert group (Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology) and an educational institution (University of the West Indies) formed a network to provide training programs that enable countries to acquire coastline monitoring technology and adapt and transit on their own. This study holds significance in terms of providing directions to future ODA projects to improve sustainable development of SIDS and quality of life of coastal inhabitants.

Development aid and the diffusion of technology: Improved cookstoves in Kenya and Rwanda

This paper analyses the role of official development assistance (ODA) in the evolution of Technological Innovation Systems (TISs) of improved cookstoves in Kenya and Rwanda. Functionally balanced TISs are central to the diffusion of new technologies and practices. We find that ODA has significantly influenced major innovation activities related to improved cookstoves in both Kenya and Rwanda over the last 30 years. However, donors’ funding has been focused mainly on the development and diffusion of technical knowledge. We find that this pattern of ODA support has not fostered balanced and effective Technology Innovation Systems, and that this has contributed to the failure to achieve widespread diffusion of improved cookstoves. We develop a quasi-evolutionary model for the long-term and systematic ODA support of innovation systems to build sustainable renewable energy TISs in developing countries.

Decentralized Official Development Assistance and its Specificity: The Case of the Basque Country

Official Development Assistance (ODA) is undergoing a process of debate. The setting of the Millennium Development Goals brought a significant boost in the amounts of money spent on ODA, which was later reinforced by the Monterrey Conference (2002), where efforts were made to redefine the role of ODA compared to other growing private flows, setting a new agenda to finance the development. The discussion on aid effectiveness and the Paris Declaration (2005) seemed to add opportunities for rethinking ODA, and giving it a new meaning.However, during the first decade of the 21st century, and especially with the advent of the global crisis, we face a picture of ODA tendency towards stagnation, with serious doubts about the fulfilment of its commitments, and without a clear definition of its role.In this context, the rise of decentralized co-operation driven by local governments in some European countries is a poorly understood phenomenon, which may offer alternatives to redefine the role of ODA, but has not yet clearly defined its specificity and potential.

South Korea as an emerging donor: Challenges and changes on its entering OECD/DAC

AbstractSouth Korea's official development assistance (ODA) has been increasing rapidly and will continue to do so. Korea is one of the few countries which have successfully transitioned from a recipient to a donor. It became a member of DAC (development assistance committee), OECD in November 2009. Korea's ODA policy, along with its growth in quantity, is at a crossroads for the enhancement of its quality. Discussions and debates are going on regarding the reforms in Korea's ODA activities, and this paper examines key issues raised. It first reviews the past and present of Korea's ODA, and identifies major characteristics including a low ODA/GNI ratio, a high percentage of concessional loans compared to grants, a high portion of tied aid, regional bias and a relatively large number of recipients. The paper argues that those characteristics arise from a lack of consensus on some fundamental issues like the objective of ODA, positioning of Korea's ODA as an emerging donor and the nature of aid to North Korea. We also argue that a shift of ODA policy is required to promote reform, based on a thorough reflection on the role of ODA in the alleviation of poverty and promoting sustainable development in developing countries, rather than serving as an economic tool. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Growth, Poverty Reduction and Development Assistance in Asia: Options and Prospects

This article examines a number of policy challenges and dilemmas arising from the pattern of growth and poverty reduction in Asia, central to which is the fact that growth and poverty reduction have been more rapid in Asia than in any other region in the last decade, and yet Asia still contains the majority of the world's poor. The article examines the record of achievement, possible future trends including emerging patterns of inequality, and likely future priorities for poverty‐reduction policies. It assesses the role of official development assistance and suggests how it may evolve in future, in part linked with responses to a number of challenges shared between Asian and OECD countries, including energy supply, environmental issues including climate change, and financial stability.

Science and Technology in Development: The Changing Role of Official Development Assistance

Science and Technology in Development: The Changing Role of Official Development Assistance