Aid and Political Conditionality


Book Description

Foreign aid has increasingly become subject to political conditionality. In the 1980s some institutions made aid dependent upon the recipient countries' economic policy reforms. Market liberalisation was the primary instrument and objective. In the 1990s such conditionality was brought one step further; aid was now linked to political reforms, affecting recipient countries' governing systems, requiring democracy, human rights and 'good governance'. This volume looks at these developments and considers the conditionality policies of several European aid donors. Such policies are also considered from recipient perspectives, both from the Third World and Russia, and the issue is also considered from a historical perspective.




Political Conditionality


Book Description

Political conditionality involves the linking of development aid to certain standards of observance of human rights and (liberal) democracy in recipient countries. Although this may seem to be an innocent policy, it has the potential to bring about a dramatic change in the basic principles of the international system: putting human rights first means putting respect for individuals and rights before respect for the sovereignty of states.




Foreign Aid and Political Reform


Book Description

The linkage of development aid to the promotion of human rights, democracy and good governance was a striking departure in the post-cold war foreign policies of Northern 'donor' governments. Uniquely, this book provides a systematic and comparative investigation of policies and practices in the 1990s to promote political reform in Southern 'recipient' countries by four donors, the governments of Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States, plus the European Union. The use of both carrot and stick, that is democracy assistance and aid sanctions, is examined and sharp criticism of current practice offered.




Aid and the Political Economy of Policy Change


Book Description

Confronts the theory of conditionality with its limitations in practice, analyses the reasons for these limitations, and suggests constructive alternatives.




Aid and Reform in Africa


Book Description

Finally, when the country enters the second generation of reforms, such as public sector institutional reform, short-term, conditionality-based aid can once again be harmful - by reducing ownership, participation, and sustainability of the reform process."--BOOK JACKET.




Assessing Aid


Book Description

Assessing Aid determines that the effectiveness of aid is not decided by the amount received but rather the institutional and policy environment into which it is accepted. It examines how development assistance can be more effective at reducing global poverty and gives five mainrecommendations for making aid more effective: targeting financial aid to poor countries with good policies and strong economic management; providing policy-based aid to demonstrated reformers; using simpler instruments to transfer resources to countries with sound management; focusing projects oncreating and transmitting knowledge and capacity; and rethinking the internal incentives of aid agencies.




International Aid, Administrative Reform and the Politics of Eu Accession


Book Description

This book provides a detailed analysis of the dimensions and dynamics of the role of international aid in the reform and capacity development of public service in post-communist Albania. It challenges the technocratic, results-based management frameworks used by aid organizations and reports of official donors operating in the country context, and offers a qualitative and critical assessment of the role of aid in administrative reform and capacity building. Secondly, the book highlights the specificity of the national politico-administrative context and its ability to modify the process of policy transfer from aid organizations to the Albanian bureaucracy. In doing so, it illustrates the domestic challenges in the transfer process towards policy learning and makes a valuable contribution to the debate over the (voluntary vs. coercive) administrative reform in Southeast Europe in relation to the politics of EU accession. ​Artan Karini is Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Policy and Administration at the American University in Cairo, Egypt, and Adjunct Research Professor at EURUS (European, Russian and Eurasian Studies), Carleton University, Canada.




Foreign Aid In A Changing World


Book Description

* An accessible introduction for all social science students * A balanced, comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of the issues and trends * A guide to the past, present and future of foreign aid Foreign aid has undergone considerable changes over the past fifty years. Foreign Aid in a Changing World explores the changes and locates them in a context of wider economic and political developments. These are the developments affecting all countries, in North, South, East and West, and in particular, the changing relations among them. The book analyses the different reasons why some countries - both in the developing world and former communist states - seem to need assistance. It critically surveys the values-based and interests-based arguments in favour of aid and its many forms; encompasses the important non-governmental and multilateral dimensions, as well as the bilateral flows, at national and sub-national levels; and focuses particularly on the contemporary emphasis on making aid dependent on democratization and 'good government'. Peter Burnell examines the principal influences on foreign aid, what makes aid controversial, and whether it has a future. He provides an important text for all students of international relations and development studies across the social science disciplines.




The Development Dance


Book Description

In a book full of directly applicable lessons for policymakers, Haley J. Swedlund explores why foreign aid is delivered in different ways at different times, and why various approaches prove to be politically unsustainable. She finds that no aid-delivery mechanism has yet resolved commitment problems in the donor-recipient relationship; bargaining compromises break down and have to be renegotiated; frustration grows; new ways of delivering aid gain traction over existing practices; and the dance resumes. Swedlund draws on hundreds of interviews with key decision makers representing both donor agencies and recipient governments, policy and archival documents in Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, and an original survey of top-level donor officials working across twenty countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. This wealth of data informs Swedlund’s analysis of fads and fashions in the delivery of foreign aid and the interaction between effectiveness and aid delivery. The central message of The Development Dance is that if we want to know whether an aid delivery mechanism is likely to be sustained over the long term, we need to look at whether it induces credible commitments from both donor agencies and recipient governments over the long term.




Inclusive Aid


Book Description

Pt. 1. Challenges and opportunities -- pt. 2. Power, procedures and relationships -- pt. 3. The way forward.