Foreign Aid and Foreign Policy


Book Description

This timely work presents cutting-edge analysis of the problems of U.S. foreign assistance programs - why these problems have not been solved in the past, and how they might be solved in the future. The book focuses primarily on U.S. foreign assistance and foreign policy as they apply to nation building, governance, and democratization. The expert contributors examine issues currently in play, and also trace the history and evolution of many of these problems over the years. They address policy concerns as well as management and organizational factors as they affect programs and policies. "Foreign Aid and Foreign Policy" includes several chapter-length case studies (on Iraq, Pakistan, Ghana, Haiti, and various countries in Eastern Europe and Africa), but the bulk of the book presents broad coverage of general topics such as foreign aid and security, NGOs and foreign aid, capacity building, and building democracy abroad. Each chapter offers recommendations on how to improve the U.S. system of aid in the context of foreign policy.




The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Poverty


Book Description

The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Poverty builds a common scholarly ground in the study of poverty by bringing together an international, inter-disciplinary group of scholars to provide their perspectives on the issue. Contributors engage in discussions about the leading theories and conceptual debates regarding poverty, the most salient topics in poverty research, and the far-reaching consequences of poverty on the individual and societal level.




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.




Politics and the Effectiveness of Foreign Aid


Book Description

Critics of foreign aid programs have long argued that poverty reflects government failure. In this paper I analyze the effectiveness of foreign aid programs to gain insights into political regimes in aid recipient countries. My analytical framework shows how three stylized political/economic regimes labeled egalitarian, elitist and laissez-faire would use foreign aid. I then test reduced form equations using data on nonmilitary aid flows to 96 countries. I find that models of elitist political regimes best predict the impact of foreign aid. Aid does not significantly increase investment and growth, nor benefit the poor as measured by improvements in human development indicators, but it does increase the size of government. I also find that the impact of aid does not vary according to whether recipient governments are liberal democratic or highly repressive. But liberal political regimes and democracies, ceteris paribus, have on average 30% lower infant mortality than the least free regimes. This may be due to greater empowerment of the poor under liberal regimes even though the political elite continues to receive the benefits of aid programs. An implication is that short term aid targeted to support new liberal regimes may be a more successful means of reducing poverty than current programs.




Poverty Alleviation and Poverty of Aid


Book Description

Aid effectiveness has emerged as an intensely debated issue amongst policy makers, donors, development practitioners, civil society and academics during the past decade. This debate revolves around one important question: does official development assistance complement, duplicate or disregard the local resource endowment in offering support to recipient economies? This book draws on Pakistan’s experience in responding to this question with a diverse range of examples. It focuses on a central idea: no aid effectiveness without an effective receiving mechanism. Pakistan is among the top aid recipient countries in the developing economies. It was a shining model in the sixties and it ranks among the highly underperforming countries after the new millennium. This book offers an insight into the dynamics of success and failure of Pakistan in availing foreign financial and technical assistance for human development and poverty alleviation. It draws on field experiences to present case studies on water, shelter, health, education, and health and safety at work to identify the causes and consequences of aid in relation to social reality. Findings relate to developing economies and would be of interest to a wide range of individuals within the development sector.




Does Foreign Aid Reduce Poverty?


Book Description

This paper assesses the effectiveness of foreign aid in reducing poverty through its impact on human development indicators. We use a dataset of both bilateral aid and NGO aid flows. Our results show that NGO aid reduces infant mortality and does so more effectively than official bilateral aid. The impact on illiteracy is less significant. We also test whether foreign aid reduces government efforts in achieving developmental goals and find mixed evidence of a substitution effect.




Impact Assessment of Foreign Aid


Book Description

A STUDY ON IMPACTS OF FOREIGN AID IN PAKISTAN The impacts and significance of foreign aid in enhancement of social, financial and economic growth and development of Pakistan is evaluated in this book. A research analysis based on financial and economic indicators such as Gross Domestic Production (GDP), Total Debt and Liabilities, Consumer Price Indicators, Inflation in Pakistan and social indicators such as Poverty alleviation, Financial Investment in Education, Women Empowerment, Sanitation and Access to Drinking Water, Children under Five Mortality Rate, Use of Communication Tools and Corruption in Pakistan is performed. All these indicators were evaluated from financial perspective to assess their growth during the foreign aid enrichment phase of Pakistan (2007-09). To conduct this impact analysis, data was acquired from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Statistics division, Ministry of Finance and Revenue, Ministry of Planning and Development of Government of Pakistan, World Bank, Central Bank of Pakistan, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and World Health Organization in the form of various statistics, quarterly and annual reports.




Foreign Aid, Its Defense and Reform


Book Description




Foreign Aid Allocation, Governance, and Economic Growth


Book Description

How important is foreign aid in fostering economic growth in developing countries? Does it help recipient countries, hurt them, or have little effect either way? Foreign Aid Allocation, Governance, and Economic Growth investigates this issue by looking at foreign aid by sector rather than treating it as an aggregate amount. Aid can be allocated to a recipient's production sectors (such as agriculture, manufacturing, or mining), economic infrastructure (such as transport, storage, or communications networks or power generation facilities), or social sectors (such as education or healthcare). This book differentiates among various channels through which each of these three categories of foreign aid affects economic growth. The findings suggest that economic aid, including aid to production sectors and economic infrastructure, contributes to economic growth by increasing domestic investment. Aid to social sectors, however, does not appear to have a significant impact on human capital (measured by school enrollment) and economic growth. This study also assesses the degree to which the quality of democratic governance in a recipient country influences foreign aid's effectiveness and finds that democracy is no guarantee of aid effectiveness. In fact, economic aid to less democratic countries can lead to better economic growth, at least initially, provided the aid recipients secure property rights and allow capital accumulation. Although further research into the question is necessary, Foreign Aid Allocation, Governance, and Economic Growth suggests that aid targeted to increasing domestic investment might be an effective means of fostering economic growth in less developed countries.