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Problems, Promises, and Paradoxes of Aid

Author: J. Oloka-Onyango

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2014-11-10

Total Pages: 395

ISBN-13: 1443870935

This book is an anthology of essays contributing new scholarship to the contemporary discourse on the concept of aid. It provides an interdisciplinary investigation of the role of aid in African development, compiling the work of historians, political scientists, legal scholars, and economists to examine where aid has failed and to offer new perspectives on how aid can be made more effective. Questions regarding the effectiveness of aid are addressed here using specific case studies. The question of ownership is examined in the context of two debates: 1) to what extent should aid be designed by the recipient country itself? and 2) should aid focus on “need” or “performance”? That is, should donors direct aid to the poorest countries, regardless of their policies and governance, or should aid “reward” countries for doing the right thing? The future of aid is also addressed: should aid continue to be a part of the development agenda for countries in sub-Saharan Africa? If so, how much and what type of aid is needed, and how it can be made most effective? The major criticism against aid is that it cripples the recipient country’s economic growth by turning it into a passive receiver; in addition, it has been noted that aid is mostly supply-driven, depending upon donors rather than the actual needs of recipients. For this reason, aid may not meet the goals for which it was intended. To meet the needs of the communities they want to help, donors should work through consultation and a measure of recipient ownership. Donors need to understand context, to protect human rights, and to be guided by principles of social and environmental justice. Other suggested strategies for making aid more effective include peer review; self-assessment; the empowerment of women; encouraging accountability; investing in agriculture; helping smallholder subsistence farmers; introducing ethical and professional standards for civil service; and raising the competence of civil servants.

The Paradoxes of Aid Work

Author: Silke Roth

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-03-24

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 1317754107

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This book explores what attracts people to aidwork and to what extent the promises of aidwork are fulfilled. 'Aidland' is a highly complex and heterogeneous context which includes many different occupations, forms of employment and organizations. Analysing the processes that lead to the involvement in development cooperation, emergency relief and human rights work and tracing the pathways into and through Aidland, the book addresses working and living conditions in Aidland, gender relations and inequality among aid personnel and what impact aidwork has on the life-courses of aidworkers. In order to capture the trajectories that lead to Aidland a biographical perspective is employed which reveals that boundary crossing between development cooperation, emergency relief and human rights is not unusual and that considering these fields as separate spheres might overlook important connections. Rich reflexive data is used to theorize about the often contradictory experiences of people working in aid whose careers are shaped by geo-politics, changing priorities of donors and a changing composition of the aid sector. Exploring the life worlds of people working in aid, this book contributes to the emerging sociology and anthropology of aidwork and will be of interest to professionals and researchers in humanitarian and development studies, sociology, anthropology, political science and international relations, international social work and social psychology.

Aid in Danger

Author: Larissa Fast

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

Published: 2014-05-14

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 0812246039

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Humanitarian aid workers increasingly remain present in contexts of violence and are injured, kidnapped, and killed as a result. Since 9/11 and in response to these dangers, aid organizations have fortified themselves to shield their staff and programs from outside threats. In Aid in Danger, Larissa Fast critically examines the causes of violence against aid workers and the consequences of the approaches aid agencies use to protect themselves from attack. Based on more than a decade of research, Aid in Danger explores the assumptions underpinning existing explanations of and responses to violence against aid workers. According to Fast, most explanations of attacks locate the causes externally and maintain an image of aid workers as an exceptional category of civilians. The resulting approaches to security rely on separation and fortification and alienate aid workers from those in need, representing both a symptom and a cause of crisis in the humanitarian system. Missing from most analyses are the internal vulnerabilities, exemplified in the everyday decisions and ordinary human frailties and organizational mistakes that sometimes contribute to the conditions leading to violence. This oversight contributes to the normalization of danger in aid work and undermines the humanitarian ethos. As an alternative, Fast proposes a relational framework that captures both external threats and internal vulnerabilities. By uncovering overlooked causes of violence, Aid in Danger offers a unique perspective on the challenges of providing aid in perilous settings and on the prospects of reforming the system in service of core humanitarian values.

The Development Dance

Author: Haley J. Swedlund

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2017-09-15

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 150171242X

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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.

Japanese Development Cooperation

Author: André Asplund

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2016-12-19

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 1315407736

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Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of figures -- List of tables -- Notes on contributors -- Preface -- Note on names and transcriptions -- List of abbreviations -- 1 Global change: Japan's role in the making of a new aid architecture -- 2 The peculiarities of Japan's ODA and the implications for African development -- 3 Aligning policy with practice: Japanese ODA and normative values -- 4 The development cooperation paradigm under the "new partnership" and its implications for Japan's aid -- 5 The securitization of Japan's ODA: new strategies in changing regional and domestic contexts -- 6 The US pivot to Asia and Japan's Development Cooperation Charter -- 7 Japanese ODA and the challenge of Chinese aid in Africa -- 8 The changing global aid architecture: an opportunity for Japan to play a proactive global role? -- 9 Comparing Japan and the European Union: the development cooperation policies of two civilian powers -- 10 Network-based development cooperation as a way forward for Japan -- 11 The impact of public opinion on Japan's aid policy: before and after the New Development Assistance Charter -- 12 An Asian aid paradigm: Japan leading from behind -- Index.

Rethinking Ownership of Development in Africa

Author: T.D. Harper-Shipman

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-08-08

Total Pages: 137

ISBN-13: 1000691527

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Rethinking Ownership of Development in Africa demonstrates how instead of empowering the communities they work with, the jargon of development ownership often actually serves to perpetuate the centrality of multilateral organizations and international donors in African development, awarding a fairly minimal role to local partners. In the context of today’s development scheme for Africa, ownership is often considered to be the panacea for all of the aid-dependent continent’s development woes. Reinforced through the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the Accra Agenda for Action, ownership is now the preeminent procedure for achieving aid effectiveness and a range of development outcomes. Throughout this book, the author illustrates how the ownership paradigm dictates who can produce development knowledge and who is responsible for carrying it out, with a specific focus on the health sectors in Burkina Faso and Kenya. Under this paradigm, despite the ownership narrative, national stakeholders in both countries are not producers of development knowledge; they are merely responsible for its implementation. This book challenges the preponderance of conventional international development policies that call for more ownership from African stakeholders without questioning the implications of donor demands and historical legacies of colonialism in Africa. Ultimately, the findings from this book make an important contribution to critical development debates that question international development as an enterprise capable of empowering developing nations. This lively and engaging book challenges readers to think differently about the ownership, and as such will be of interest to researchers of development studies and African studies, as well as for development practitioners within Africa.

Innovative Methods for Applied Drama and Theatre Practice in African Contexts

Author: Hazel Barnes

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2022-01-27

Total Pages: 562

ISBN-13: 1527578879

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This book, based on components of Drama for Life, addresses the subject of “innovative methods for applied drama and theatre practice in African contexts”. It does so by providing chapters that share the rich, multilayered, and reflexive work that has taken place at Drama for Life from 2008 to the present day. It invites the reader to learn from the experiences of Drama for Life as shared by the authors, understand the role it has played and continues to play in advocating for, and extending the work of, Applied Drama and Theatre practice, and engage in critical, dialogical spaces to examine and interrogate current debates and practices in the field of Applied Drama and Theatre. The volume is invaluable for anyone interested in the extensive body of work generated by Drama for Life and its innovative approaches to learning and teaching, as well as performing arts practitioners, artists, teachers, people in community development and service work, and anyone involved in researching Applied Drama and Theatre practice, particularly in an African context, but also globally.

Foreign Aid

Author: Phyllis R. Pomerantz

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-07-04

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 1000925234

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Foreign Aid: Policy and Practice offers a complete overview of the basics of foreign aid. Who is it for? Who pays for it? Why does it exist? What is it spent on? How much is it? And most important, does it work? The aid debate has been flooded by academic studies and popular books that either challenge or champion the effectiveness of aid. Most presume that the reader already knows the basic facts and characteristics of the aid industry. This book provides readers with a comprehensive summary of the background, actors, core principles and policies, and intended (and unintended) outcomes of foreign aid, followed by a more informed and balanced treatment of the key controversies and trends in aid today. Drawing on the author’s 25 years’ experience in development practice and 15 years in teaching, the book reflects on recent efforts to accelerate aid’s impact and concludes by taking a look at the future of aid and the headwinds it will face in the first half of the 21st century. Perfect for university teaching at advanced undergraduate and graduate levels, this book will also encourage development practitioners, policy makers, and members of the public to engage in more informed debates about aid and development finance.

The Oxford Handbook of History and International Relations

Author: Mlada Bukovansky

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2023-08-18

Total Pages: 769

ISBN-13: 0198873476

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Historical approaches to the study of world politics have always been a major part of the academic discipline of International Relations, and there has recently been a resurgence of scholarly interest in this area. This Oxford Handbook examines the past and present of the intersection between history and IR, and looks to the future by laying out new questions and directions for research. Seeking to transcend well-worn disciplinary debates between historians and IR scholars, the Handbook asks authors from both fields to engage with the central themes of 'modernity' and 'granularity'. Modernity is one of the basic organising categories of speculation about continuity and discontinuity in the history of world politics, but one that is increasingly questioned for privileging one kind of experience and marginalizing others. The theme of granularity highlights the importance of how decisions about the scale and scope of historical research in IR shape what can be seen, and how one sees it. Together, these themes provide points of affinity across the wide range of topics and approaches presented here. The Handbook is organized into four parts. The first, 'Readings', gives a state-of-the-art analysis of numerous aspects of the disciplinary encounter between historians and IR theorists. Thereafter, sections on 'Practices', 'Locales', and 'Moments' offer a wide variety of perspectives, from the longue durée to the ephemeral individual moment, and challenge many conventional ways of defining the contexts of historical enquiry about international relations. Contributors come from a range of academic backgrounds, and present a diverse array of methodological and philosophical ideas, as well as their various historical interests. The Oxford Handbooks of International Relations is a twelve-volume set of reference books offering authoritative and innovative engagements with the principal sub-fields of International Relations. The series as a whole is under the General Editorship of Christian Reus-Smit of the University of Queensland and Duncan Snidal of the University of Oxford, with each volume edited by specialists in the field. The series both surveys the broad terrain of International Relations scholarship and reshapes it, pushing each sub-field in challenging new directions. Following the example of Reus-Smit and Snidal's original Oxford Handbook of International Relations, each volume is organized around a strong central thematic by scholars drawn from different perspectives, reading its sub-field in an entirely new way, and pushing scholarship in challenging new directions.