The Political Economy of Aid and Governance in Cambodia

The impact of massive aid on development and governance has been studied for a decade with mixed results. Using the results of an elite survey on aid and quality of governance based on Kaufmann et al.'s six dimensions (voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption), this article offers a case-study of Cambodia. The country's challenges in light of high aid dependence and ‘Dutch disease’ in the aid sector are elaborated, and disappointing human development outcomes are examined. Despite more than five billion dollars in aid, infant and child mortality and inequality have worsened. Key informants are overwhelmingly in agreement that, save for political stability, aid has not had a positive impact on governance in Cambodia. The failure on control of corruption shows how hard it is for donors to be tough on a country with extreme poverty. On the basis of what has been accomplished to date, however, aid seems unlikely to be able to deliver large improvements in governance and in many ways may even contribute to its further deterioration.     

External Influence and Challenges of State-building in Nepal

This article deals with the role of external actors in the post-2006 state-building process in Nepal. Two issues have dominated the state-building narrative after 2006: the peace-process and the constitutional process. There has been a strong presence of international agencies. Both issues were later usurped by the external agencies and Nepal loses its upper hand in determining politics, policies, and the law and reverted beyond the 1923 situation. Foreign policy, which should have been used to rescue the country from such a dilemma, could not act in the context of a weak centre. Against this background, this article endeavours to explain the degree of external pressure vis-à-vis the state-building process in Nepal. The central argument of this article is that among many other factors, state-building in Nepal suffers both ‘because of and despite’ its geo-strategic locations and it proposes a proactive foreign policy as the balancing force.     

Co-opting Good Governance Reform: The Rise of a Not-so-Reformist Leader in Kebumen,Central Java

Challenging the existing literature, which tends to downplay the impact of good governance reform in post-Suharto Indonesia, the article suggests that greater intervention by international donors, combined with the process of decentralisation, has influenced the dynamics of political competition at the local level. It suggests that the increasing availability of international aid has provided local elites with an option to engage in a new form of patronage politics that relies less on old instruments, such as money politics and violence. By selectively committing themselves to good governance reform, Indonesian local elites can now seek a new source of power in the form of support from international donors, with which they can raise their profiles as ‘reformists’ and consolidate power, only to engage in familiar, if less blatant, forms of patronage politics. The article highlights such a dimension of local politics with reference to the case of Kebumen's former regent, Rustriningsih.     

Configuring ‘country ownership’: patterns of donor-recipient relations

Given the proliferation in the number and type of development actors and an expressed desire by donors to engage them in a more meaningful way, this article identifies multiple ways in which ‘country ownership’ is manifested in practice. Through comparative case research, this article examines the involvement of five sets of actors in: problem identification, resource administration, programme design, implementation, and governance. Three donor-recipient relationship patterns emerge: ‘doctor knows best’, ‘empowered patient’, and ‘it takes a village’, each with specific conditions but overall underrepresentation of recipient country actors, suggesting that their involvement could take place more often than currently occurs.

Configurer l'« appropriation par les pays » : schémas des rapports bailleurs de fonds-récipiendaires

Au vu de la prolifération du nombre et des types d'acteurs de développement et du désir exprimé par les bailleurs de fonds d'intervenir de manières plus significatives, cet article identifie des manières multiples dont se manifeste l'« appropriation par les pays » dans la pratique. À travers des recherches comparatives sur des cas particuliers, j'examine le rôle joué par cinq ensembles d'acteurs dans : l'identification des problèmes, l'administration des ressources, la conception des programmes, la mise en ?uvre et la gouvernance. Trois schémas des rapports bailleurs de fonds-récipiendaires se sont dégagés : « le docteur a toujours raison », « le patient autonomisé » et « il faut tout un village », chacun doté de conditions précises, mais avec dans l'ensemble une sous-représentation des acteurs des pays récipiendaires, ce qui suggère que leur participation pourrait avoir lieu plus souvent que ce n'est le cas à l'heure actuelle.

Configurando la “apropiación nacional”: patrones de relaciones entre donantes y destinatarios

Tomando en cuenta la proliferación numérica y el tipo de actores participantes en el desarrollo, así como el deseo expresado por los donantes de relacionarse con éstos de manera más profunda, el presente artículo señala las distintas maneras en que la “apropiación nacional” se manifiesta en la práctica. A través de investigaciones realizadas por medio de comparación de casos, la autora analiza la participación de cinco conjuntos de actores en materia de identificación de problemas, de gestión de recursos, de diseño de programas, de implementación y de gobierno. Identifica tres patrones de relación entre donantes y destinatarios: “el médico lo sabe todo”, “el paciente empoderado” y “hace falta una aldea”, cada uno con sus condicionantes específicos. Sin embargo, en general, los mismos adolecen de la baja representatividad de los actores en el país destinatario, lo cual apunta a que éstos deberían participar con una frecuencia mayor que aquella con la que actualmente lo hacen.

Configurando a “propriedade de país”: modelos de relações de doador-recebedor

Dada a proliferação no número e tipo de agentes de desenvolvimento e uma vontade expressa dos doadores de engajarem-se de maneira mais significativa, este artigo identifica várias maneiras pelas quais a “propriedade de país” é manifestada na prática. Através de pesquisa de caso comparativa, eu examino o envolvimento de cinco conjuntos de agentes: identificação de problema, administração de recursos, montagem de programa, implementação e governança. Três modelos de relação doador-recebedor surgiram: “o doutor sabe mais”, “paciente empoderado” e “é preciso uma aldeia inteira”, cada um com condições específicas, mas no geral com sub-representação de agentes do país recebedor, sugerindo que seu envolvimento poderia ocorrer de maneira mais frequente do que ocorre atualmente.     

Revisiting child sponsorship programmes

Child sponsorship programmes have long been criticised for their conceptual and programmatic flaws. In response, organisations changed their programme designs to minimise negative side effects, or even stopped providing direct support to individual children altogether. This paper outlines the evolution of sponsorship programmes; discusses advantages and drawbacks of today's one-to-one sponsorship methods; and explores how progress may be possible. It concludes that such sponsorship programmes will never amount to sustainable development but can, if designed well, make a credible contribution to complex livelihoods in environments that lack adequate safety nets.

Repenser les programmes de parrainage d'enfants

Les programmes de parrainage d'enfants sont depuis longtemps critiqués pour leurs défauts conceptuels et programmatiques. En réponse à ces critiques, les organisations ont modifié la conception de leurs programmes pour réduire au minimum les effets secondaires négatifs, et ont même parfois complètement cessé d'apporter un soutien direct à des enfants individuels. Cet article décrit dans ses grands traits l’évolution des programmes de parrainage, traite des avantages et des inconvénients des méthodes actuelles de parrainage individuel et examine les manières dont il serait possible de progresser. Il conclut que les programmes de parrainage de ce type ne constitueront jamais des formes de développement durable, mais qu'ils peuvent, à condition d’être bien conçus, apporter une contribution crédible à des moyens de subsistance complexes dans des environnements qui ne sont pas pourvus de filets de sécurité adéquats.

Revisando nuevamente los programas de patrocinio a la niñez

Durante mucho tiempo, los programas de patrocinio a la niñez han sido objeto de críticas debido a sus fallos conceptuales y programáticos. Frente a esta situación, las organizaciones han modificado el diseño de sus programas, con el fin de minimizar sus efectos negativos, o han detenido totalmente el apoyo brindado a niños de manera individual. El presente artículo esboza la evolución experimentada por los programas de patrocinio, a la vez que examina las ventajas y las desventajas de los actuales programas de patrocinio individual, analizando cómo pueden hacerse avances al respecto. La conclusión surgida del artículo establece que estos programas de patrocinio nunca serán parte del desarrollo sustentable aunque, si se diseñan bien, pueden contribuir de forma verosímil a la creación de medios de vida complejos en entornos que carecen de programas sociales adecuados.

Revisitando programas de patrocínio às crianças

Os programas de patrocínio às crianças têm sido há muito tempo criticados por suas falhas conceituais e programáticas. Em resposta, as organizações mudaram seus projetos de programa para minimizar os efeitos colaterais negativos, ou até mesmo deixaram de fornecer em geral apoio direto a crianças individualmente. Este artigo apresenta a evolução de programas de patrocínio; discute as vantagens e desvantagens de métodos atuais de patrocínio individual; e avalia como o progresso pode ser possível. Ele conclui que tais programas de patrocínio nunca atingirão o desenvolvimento sustentável mas, se forem bem elaborados, podem oferecer uma contribuição confiável a meios de subsistência complexos em ambientes que não possuem redes de segurança adequadas.     

Aid Illusion and Public Sector Behaviour

Conventional treatments of fungibility, such as in Assessing Aid, are concerned with evidence that aid recipients do not increase sufficiently (that is, by the amount of aid) expenditure on specific areas favoured by donors. In other words, fungibility implies that recipients divert aid to expenditure on areas donors do not wish to fund. However, there is evidence that aggregate expenditure, and even spending on donor-supported areas, rises by more than the value of the aid inflow. This contribution, using insights from the public choice research on fiscal illusion, provides a range of theoretical scenarios to explain this outcome. Included are scenarios where, even where all the features of fungibility are present, expenditure on areas favoured by the donor can increase by more than the value of the aid inflow. The study concludes by suggesting new directions for research on aid policy and the impact of aid on the public sector in developing countries.     

Participation: the ascendancy of a buzzword in the neo-liberal era

Participation was originally conceived as part of a counter-hegemonic approach to radical social transformation and, as such, represented a challenge to the status quo. Paradoxically, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, ‘participation’ gained legitimacy within the institutional development world to the extent of achieving buzzword status. The precise manipulations required to convert a radical proposal into something that could serve the neo-liberal world order led to participation's political decapitation. Reduced to a series of methodological packages and techniques, participation would slowly lose its philosophical and ideological meaning. In order to make the approach and methodology serve counter-hegemonic processes of grassroots resistance and transformation, these meanings desperately need to be recovered. This calls for participation to be re-articulated within broader processes of social and political struggle in order to facilitate the recovery of social transformation in the world of twenty-first century capitalism.     

Commentary on the organization of work as a factor in social well-being∗

The work cooperative as a social institution offers us a radical alternative to transnational market-based workplaces. Models such as the Mondragon coop network in Spain tell us it is possible for people to have their work-life's cake and eat it too. The coop movement is part of a movement to transform power-based work arrangements into a cooperative commonwealth in which the needs of all are met.     

Are There Negative Returns to Aid?

The World Bank report Assessing Aid assumes that an inflow of aid, above a certain level, starts to have negative effects. In this analysis we empirically test this assumption. We find evidence for negative returns to aid at high levels of aid inflows. However, the results are sensitive to both the countries included in the sample and model specification. Moreover, the turning-point above which aid starts to have a negative effect on growth seems to be much higher than assumed in the background calculations for Assessing Aid.     

An analysis of well-being in urban Nigeria

Improving the well-being of Nigerians is the aim of Nigeria Vision 20:2020, the key development policy document in Nigeria. However, as well-being is an emerging and contested concept, this article explores how the well-being of urban citizens is understood in Nigeria, and identifies key trends affecting urban well-being as expressed by a selection of strategic elite stakeholders in Nigerian society. These included senior civil servants and politicians, and various senior members of civil society groups and academia. The analysis also reveals characteristics underpinning policies for urban well-being.