AID EFFECTIVENESS AND THE PARIS DECLARATION: A MISMATCH BETWEEN OWNERSHIP AND RESULTS‐BASED MANAGEMENT?

Although recent years have witnessed substantial changes in the global aid architecture, less effort has been devoted to investigating the process of implementing those changes. By using the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) as an illustrative and critical case, this article shows how a donor development priority—gender—travels from Stockholm and headquarters to a Paris Declaration‐infused aid practice in three cases with different aid modalities: Tanzania, Zanzibar, and Cambodia. More specifically, the qualitative empirical investigation conducted here shows that the implementation of the new aid architecture puts severe and competing demands on development practitioners. At the core of this tension is the fact that although all donors are supposed to promote partner country ownership, harmonize their efforts with other donors, and align themselves with partner country priorities, results‐based management simultaneously implies not only a focus on continuously measuring and reporting results but also stricter prioritizations on behalf of donor governments. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

What Factors Determine the Allocation of Aid by Arab Countries and Multilateral Agencies?

This article provides a statistical analysis of the determinants of Arab aid allocation using Heckman's two-step estimator. It is found that poorer, Arab, Islamic and Sub-Saharan African countries are more likely to receive some positive amount of Arab aid (gate-keeping stage). The same is true for countries not maintaining diplomatic relations with Israel as well as those with voting patterns in the United Nations General Assembly similar to Saudi Arabia. Arab and more populous countries also receive a higher share of the total aid allocated (level stage). The same is true for Islamic countries in the case of bilateral aid and countries with voting similarity in the case of multilateral aid. Donor interest, in particular Arab solidarity, plays a clear role at both stages, whereas recipient need as measured by a country's level of income only affects the gate-keeping stage, not the level stage.     

Subversive semiotics and ironic anchorage on Vrye Weekblad covers: A visual analysis

Abstract

The apartheid-era Afrikaans press's compliance with apartheid politics and ideology is commonly recognised. This article investigates the newspaper Vrye Weekblad as an exception in this regard. A reading is made of four selected Vrye Weekblad front covers, through a qualitative visual semiotic analysis based on a Barthesian model, in order to describe the covers’ subversive and anti-apartheid tendencies. This analysis reveals that the subversive tendencies at work on the covers represent an open assault on the ruling National Party's (NP) norms and values, especially in terms of the bastions of apartheid Afrikaner nationalism, such as traditional reformed Christian beliefs, symbols of Afrikaner patriotism, concepts of racial purity and white ethnic superiority. The myths present on these covers, while functioning to undermine dominant ideologies, also naturalise an ideology of Vrye Weekblad's own, by creating alternative myths of a critical disposition towards the NP government. The subversive encoding of these covers stems from an ironic tension in anchorage between the conventional connotations associated with the cover images and their accompanying text, which undermine the dominant meanings of the images. This article seeks to contribute a theorisation of this ironic anchorage as a mode of encodification within the broader context of mythical representational practices. The author proposes that as these Vrye Weekblad covers were published under much the same uncertain circumstances as are experienced today with the African National Congress's (ANC) looming Protection of Information Bill and Media Appeals Tribunal, one might see the same occurrence of subversion through ironic anchorage in the contemporary South African media.     

Challenges of Evaluating Democracy Assistance: Perspectives from the Donor Side

A large number of multilateral and bilateral donors have become engaged in the area of democracy and governance (DG) assistance over the last 15 years, stimulated by a series of trends and events. Despite the maturation of DG assistance as an important development area and the high profile of democracy promotion as a key foreign policy goal, research on the impact of this assistance and the effectiveness of different types of programming has been limited. Donors are constantly in need of feedback on the effectiveness and impact of their programming in order to revise programme designs, re-strategize aid portfolios, or address new DG issues. Moreover, legislatures increasingly require government aid agencies to be able to measure the results of their programmes, thereby demonstrating a ‘return on investment’ that would guide future assistance. Quality research is hampered by a daunting political, logistical, and methodological context, however. In 2005 a donor-sponsored workshop was organized to discuss challenges facing the evaluation and assessment of DG programming and assistance. The purpose of this article is to share insights from the workshop with a wider audience of scholars, practitioners and other policy-makers in the hope that this will stimulate additional research and thinking in this area.     

EMPLOYMENT AID FOR YOUTH AGING OUT OF FOSTER CARE: EXTENDING ONE-STOP CAREER CENTERS TO INCLUDE A DIVISION FOR FOSTER CARE YOUTH

Every year thousands of children are discharged from the foster care system and find themselves ill prepared for the responsibility of adulthood. Providing enhanced employment opportunities to both current and former foster care youth will allow them to become economically self-sufficient and therefore have an improved transition from foster care. This Note proposes that states incorporate a foster youth employment program in the one-stop career centers mandated by the Workforce Investment Act. Through this program, foster youth will be provided with the tools they need for success while maintaining control over their own future.     

对建立我国法律援助律师制度的探讨

建立法律援助律师制度是法律援助制度发展进程中的重要举措。在中国目前法律服务市场不很发达和法律援助需求日趋增长的状况下,如何建立符合中国国情的法律援助制度,促进法律援助事业健康协调发展,促进律师制度的完善,是一项具有挑战性的任务。     

Development and the search for connection

Abstract

The stated purpose of development is often characterised by the motivation to ‘help’ – that is, to intervene in the lives of others in supportive ways. This paper argues that this perspective has obscured how development activities are also animated by its twin desire to ‘connect’. While this holds significance for development more broadly, it becomes particularly evident in a mode of assistance that has gained prominence more recently. These are privately funded, small-scale projects led by individual founders, here described as ‘citizen aid’. Based on ethnographic research among citizen aid initiatives in Cambodia, the paper argues that the relevance of ‘connecting’ has been insufficiently recognised so far. It explores different aspects of what participants mean by ‘making a connection’, including face-to-face contact, direct experience of aid activities, and their tangible efficacy. It also finds that establishing interpersonal relationships across national, ethnic and cultural differences, while potentially challenging, is a key motivation for those involved. Finally, the paper argues that acknowledging the desire to connect questions notions of the ‘distant stranger’ as the archetypical humanitarian object, highlighting the wish for familiarity and closeness as potentially just as important for motivating and directing assistance to others.     

南非律师制度初探

南非律师制度经历了从种族歧视到黑人与白人律师平等发展的变迁。由于先后受到荷兰与英国的殖民统治,南非律师制度具有法系混合特征。在迈向法制现代化的进程中,律师制度的人权保障功能日益受到重视,尤其是法律援助制度建设已引起世界关注。     

构架家庭暴力司法救济模式

本文就构架我国家庭暴力司法救济模式提出了作者的设想。     

中国妇女法律援助的模式选择

妇女法律援助制度在中国的确立和发展尚处于起步阶段,妇女法律援助的模式选择问题决定了妇女法律援助的发展方向。在中国较为丰富的妇女维权经验和相对较少的妇女法律援助实践中,中国妇女法律援助形成了三种模式:政府型妇女法律援助、民间型妇女法律援助和妇联型妇女法律援助。在甄别三种模式之后,本文创设第四种妇女法律援助模式:以政府型妇女法律援助为基础,以民间型妇女法律援助为主体,以妇联型妇女法律援助为重要补充。