Decision-making in Development Assistance Donor Agencies

Decision-making in Development Assistance Donor Agencies PDF Author: Ruth A. Shapiro
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Decision making
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Mechanisms which Encourage Beneficiary Participation in Decision Making in Rural Development Assistance Projects in Developing Countries

Mechanisms which Encourage Beneficiary Participation in Decision Making in Rural Development Assistance Projects in Developing Countries PDF Author: Reid A. Bates
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Rural development projects
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
This study was designed to discover how beneficiary participation in decision making can be encouraged and enhanced in rural development assistance projects in developing countries. The study sought to increase the understanding about how beneficiary participation occurs through the identification of patterns, processes or techniques in development assistance projects that enhance the ability of local people to gain control of the benefits and decision making processes in projects affecting their lives. The data for this study were obtained from telephone interviews with seven individuals who are or have been rural development assistance project managers. A constant comparative method of qualitative data analysis was employed. The findings indicated that community participation is encouraged and enhanced in projects that involve a few salient activities, relatively less complex inputs and consequently less money than larger, more complex projects. These projects should be based on a felt need in the community and be designed to fit community capabilities. As such, they enhance the power of participation to produce a recognizable benefit and to provide a sense of progress toward community established goals. In addition, community participation is encouraged when some investment is required from the community. Investment creates ownership and tests the value and appropriateness of the activity to the community. The case studies suggested that participation is a process that requires support at the community level, from intermediary organizations and from donor agencies and national governments. At the community level, the most practical and effective vehicle through which to implement participatory projects is existing community organizations. These organizations generally possess the necessary skills to be, and by definition, should be involved in all phases of the project from design to evaluation. Locally identified leaders, while a two-edged sword, are necessary for the effectiveness of local organizations and for the endorsement of project activities. Intermediary organizations emerge in this study as key actors in the participatory development process. These organizations act as catalysts and linkages by informing and sharing information with communities; by helping communities gather data about themselves in identifying the most critical problems; by mediating in conflict resolution; and in obtaining funds and other forms of assistance from outside the community. Their role is characterized by an approach to rural communities that is both understanding and interactive. Donor organizations and national governments are seen in the role of development coordinators. The coordinator role is responsive to community desires and strives for equality among diverse groups and communities. They emphasize a "process" approach to development administration. As a result of effective participation, rural poor communities are able to meet their basic needs, solve their problems, and achieve the power to control their lives. In terms of mechanisms encouraging beneficiary participation, this study recommends the following: 1) Participatory development should be viewed as a process of trial and error learning whose goal is community empowerment. Empowerment signifies the degree to which people have gained the capacity to obtain results which they intend to obtain from their involvement in decision making in the development process. 2) Intermediary organizations must assume a key role in the participatory development process. These organizations are composed of sensitive and understanding people who are dedicated to community participation. The function of these organizations is twofold. First, they act as links between donor agencies or national governments and local communities. Second, they function as catalysts in participatory development. The goal of these organizations is to facilitate the building of community capacity in terms of skills and knowledge to the point that the community no longer needs their assistance. 3) The appropriate roles of donor agencies and national governments in participatory development is as coordinators of development assistance projects. This role requires them to provide funds specifically for participatory development; to strive for equity in funding different groups and communities; and to adopt a "process" style of project administration that is seen as most conducive to participatory development. 4) Projects aiming at encouraging beneficiary participation should start small, with a few relatively simple activities that respond to local needs. These activities are most effectively implemented through existing local organizations that are characterized as having control of financial resources, legal authority, involvement in all project activities from design to evaluation and are led by community appointed leaders. 5) It is more important to emphasize "how" projects are implemented rather than "what" is accomplished. This "how" necessarily involves beneficiary participation which is defined as the participation of beneficiaries in their own development by controlling resources, defining needs and making decisions about how these needs can best be met.

Evaluating Development Assistance

Evaluating Development Assistance PDF Author: Lodewijk Berlage
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131784517X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Choosing the Lesser Evil

Choosing the Lesser Evil PDF Author: Liesbet Heyse
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317166906
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
How do non-governmental humanitarian aid organizations initiate, terminate and extend their project activities? Humanitarian aid organizations regularly face difficult decisions about life and death in a context of serious time constraints which force them daily to select whom to help and whom not to help. Liesbet Heyse focuses on how humanitarian aid organizations make these decisions and provides an inside view of the decision making processes. Two NGO case studies are used as illustration - Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) and Acting with Churches Together (ACT) - both of which operate in an international network and represent specific types of NGOs often found in the community. This book opens up the black box of NGO operations, provides an empirical account of organizational decision making and combines insights of organization theory and organizational decision making theory.

Assessing Aid

Assessing Aid PDF Author:
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 9780195211238
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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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.

U.S. Economic Foreign Aid

U.S. Economic Foreign Aid PDF Author: David Porter
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000576930
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Originally published in 1990, this volume is a comprehensive study of United States foreign aid allocation from 1961-1983 and the significance it has for US Foreign Policy as a whole. As well as developing a theoretically consistent measure of poverty for the research, the book also examines the relationship between bilateral foreign aid and multilateral foreign aid. A number of theoretical issues in comparative politics, international relations, US domestic institutional decision making and the development of political and economic institutions are explored.

Giving Aid Effectively

Giving Aid Effectively PDF Author: Mark T. Buntaine
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019061398X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 458

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Book Description
In Giving Aid Effectively, Mark T. Buntaine argues that countries that are members of international organizations have prompted multilateral development banks to give development and environmental aid more effectively by generating better information about performance. To reach this conclusion, he employs a systematic analysis of responses to evaluations and in-depth case studies about the use of information at multilateral development banks.

The Contradictions of Foreign Aid

The Contradictions of Foreign Aid PDF Author: Desmond McNeill
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000005526
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description
Originally published in 1981, this book analyses how development aid works in practice. It presents a critique of the practice of foreign aid, analyses the aid process, who controls it and investigates the exercise of leverage by donors. It examines the interests of the different parties involved, identifies problems and suggests alternatives which may allow the aid process to operate more effectively in the interest of those who need it.

Foreign Aid in the Age of Populism

Foreign Aid in the Age of Populism PDF Author: Viktor Jakupec
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429628110
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
Across the world the Western dominated international aid system is being challenged. The rise of right-wing populism, de-globalisation, the advance of illiberal democracy and the emergence of non-Western donors onto the international stage are cutting right to the heart of the entrenched neoliberal aid paradigm. Foreign Aid in the Age of Populism explores the impact of these challenges on development aid, arguing that there is a need to bring politics back into development aid; not just the politics of economics, but power relations internally in aid organisations, in recipient nations, and between donor and recipient. In particular, the book examines how aid agencies are using Political Economy Analysis (PEA) to inform their decision making and to push aid projects through, whilst failing to engage meaningfully with wider politics. The book provides an in-depth critical analysis of the Washington Consensus model of political economy analysis, contrasting it with the emerging Beijing Consensus, and suggesting that PEA has to be recast in order to accommodate new and emerging paradigms. A range of alternative theoretical frameworks are suggested, demonstrating how PEA could be used to provide a deeper and richer understanding of development aid interventions, and their impact and effectiveness. This book is perfect for students and researchers of development, global politics and international relations, as well as also being useful for practitioners and policy makers within government, development aid organisations, and global institutions.

The Variance Between the Executive and Congress in the Decision Making Determinants of Bilateral Economic Foreign Aid Administered by the Agency for International Development

The Variance Between the Executive and Congress in the Decision Making Determinants of Bilateral Economic Foreign Aid Administered by the Agency for International Development PDF Author: David Stanley Porter
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Economic assistance, American
Languages : en
Pages : 574

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Book Description