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Knowledge and rigorous evidence around the role of external development partners in situations of conflict and fragility is still lacking. There is little accountability for the billions in aid being spent in places like Afghanistan, Iraq and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This book analyses evaluation theory and practice in order to help fill this knowledge gap and advocates a realistic and rigorous approach to evaluating international engagement. Through a series of case studies, this book highlights both the promise, and potential pitfalls, of taking a more evaluative approach to understanding aid in conflict regions. These illustrate the methodological and analytical approach taken by...
The focus on results in development agencies has led to increased focus on impact evaluation to demonstrate the effectiveness of development programmes. This book illustrates the broad range of methods available for counterfactual analysis of infrastructure programmes such as establishment, rehabilitation and maintenance of roads, water supply and electrical power plants and grids. Understanding the impact of interventions requires understanding of the context in which the intervention takes place and the channels through which it is expected to occur. For infrastructure interventions it is particularly important to identify the links between the input and the outcomes and impacts because the well-being of people, the ultimate impact, does not change directly as a consequence of the intervention. Therefore impact evaluation of infrastructure programmes typically requires mixing both quantitative and qualitative approaches as illustrated in many of the contribution to this edited volume. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Development Effectiveness.
A twentieth-century innovation, foreign aid has become a familiar and even expected element in international relations. But scholars and government officials continue to debate why countries provide it: some claim that it is primarily a tool of diplomacy, some argue that it is largely intended to support development in poor countries, and still others point out its myriad newer uses. Carol Lancaster effectively puts this dispute to rest here by providing the most comprehensive answer yet to the question of why governments give foreign aid. She argues that because of domestic politics in aid-giving countries, it has always been—and will continue to be—used to achieve a mixture of differen...
Poor governance is increasingly recognized as the greatest impediment to economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, some impressive governance reforms are underway in many countries. This includes cases such as Nigeria – formerly the most corrupt country in the world according to Transparency International. Yet other countries such as Chad are still in reform deadlock. To account for these differences, this book examines governance reform in Sub-Saharan Africa based on an analysis of international and domestic pressures and counter-pressures. It develops a four phase model explaining why governance reforms advance in some instances, whilst in others governance reforms stagnate ...
Current debates on emerging powers as foreign aid donors often fail to examine the myriad geopolitical, geoeconomic and geocultural tensions that influence policies of Official Development Assistance (ODA). This book advocates a regional geopolitical approach to explaining donor-donor relationships and provides a multidisciplinary critical assessment of the contemporary debates on emerging powers and foreign aid, bringing together economic and geopolitical approaches in the light of the 2015 completion of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Moving away from established debates assessing the advantages and disadvantages of foreign aid, this book challenges the current geopolitical assump...
Large Systems Change (LSC) is a field of study and action that is characterized by its focus on transformational pathways towards a participative, flourishing future through inter- and trans-disciplinary approaches that value engagement with practitioners and those aspiring for such futures. Its emergence holds great promise for addressing critical issues. Advancing its development requires aggressiveness to cross the many disciplinary, institutional and other boundaries and build the necessary scale of effort; however, humbleness is also required to recognize that although we have substantial knowledge and methodologies for approaching LSC, we are still at early stages of their development....
This book provides the first systematic critique of the concept of climate change adaptation within the field of international development. Drawing on a reworked political ecology framework, it argues that climate is not something ‘out there’ that we adapt to. Instead, it is part of the social and biophysical forces through which our lived environments are actively yet unevenly produced. From this original foundation, the book challenges us to rethink the concepts of climate change, vulnerability, resilience and adaptive capacity in transformed ways. With case studies drawn from Pakistan, India and Mongolia, it demonstrates concretely how climatic change emerges as a dynamic force in the ongoing transformation of contested rural landscapes. In crafting this synthesis, the book recalibrates the frameworks we use to envisage climatic change in the context of contemporary debates over development, livelihoods and poverty. With its unique theoretical contribution and case study material, this book will appeal to researchers and students in environmental studies, sociology, geography, politics and development studies.
At the global level, international actors have repeatedly expressed their desire to end hunger and food insecurity. However, food insecurity has persisted. More analysis is hence needed on the link between continuously high levels of global food insecurity and the ever increasing flow of development aid. Global Food Security and Development Aid investigates the impact that development aid has had on food security in developing countries and includes international case studies on Peru, Ethiopia, India and Vietnam. It examines the effect of development aid in general and the impact of aid divided into different categories based on donor, mechanism and sector to which it is provided. In each ex...
This collection clarifies the background of land and property problems in conflict-affected settings, and explores appropriate policy measures for peace-building. While land and property problems exist in any society, they can be particularly exacerbated in conflict-affected settings – characterized by unstable security, weak governance, loss of proper documentation as well as the return of refugees and Internally Displaced Persons. Unless these problems are properly addressed, they can destabilize fragile political order and hinder economic recovery. Although tackling land and property problems is an important challenge for peace-building, it has been relatively neglected in recent debate...
The Chinese government has frequently been criticized for propping up anti-democratic governments. This book investigates the rise of China as an emerging authoritarian power. By comparing China’s bilateral relations to three Asian developing countries – Burma, Cambodia and Mongolia – it examines how China targets specific groups of actors in autocracies versus non-autocracies. It illustrates how the Chinese non-interference policy translates into support for incumbent leaders in autocratic countries and how the Chinese government has thereby profited from exploiting secretive decision making in autocracies to realize its own external interests such as achieving access to natural resou...