Development Cooperation

The European Union has high ambitions in relation to Africa and in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. One example is the new Africa Strategy, where the EU wants to have a strong partnership with the African Union. Other European policies contribute to the lofty objectives of the EU, which is the world's largest donor of development aid. The high ambitions are not matched by the implementation. The European policies, shaped by the Commission and the member states, are partly contradictory and hard to fulfill locally in Africa. Furthermore, they are focused on intentions rather than outcomes. The European policies need to be decentered to allow for the African context to play a larger role in the design and execution of policies. The Sustainable Development Goals call for fundamental transformations, where political and economic development are of great importance to reach the social and environmental goals. This implies greater attention to the drivers and barriers for political and economic transformation in Africa. It also calls for a greater interest in the relationship between donors and recipients, to build trust and to find mutual gain. The EU needs to recognize that it is dependent on its African partners, while it simultaneously wants to influence and revise some of the African policies. political and economic transformation in Africa. It also calls for a greater interest in the relationship between donors and recipients, to build trust and to find mutual gain. The EU needs to recognize that it is dependent on its African partners, while it simultaneously wants to influence and revise some of the African policies.political and economic transformation in Africa. It also calls for a greater interest in the relationship between donors and recipients, to build trust and to find mutual gain. The EU needs to recognize that it is dependent on its African partners, while it simultaneously wants to influence and revise some of the African policies.political and economic transformation in Africa. It also calls for a greater interest in the relationship between donors and recipients, to build trust and to find mutual gain. The EU needs to recognize that it is dependent on its African partners, while it simultaneously wants to influence and revise some of the African policies.

Developing Africa? New Horizons with Afrocentricity aims to contest the Eurocentric narrative of an African development discourse. This book deploys the theory of Afrocentricity as an intellectual standpoint from which African thinkers should interrogate and reconceptualize the discourse of development in Africa. Particularly, the book argues in favour of the Afrocentric re-interpretation of African history, African culture and assertion of African agency as the core building wedge in the reconceptualization of the ideal African development trajectory.

This book analyses the diffusion and implementation of Aid Effectiveness Principles in Kenya's agricultural sector. Although Aid Effectiveness Principles represent a significant step in aid and development discourse, studies on its implementation remain inadequate, especially in the African context. This book combines the perspectives of the Kenyan government, donor representatives and small-scale farmers. The discussion on Kenya brings in comparative perspectives and, therefore, would have broader relevance to the African region, in general. It highlights a disconnect between the government and farmers concerning the ownership concept, where farmers lack a voice in important policy matters. The book shows that donors have exploited the weaknesses in government responses to interpret The Principles in ways that suit their strategic interests. Consequently, the book argues that the diffusion of Aid Effectiveness Principles has taken the form of symbolic imitation - a form of policy diffusion where the policymakers choose policies for their symbolic value rather than their effectiveness.

L'aide publique au développement (APD) a été construite dans les années 1960 comme un instrument temporaire pour répondre à une phase de l'histoire du monde mêlant décolo¬nisation, guerre froide, industrialisation et inégalités flagrantes entre le « Nord » et le « Sud ». Cinquante ans plus tard, dans un texte influent, Jean-Michel Severino et Olivier Ray (2009) faisaient le constat que l'APD s'était instituée en « politique publique mondiale », tout en s'interrogeant sur sa fin prochaine. L'APD semble avoir cette particularité d'être à la fois une politique mondiale instituée, soutenue et financée - et donc résiliente face aux changements du monde - et d'apparaître dans le même temps comme perpétuellement en retard par rapport à son époque, manquant d'ambition et inadaptée aux enjeux du futur.

"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 importantly, does it work? The aid debate has been flooded by academic studies and popular books which 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 balanced 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 1970s are widely seen as a turning point for the world economy and a transformative decade for the international order. This volume explores the role played by the oil crises in this transformation, focusing particularly on their impact in previously little-studied regions such as Asia and Africa. Examining the intersection between the oil crises and the Third World project, their impact on Asian economic development and the contrasting responses of two African countries, this collection covers new ground on the global and regional effects of the crises, and ties them into the key transformations of the international economy and the Cold War order. Arguing that they were instrumental in reshaping the Asian economies, helping to instigate the boom known as the 'East Asian Miracle', it also demonstrates how the individual responses of countries reflected their own specific circumstances. With chapters from leading scholars such as David Painter and Dane Kennedy, this book shows how the origins, course and consequences of the oil crises of the 1970s are crucial to understanding the transformation of the international order in the late twentieth century.

Timely and incisive, this book offers a critical insight into the legal structure of EU development cooperation policy, exploring the innate complexities that give rise to legal challenges in this crucial area of EU external action. Investigating the interaction between the key tenets of coherence and conferral, Dr. Tina Van den Sanden assesses how the Union's legal framework affects the attainment of its development cooperation objectives. Demonstrating the inherent tension between the central principle of conferral, which restricts the Union's legal competences to the boundaries established within its Treaties, and the need for coherence, this ambitious book provides an insightful analysis of EU development cooperation policy. Chapters further scrutinise the legal scope of such policy and its delimitation with closely linked policy areas of environment, the common commercial policy (CCP), and the common foreign and security policy (CFSP); establish the division of competences and cooperation between the Union and its Member States; and evaluate the management of the institutional division of competences between different EU actors. The book concludes with an assessment of whether the Union's legal, constitutional, and institutional structures are equipped to meet and support its own development cooperation aims. Both legal scholars and practitioners interested in EU external relations law will benefit from this book's comprehensive analysis of the underlying legal frameworks that form and influence EU development cooperation policy.

This book systematically analyses the EU's commitment to a human rights-based approach to development through the lens of global justice theory. It identifies limits to the EU's approach and discusses how standardised policies, particularly in the case of human rights sanctions, may be perceived as neo-colonially intrusive and can come at the cost of recognizing the experiences and interests of vulnerable groups and allowing for partner countries' democratic ownership of their own development trajectory. Engaging with primary sources including official documents, reports, and 45 semi-structured interviews with EU and member state officials, the book also presents a novel explanation for why the EU, at times, steps out of its commitment to rights-based development and chooses differentiated foreign policy responses to similar situations. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of EU foreign policy, EU development policy human rights, and international relations as well as policy practitioners working in the fields of development, human rights and democracy promotion.

The European Union formulates ambitious joint principles for development policy, yet national implementation of these principles often lags behind. Which factors play a role in this? With a social constructivist norm approach, this study proposes a model for understanding the under-researched institutional embedding and internalisation of international norms at the domestic level. By looking at France, Germany and Spain, it investigates three long-standing EU member states. Its two case studies focus on two particular aspects of development policy: poverty orientation and joint donor approaches. On the basis of interviews and encompassing additional sources, the study argues that both agency and structural factors play a role in domestic norm translation.

This timely Handbook considers the increasing struggles facing international development in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. It investigates the role global co-operation must play in resolving the multiple crises of the pandemic, resultant economic devastation and existing climate changes and external-debt concerns. Contributions identify the need to question current assumptions and approaches to international development in the context of how markets are constructed, states reformed and resources distributed. Split across four thematic parts, this thought-provoking Handbook explores the concept and politics of development, development and contested globalization, the politics of development agendas and global actors in the politics of development. Chapters examine the politics of: developmental regionalism, crime, law and development in historical perspective, international monetary relations, food, global health, the global gender agenda, the sustainable development goals, development in the WTO, and private foundations. Engaging and accessible, the Handbook on the Politics of International Developmentwill be a key resource for students and scholars of international politics and relations, public policy, geopolitics and development studies.

This bold and ambitious handbook is the first systematic overview of the history of development ideas, themes, and actors in the twentieth century. Taking stock of the field, the book reflects on blind spots, points out avenues for future research, and brings together a greater plurality of regions, actors, and approaches than other publications on the subject. The book offers a critical reassessment of how historical experiences have shaped contemporary understandings of development, demonstrating that the seemingly self-evident concept of development has been contingent on a combination of material conditions, power structures, and policy choices at different times and in different places. Using a world history approach, the handbook highlights similarities in development challenges across time and space, and it pays attention to the meanings of ideological, cultural, and economic divides in shaping different understandings and practices of development. Taking a thematic approach, the book shows how different actors - governments, non-governmental organizations, individuals, corporations, and international organizations - have responded to concerns regarding the conditions in their own or other societies, such as the provision of education, health, or food; approaches to infrastructure development and industrialization; the adjustment of social conditions; population policies and migration; and the maintenance of stability and security. Bringing together a range of voices from across the globe, this book will be perfect for advanced students and researchers of international development history.

Developing countries have made rapid but highly varied progress since the 1990s. So much so that the boundaries to the traditional industrialized countries have become partially blurred. On the other hand, there are a number of mostly fragile states that have not succeeded in doing so, or have only rudimentarily succeeded. Talk of one "Third World" and common development problems thus explains little. Instead, development has become a requirement for all states, which this textbook breaks down and assesses according to key development goals. This book is a translation of the original German 1st edition Entwicklungspolitik by Joachim Betz, published by Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature in 2021. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuously to further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors.

Broadcasting is now an important part of the international aid effort, and as such communication for development has ambitious aims: to save lives, improve livelihoods and end corruption. In order to achieve this, specialist innovative production techniques and formats are required. This book provides a practical and thorough guide to the production of effective broadcasting for development. It covers four key areas of communication: humanitarian broadcasting in emergencies; distance learning; empowerment, good governance and human rights; broadcasting for behaviour and social change. Tuckey takes us through each stage from project design, to selecting and training a production team and developing formats, with key emphasis on the inclusion of local communities.

This book assesses the extent to which good governance may contribute to enhancing economic performance and social welfare in developing countries, globally. Governance has been pointed out as one of the major weaknesses of developing economies and may largely be attributed to weak governance practices at both the macro- and micro-level. This book highlights the channels through which governance may act on various economic sectors and different key economic variables. In doing so, it enables policymakers to identify and implement policies and procedures to promote good governance. This book provides a transnational perspective on good governance in considering developing countries in Asia, Africa and beyond, presenting respective case studies in single country settings, enabling a comparative perspective between and across all chapters. Covering topics that include the intersection between governance and gender, inequality, poverty, education   and health, the book provides diverse theoretical and empirical evidence on important issues facing policymakers, investors and other stakeholders and is relevant to graduate students and researchers interest in policy issues in the developing world.

This book analyses the shifting patterns of Czechoslovak educational aid programmes for sub-Saharan African countries within the broader framework of the global debates on the nature of development aid in education discussed on the UNESCO grounds during the three "development decades." Starting in the early 1960s, Czechoslovakia sent abroad hundreds of experts hoping to stimulate the development of local educational and scientific institutions. However, over the years, the development aid to African countries transformed into a special form of foreign trade, and distribution of experts turned into a profitable business. Yet, the tendencies towards "sustainability" and "higher return on investment" in the field of development aid were not limited just to the socialist bloc but emerged globally. This book, therefore, not only revisits the roles of Czechoslovakia and Africa in the Cold War history but also reflects on the function of aid in international politics. The Eastern Bloc and Sub-Saharan Africa will appeal to students and historians specializing in the global Cold War, and particularly those curious about development, international organizations, economic history and transfers of knowledge in transnational networks.

Gerard Emmanuel Kamdem Kamga, Serges Djoyou Kamga, and Arnold Kwesiga explore a relatively new phenomenon, namely referred to as illicit financial flows, that aim to impoverish the African continent and prevent its economic development. There is a direct relationship between illicit financial flows and failed initiatives to realize the right to development on the continent. For instance, in 2016, Africa received $41 billion towards public development while $50 billion left the continent through illicit financial flows. The gap between recent economic achievements on the continent and its state of generalized underdevelopment coupled with rampant poverty, corruption, prolonged economic crisis, and political instabilities signals an issue with resource allocations. The systematic theft of resources by multinational corporations and criminal networks is a hard blow to the idea of people-driven development in line with the Pan African vision of "an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa" proclaimed by Agenda 2063. Right to Development and Illicit Financial Flows from Africa: Dynamics, Perspectives, and Prospects provides insights into the dynamics and perspectives on illicit financial flows and its dire impacts on the right to development and development initiatives across the continent.