The Foreign Aid Regime

The author develops an original interpretation of foreign aid by analysing it as a particular domain of international government. She demonstrates how foreign aid practices are contemporary forms of gift-giving that have made recipient countries and populations governable due to a continuously renovated and expanded debt of development.

This investigation of the evolving foreign aid policies of 18 developed nations challenges conventional international relations theory and explains how ethical commitments and humanitarian convictions can help to structure global politics.

The author develops an original interpretation of foreign aid by analysing it as a particular domain of international government. She demonstrates how foreign aid practices are contemporary forms of gift-giving that have made recipient countries and populations governable due to a continuously renovated and expanded debt of development.

The internal destabilization of many poor countries that accompanied the end of the Cold War and the general failure of structural adjustment programs have changed the nature and allotment of foreign aid around the world. Major donors of foreign aid such as the United States, Japan, and the European Union have been shifting their geographical priorities in allocating aid, as well as their project emphasis, since the end of the Cold War. In addition, multilateral aid agencies—the World Bank, the United Nations, and the Interna­tional Monetary Fund—are attempting to redress past failures of aid and revamp policies and priorities. Moreover, aid recipients in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Eastern Europe, the former Soviet republics, and Central America are establishing priorities of their own and evaluating the success and failure of past aid programs. This volume stands out in the literature on foreign aid because it includes contributions from eight policy representatives from a range of important donor and recipient countries—the United States, Japan, the Netherlands, Bolivia, Egypt, Bangladesh, El Salvador, and Poland. Timely in its assessment of the crisis and the transition in the foreign aid regime, the book pro­vides a view from inside the policy process and im­parts a researcher's perspective on the changing pri­orities for donors and recipients. The wide-ranging essay—most previously unpublished—aim to shed light on the changing political, economic, and regional geographies of aid at the end of the twentieth century.

This timely work presents cutting-edge analysis of the problems of U.S. foreign assistance programs - why these problems have not been solved in the past, and how they might be solved in the future. The book focuses primarily on U.S. foreign assistance and foreign policy as they apply to nation building, governance, and democratization. The expert contributors examine issues currently in play, and also trace the history and evolution of many of these problems over the years. They address policy concerns as well as management and organizational factors as they affect programs and policies. "Foreign Aid and Foreign Policy" includes several chapter-length case studies (on Iraq, Pakistan, Ghana, Haiti, and various countries in Eastern Europe and Africa), but the bulk of the book presents broad coverage of general topics such as foreign aid and security, NGOs and foreign aid, capacity building, and building democracy abroad. Each chapter offers recommendations on how to improve the U.S. system of aid in the context of foreign policy.

June 1998 Aid spurs growth and poverty reduction only in a good policy environment so it should be targeted to countries that have improved their economic policy. That aid tends to be allocated relatively indiscriminately is one factor that undermines its potential impact. Spurring growth in the developing world is one stated objective of foreign aid. Another, more commonly cited, objective is reducing poverty. Generally poverty reduction and growth go hand in hand, but could aid mitigate poverty without measurably affecting growth? Burnside and Dollar examine how foreign aid affects infant mortality-an important social indicator that provides indirect evidence that the benefits of development are reaching people everywhere. They conclude that in developing countries with weak economic management-evidenced by poor property rights, high levels of corruption, closed trade regimes, and macroeconomic instability-there is no relationship between aid and the change in infant mortality. In distorted environments, development projects promoted by donors tend to fail. And aid resources are typically fungible, so the aid does not in fact finance these projects. Aid finances the whole public sector at the margin, which is why the quality of management is the key to effective assistance. A government that cannot put effective development policies in place is unlikely to oversee the effective use of foreign aid. On the other hand, there is a relationship between aid and a change in infant mortality when the recipient country has relatively good management. When management is good, additional aid worth 1 percent of GDP has a powerful effect, reducing infant mortality by 0.9 percent. In other words, aid spurs growth and improvements in social indicators only in a good policy environment. These findings strengthen the case for targeting foreign aid to countries that have improved their economic policy. But after controlling for per capita income and population, there has been almost no relationship between countries' economic policies and the amount of aid they get. The relatively indiscriminate allocation of assistance is one factor undermining the potential impact of aid. This paper-a product of Macroeconomics and Growth, Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to examine aid effectiveness. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project Economic Policies and the Effectiveness of Foreign Aid (RPO 681-70). The authors may be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected].

The Basic Position Taken In This Book Is That To Seperate Economic From Political Facters In A Way Is Illegitimate, And Will Give At Best Only A Partial View Of The Effects That Different Types Of Aid Will Have In Different Socio-Political Situations. The Book Constitutes An Attempt To Weld Political And Economic Perceptions Of The Processes Involved In The Giving And Receipt Of Aid Into A Single Framework. Without Dustjacket In Very Good Condition.

This investigation of the evolving foreign aid policies of 18 developed nations challenges conventional international relations theory and explains how ethical commitments and humanitarian convictions can help to structure global politics.