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1 – 10 of over 46000India is described as an emerging donor. Actually India has started providing development assistance to developing countries immediately after independence. The amount of aid was…
Abstract
Purpose
India is described as an emerging donor. Actually India has started providing development assistance to developing countries immediately after independence. The amount of aid was relatively small, but grew over the years to a recognisable size. The purpose of this paper is to review the long experience of India in the framework of development assistance which is laid in the foundational principles of South-South Development Cooperation (SSDC).
Design/methodology/approach
Based on secondary data, the paper provides an exhaustive account of India's programme of development assistance, and a critical discussion of issues involved.
Findings
The analysis shows that given certain unique features of its aid programme, India has a great potential to emerge as a major donor country, and even to rank among big traditional donor countries. It can also influence the global aid architecture. There are many lessons that others can learn from the “Indian model of aid”. However, there are certain problems and challenges that India has to address for it to become a major international player in the aid business. One of the most important problems refers to the absence of detailed information.
Research limitations/implications
The available details on India's assistance are sketchy and confusing; there are no detailed and consolidated statements of assistance; and it is only now a proper formal agency to coordinate all external assistance and to provide effective management in a cohesive manner has been set up.
Originality/value
The analytical and critical account of India's aid programme presented here is hoped to provide valuable fresh insights to the whole issue and should be of considerable academic and policy value.
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Maria Sophia Aguirre and Cecilia A. Hadley
This paper aims to highlight the role of the United Nations in the formulation and implementation of the current understanding of “population assistance” and examine some of the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to highlight the role of the United Nations in the formulation and implementation of the current understanding of “population assistance” and examine some of the arguments for “population assistance” in the form of reproductive health care.
Design/methodology/approach
It presents the data for global population assistance and briefly compares these figures with data for other developmental sectors, recommending certain policy changes if real development is to be achieved.
Findings
During the last decade increasingly large amounts of money have been spent on limiting population growth of underdeveloped countries. Population control is seen as the corner‐stone of development and population activities. Thus, population control has become “population assistance,” and birth control has become “reproductive health services.” Population control is pursued at the expense of women's rights and to the detriment of real economic growth and social improvement.
Originality/value
For more than two decades, John Conway O'Brien has written on the importance of ethics for economic growth. In a recent article, he concluded that “although the illuminated may have been activated by the most altruistic of motives, their search for the good society was doomed from the start.” This paper attests the validity of his remarks.
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The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of similarities and distinctions between development and educational assistance in the USA as compared with other countries…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of similarities and distinctions between development and educational assistance in the USA as compared with other countries, this paper provides a general review of relevant materials on US foreign aid.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews published books and articles as well as US government budget and Congressional reporting materials and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development statistics.
Findings
Beginning with the Marshall Plan following Second World War, the USA has always been a leader in foreign aid. In many ways, US development agencies resemble counterparts in other countries – foreign aid is part of larger network of bilateral relationships, funding requests must compete with requests from other sectors, etc. In other ways, the US stands apart. Because of US Congressional reporting requirements and for philosophical reasons, the US has been reluctant to join other countries in provision of budgetary support. The US coordinates its work with host country governments, but generally organizes its activities in project mode, relying largely on US contractors. The US Agency for International Development and the Department of State are the largest US government development agencies. Still, unlike other donors, development funding and technical assistance is provided by up to 25 agencies with relatively little coordination. US foreign aid has always included a security as well as humanitarian and development dimensions. In recent years, as development assistance is increasingly coordinated with diplomacy and defense, the military dimension has been heightened. Perhaps the most original finding is the notion that public and government support of US foreign aid has required both security and development/humanitarian rationales to remain viable.
Originality/value
The paper brings together information from a range of existing sources, but provides a unique perspective on US foreign aid in education.
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Ahmad Hidayat and Asra Virgianita
Innovation is a fundamental element for developing countries’ development. For instance, the innovation process should be integral to a country’s development plan for it to…
Abstract
Purpose
Innovation is a fundamental element for developing countries’ development. For instance, the innovation process should be integral to a country’s development plan for it to achieve high standard socio-economic development. For this reason, the global development agenda in the contemporary era underline innovation as a crucial issue to be addressed within development assistance programs. The Global North as traditional donors predominantly contend that innovation should be supported by high private sector development (PSD), and therefore, emphasizes this agenda to be delivered through their foreign aid schemes. However, this character differs considerably as compared to new emerging donors with insufficient PSD capacity, such as Indonesia. This paper aims to examine Indonesia’s technical assistance (TAC) to Timor-Leste and scrutinizes whether or not it supports the innovation development of the receiving country.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a qualitative method by conducting a literature review, document tracing and depth interview with Indonesia’s South–South Cooperation National Coordinating Team.
Findings
Based on this study, it can be proven that Indonesia’s TAC has the ability to support innovation development in Timor-Leste as a least developed country. This is because Indonesia’s TAC is directed toward knowledge sharing and technology transfer that are needed by Timor-Leste. Other supporting conditions, such as similarity in the process of development, shared principles and solidarity ties among developing countries, have also created a more decent environment for aid delivery. Thus, aid initiatives among developing countries must remain to be supported as key to attain mutual progress and collective self-reliance.
Originality/value
This study shows that Indonesia as an emerging economic has the capability to support innovation development of other developing countries. It was a new area of study but has a lot of potential to be explored such as effectiveness and interests.
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John Ssozi, Simplice Asongu and Voxi Heinrich Amavilah
Agriculture is the major source of livelihood for the majority of population in Sub-Saharan Africa but its productivity is not only low it has started showing signs of decline…
Abstract
Purpose
Agriculture is the major source of livelihood for the majority of population in Sub-Saharan Africa but its productivity is not only low it has started showing signs of decline since 2012. The purpose of this paper is to find out whether official development assistance for agriculture is effective.
Design/methodology/approach
The data for development assistance for agriculture are broken down into the major agricultural sectors in receiving countries. The empirical evidence is based on the two-step system, i.e. generalized method of moments, to assess the degree of responsiveness of agricultural productivity to development assistance.
Findings
There is a positive relationship between development assistance and agricultural productivity in general. However, when broken down into the major agricultural recipient sectors, there is a substitution effect between food crop production and industrial crop production. Better institutions and economic freedom are found to enable agricultural productivity growth, and to increase the effectiveness of development assistance. The structural economic transformation associated with agricultural development assistance is also found to be weak.
Practical implications
Allocation of development assistance for agriculture is primarily determined by need, although expected effectiveness also increases the assistance receipts. Agricultural assistance policies could focus more on building productive capacity to reduce the need while boosting effectiveness.
Originality/value
Breaking down data into agricultural recipient sectors and controlling for the potential spurious correlation under the assumption that more development assistance could be allocated, where agricultural productivity is already increasing due to some other factors.
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This paper aims to analyze the three issues about China's social assistance programs and put forward some suggestions separately.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyze the three issues about China's social assistance programs and put forward some suggestions separately.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative research, mainly using documentary analysis.
Findings
The paper finds that China's urban and rural social assistance, minimum living standard security and special assistance programs, China's social assistance and the other parts of social security such as social insurance and social welfare are in need of closer coordination.
Originality/value
This paper presents a valuable idea about the need for the coordination of China's social assistance programs.
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There is no single undertaking regulating food assistance at the international level. International food assistance is regulated by a patchwork of rules emanating from different…
Abstract
Purpose
There is no single undertaking regulating food assistance at the international level. International food assistance is regulated by a patchwork of rules emanating from different institutions and normative arrangements. This study aims to explore how international law shapes international food assistance. How is international law regulating food assistance, considering this patchwork of institutions and norms? What dominant narratives enshrined in legal agreements shape the evolution of international food assistance?
Design/methodology/approach
The author uses the concept of “regime complex”, which allows analyzing partially overlapping and nonhierarchical regimes governing a particular issue, shedding light on the narratives and institutional arrangements that lead to the consolidation of international rules. The author identifies two main regimes that govern international food assistance: the food assistance regime and the food trade regime.
Findings
The author shows that using the “regime complex” concept clarifies the evolution of international food assistance, highlighting that international law is a crucial element in shaping international food assistance and showing that the two main institutional regimes governing it interact and shape rules along three main themes: the centrality of donor States’ self-interests, the relationship between international food assistance and trade liberalization and the goal of achieving food security for the beneficiaries.
Originality/value
Using the regime complex concept, the author brings new light on the broader institutional and legal framework influencing the governance of international food assistance, showing that different regimes take part in its shaping.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine whether initial levels in GDP growth, GDP per capita growth and inequality adjusted human development matter in the impact of aid on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine whether initial levels in GDP growth, GDP per capita growth and inequality adjusted human development matter in the impact of aid on development. In substance its object is to assess if threshold development conditions are necessary for the effectiveness of foreign aid in Africa.
Design/methodology/approach
The panel quantile regression technique enables us to investigate if the relationship between development dynamics and development assistance differs throughout the distributions of development dynamics.
Findings
Three main findings are established. First, with slight exceptions, the effectiveness of aid in economic prosperity (at the macro level) increases in positive magnitude across the distribution. This implies high-growth countries are more likely to benefit from development assistance (in terms of general economic growth) than their low-growth counterparts. Second, the positive nexus between aid and per capita economic growth displays nonlinear patterns across distributions and specifications, with the correlations broadly higher in top quantiles than in bottom quantiles after controlling for the unobserved heterogeneity. Third, the aid-human development nexus is negative and almost similar in magnitude across distributions and specifications.
Practical implications
As a policy implication, there is need to improve management of aid funds destined for health and education projects in the sampled countries. Moreover, given the magnitude of the nexuses, while blanket aid initiatives could be applied for policies targeting the human development index (due to the absence of significant differences in the magnitude of estimated coefficients), such are unlikely to succeed for aid targeting economic prosperity at macro and micro levels. From the weight of the findings, given a policy of balancing the impact of aid, it could be inferred that low-growth countries would need more aid than their high-growth counterparts because of the less positive effects in the former countries.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to existing literature on the effectiveness of foreign aid by focussing on the distribution of the dependent variables (development dynamics). It is likely that high- and low-growth countries respond differently to development assistance.
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Globalization occupies a central research activity and remains an increasingly controversial phenomenon in economics. This phenomenon corresponds to a subject that can be…
Abstract
Purpose
Globalization occupies a central research activity and remains an increasingly controversial phenomenon in economics. This phenomenon corresponds to a subject that can be criticized through its impact on national economies. On the other hand, the world economy is evolving in a liberalized environment in which foreign direct investment plays a fundamental role in the economic development of each country. The advent of financial flows – FDI, remittances and official development assistance – can be a key factor in the development of the economy. The subject of this article is to analyses the effect of financial flows on economic growth in developing countries. Empirically, different approaches have been employed. As part of this work, an attempt was made to use a panel data approach. The results indicate ambiguous effects and confirm the results of previous work.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors seek to study the effect of foreign direct investment, remittances and official development assistance (ODA) and some control variables i.e. domestic credit, life expectancy, gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), inflation and three institutional factors on economic growth in developing countries by adopting the panel data methodology. Then, the authors will discuss empirical tests to assess the econometric relevance of the model specification before presenting the analysis of the results and their interpretations that lead to economic policy implications. As part of this work, the authors have rolled panel data for developing countries at an annual frequency during the period from 1990 to 2016. In a first stage of empirical analysis, the authors will carry out a technical study of the heterogeneity test of the individual fixed effects of the countries. This kind of analysis makes it possible to identify the problems retained in the specific choice of econometric modeling to be undertaken in the specificities of the panel data.
Findings
The empirical results validate the hypotheses put forward and indicate the evidence of an ambiguous effect of financial flows on economic growth. The empirical findings from this analysis suggest the use of economic-type solutions to resolve some of the shortcomings encountered in terms of unexpected effects. Governments in these countries should improve the business environment by establishing a framework that further encourages domestic and foreign investment.
Originality/value
In this article, the authors adopt the panel data to study the links between financial flows and economic growth. The authors considered four groups of countries by income.
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This study aims to provide the history and overview of the major categories of physical education (PE) assistance that Japan has provided to other countries by extracting the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to provide the history and overview of the major categories of physical education (PE) assistance that Japan has provided to other countries by extracting the major categories from the various materials.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is divided into two phases, Phases 1 and 2. Surveys and analyses were further conducted. In Phase 1, a web browser-based survey was conducted to ascertain the major categories of PE assistance that Japan has provided to other countries. The practices and projects investigated were classified inductively, and the major categories were extracted. In Phase 2, a literature review was conducted to organise the history and overview of each category extracted in Phase 1.
Findings
Six major categories were extracted: (1) dispatch of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers engaged in PE assistance, (2) assistance through training for those involved in PE, (3) revision or formulation of a PE curriculum, (4) preparation of textbooks or instructional materials for PE, (5) organising sports event and (6) maintenance of PE equipment and facilities.
Originality/value
Japan has a long history of providing PE assistance to other countries. However, historical materials on the practices and projects of PE are becoming scattered. Little literature addresses this gap, which this study seeks to address. This study can help policy makers in other countries, who can use Japan’s PE assistance practices and policies for reference, to assist them in formulating their own policies.
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