ASTK12318U Course: The Politics and Economics of Aid

Volume 2014/2015
Education
Bachelorlevel: 10 ECTS
Masterlevel: 7,5 ECTS
Content

Poverty and poor governance continue to stay in the large part of developing countries despite major aid efforts. Governments, academics and aid practitioners alike have introduced various views of aid and modalities to speed up development, but results have been mixed. Experts have also pointed out political, economic and institutional factors are key factors for development. These discussions contributed to important declarations on aid, such as the Millennium Development Goals (2000) and Paris Declaration (2005), which was a commitment of donors to change how aid is delivered. New(er) donors entered the politics of aid in recent years as well. The BRICs are co-signers of the Busan Outcome Document (2011), establishing a Global Partnership for Development Cooperation. Aid and development concerns are increasingly linked with other global concerns, such as economic decline, climate change, health epidemic, food and fuel crises and so on.

 

Against this background, the primary objective of this course is to introduce research on the political, economic and institutional aspects of development cooperation (aid) and aid effectiveness. This research comes from academic research as well as policy-oriented insitutions such as NGOs, think tanks and aid agencies.

Schedule

 

 

Content

 

1

Introduction

 

2

Evolutions in Aid (1)

  • History of aid
  • Evolution of development paradigms & aid modalities
  • Governance agenda
  • Role of political regimes in aid effectiveness

3

Evolutions in Aid (2)

  • Rationale of the aid architecture since 2000
  • Shifting roles of actors

4

The aid effectiveness debate

  • Looking into the aid-growth nexus & political economy of aid

5

Aid statistics

  • Introduction to aid statistics

6

Research design workshop

  • Preparation for the written exam

7

Assessing debt relief and budget support (1)

  • Effectiveness of debt relief and budget support
  • Challenges in evaluating aid modalities

8

Aid on environment

  • Greening aid?

9

Aid fragmentation, emerging donors & recipient reactions (1)

  • Aid fragmentation, including emerging donors
  • Fragmentation and conditionalities

10

Aid fragmentation, emerging donors & recipient reactions (2)

  • Donor assessments of recipients

11

Emerging donors (1)

  • From aid recipients to aid donors: development policies of East Asian states

12

Emerging donors (2)

  • New actors, new rules?

13

Guest lecture

  • Institutional aspects of development aid to the People’s Republic of China
  • Interaction between gender and development NGOs with domestic party-state and foreign development aid donors

14

Summary

 

Learning Outcome

​By the end of this course you should be able to:

  • Demonstrate a critical understanding of political, economic and institutional aspects of development cooperation (aid) and aid effectiveness
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the contexts with which policy makers have to deal
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the contrasting theoretical approaches used to analyse politics and economics of aid

 

1. Roger C. Riddell

Does Foreign Aid Really Work? New York: Oxford University Press, 2008

536 pages

 

2. William Easterly

The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill And So Little Good

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007

400 pages

 

3. Paul Collier

The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It

New York: Oxford University Press, 2008

224 pages

 

4. George Mavrotas

Foreign Aid for Development: Issues, Challenges, and the New Agenda

Oxford University Press, 2010

394 pages

Teaching and learning methods
In-class sessions will constitute a mixture of lectures, discussions and mandatory student presentations
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Class Instruction
  • 28
  • Total
  • 28
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment
Written
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
Criteria for exam assesment
  • Grade 12 is given for an outstanding performance: the student lives up to the course's goal description in an independent and convincing manner with no or few and minor shortcomings
  • Grade 7 is given for a good performance: the student is confidently able to live up to the goal description, albeit with several shortcomings
  • Grade 02 is given for an adequate performance: the minimum acceptable performance in which the student is only able to live up to the goal description in an insecure and incomplete manner