ASTK12318U Course: The Politics and Economics of Aid
Masterlevel: 7,5 ECTS
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 |
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1 | Introduction |
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2 | Evolutions in Aid (1) |
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3 | Evolutions in Aid (2) |
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4 | The aid effectiveness debate |
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5 | Aid statistics |
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6 | Research design workshop |
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7 | Assessing debt relief and budget support (1) |
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8 | Aid on environment |
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9 | Aid fragmentation, emerging donors & recipient reactions (1) |
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10 | Aid fragmentation, emerging donors & recipient reactions (2) |
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11 | Emerging donors (1) |
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12 | Emerging donors (2) |
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13 | Guest lecture |
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14 | Summary |
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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
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 assignmentWritten
- 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
Course information
- Language
- English
- Course code
- ASTK12318U
- Credit
- 7,5 ECTS
- Level
- Full Degree MasterBachelor
- Duration
- 1 block
- Placement
- Block 4
- Schedule
- .
- Continuing and further education
- Study board
- Department of Political Science, Study Council
Contracting department
- Department of Political Science
Course responsibles
- Aki Tonami (10-67716f347a757467736f46746f677934717b346a71)