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Global Development: Critical Perspectives - Aid Policy and Politics
Introduction:
● Trump withdrew funding from international aid. He said that ‘nobody has
ever heard of it’.
● James Ferguson book focuses on PhD research in Lesotho.
● We also have cuts in many governments aid budgets, in the UK for
example.
International aid: a step towards global justice or a colonial project?
● ODA - official development assistance. This is aid given by rich countries
that belong to the OECD. This is governed by international rules regarding
what counts as ODA and how it can be used.
● New donors - China, India, Russia.
● Philanthropic aid e.g. the Gates Foundation.
● NGO spending.
● Global Justice Now:
○ Addressing economic and social inequalities.
○ Recognising current inequality as product of historical and current
structural processes.
● Colonial project - political control over another people or area.
ODA:
● 29 countries belonging to the DAC, transferring money to poor countries
and multilateral development institutions.
● Doesn’t include military aid or peacekeeping.
● To promote economic development and welfare.
● Grants, loans on concessional terms.
● Usually countries don’t have to pay back. Maybe have to pay some at low
interest.
Historical trends:
● The graph shows the official development assistance in historical
perspective from 1960 to 2024.
● 1950s - switch from reconstruction in Europe to wider world. IBRD set up
to fund this. Low interest loans.
, 2
● 1960 - President Kennedy said the sixties would be the decade of
development.
● 1970s - oil price hike causes financial crisis.
● 1980 - Thatcher and Reagan restrict money available for loans and aid. A
‘lost decade’ for development.
● 2008 - financial crisis worldwide. Aid cut everywhere.
● 2010 - small Scandinavian countries generous relative to overall income.
● The graph shows that the ODA given as a percentage of GNI is very high
for the UK from 1997 onwards. It drops post-Covid. New Labour
government made commitment to foreign policy and development.
● US follows a similar pattern.
● The total amount overall has gone up.
● Cuts in aid post-Covid.
DAC countries - graph: components of net official development assistance,
2000-2024
● Bilateral development projects where one government funds another
government to undertake a specific project.
● Multilateral OCD - money channelled through a multinational organisation
e.g. through World Bank.
● Humanitarian aid - reflects conflicts around the world.
● In-donor refugee costs - countries that take refugees are able to count
money that goes towards them as aid.
● Net debt relief grants - cancelling government debt from around the world.
Trends in the nature of aid
● 1990s onwards - ‘new aid architecture’. Global cooperation focused on
achievements. Market-led development to facilitate globalisation. To
incorporate poor people into the market. Sector-wide approaches where
multiple donors come together. Funding ongoing costs of projects rather
than starting a project and then not taking it forward in the future, e.g.
building a hospital needs ongoing costs to make it worthwhile.
● The ‘aid effectiveness agenda’ - Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness,
2005. Agreeing aid agenda among DAC countries. Bringing together
recipient government and the donors and private sector to have a
beneficiary ownership. This is heavily critiqued - is it really the beneficiaries
setting the agenda, or is it those giving the money?
Global Development: Critical Perspectives - Aid Policy and Politics
Introduction:
● Trump withdrew funding from international aid. He said that ‘nobody has
ever heard of it’.
● James Ferguson book focuses on PhD research in Lesotho.
● We also have cuts in many governments aid budgets, in the UK for
example.
International aid: a step towards global justice or a colonial project?
● ODA - official development assistance. This is aid given by rich countries
that belong to the OECD. This is governed by international rules regarding
what counts as ODA and how it can be used.
● New donors - China, India, Russia.
● Philanthropic aid e.g. the Gates Foundation.
● NGO spending.
● Global Justice Now:
○ Addressing economic and social inequalities.
○ Recognising current inequality as product of historical and current
structural processes.
● Colonial project - political control over another people or area.
ODA:
● 29 countries belonging to the DAC, transferring money to poor countries
and multilateral development institutions.
● Doesn’t include military aid or peacekeeping.
● To promote economic development and welfare.
● Grants, loans on concessional terms.
● Usually countries don’t have to pay back. Maybe have to pay some at low
interest.
Historical trends:
● The graph shows the official development assistance in historical
perspective from 1960 to 2024.
● 1950s - switch from reconstruction in Europe to wider world. IBRD set up
to fund this. Low interest loans.
, 2
● 1960 - President Kennedy said the sixties would be the decade of
development.
● 1970s - oil price hike causes financial crisis.
● 1980 - Thatcher and Reagan restrict money available for loans and aid. A
‘lost decade’ for development.
● 2008 - financial crisis worldwide. Aid cut everywhere.
● 2010 - small Scandinavian countries generous relative to overall income.
● The graph shows that the ODA given as a percentage of GNI is very high
for the UK from 1997 onwards. It drops post-Covid. New Labour
government made commitment to foreign policy and development.
● US follows a similar pattern.
● The total amount overall has gone up.
● Cuts in aid post-Covid.
DAC countries - graph: components of net official development assistance,
2000-2024
● Bilateral development projects where one government funds another
government to undertake a specific project.
● Multilateral OCD - money channelled through a multinational organisation
e.g. through World Bank.
● Humanitarian aid - reflects conflicts around the world.
● In-donor refugee costs - countries that take refugees are able to count
money that goes towards them as aid.
● Net debt relief grants - cancelling government debt from around the world.
Trends in the nature of aid
● 1990s onwards - ‘new aid architecture’. Global cooperation focused on
achievements. Market-led development to facilitate globalisation. To
incorporate poor people into the market. Sector-wide approaches where
multiple donors come together. Funding ongoing costs of projects rather
than starting a project and then not taking it forward in the future, e.g.
building a hospital needs ongoing costs to make it worthwhile.
● The ‘aid effectiveness agenda’ - Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness,
2005. Agreeing aid agenda among DAC countries. Bringing together
recipient government and the donors and private sector to have a
beneficiary ownership. This is heavily critiqued - is it really the beneficiaries
setting the agenda, or is it those giving the money?
