Military Civic Action. Volume 1. Evaluation of Civilian Techniques in International Development Assistance

Foreign aid has been the subject of much examination and research ever since it entered the economic armamentarium approximately 45 years ago. This was the time when the Second World War had successfully ended for the Allies in the defeat of Germany and Japan. However, a new enemy, the Soviet Union, had materialized at the end of the conflict. To counter the threat from the East, the United States undertook the implementation of the Marshal Plan, which was extremely successful in rebuilding and revitalizing a shattered Western Europe. Aid had made its impact. The book under review is by three well-known economists and is the outcome of a study sponsored by the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development. The major objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of assistance, i.e., aid, on economic development. This evaluation however, was to be based on the existing literature on the subject. The book has five major parts: Part One deals with development thought and development assistance; Part Two looks at the relationship between donors and recipients; Part Three evaluates the use of aid by sector; Part Four presents country case-studies; and Part Five synthesizes the lessons from development assistance. Part One of the book is very informative in that it summarises very concisely the theoretical underpinnings of the aid process. In the beginning, aid was thought to be the answer to underdevelopment which could be achieved by a transfer of capital from the rich to the poor. This approach, however, did not succeed as it was simplistic. Capital transfers were not sufficient in themselves to bring about development, as research in this area came to reveal. The development process is a complicated one, with inputs from all sectors of the economy. Thus, it came to be recognized that factors such as low literacy rates, poor health facilities, and lack of social infrastructure are also responsible for economic backwardness. Part One of the book, therefore, sums up appropriately the various trends in development thought. This is important because the book deals primarily with the issue of the effectiveness of aid as a catalyst to further economic development.

Download Full-text

TICAD: The Context of Japan’s Development Aids to Africa

The Nigerian Journal of Sociology and Anthropology ◽

10.36108/njsa/6102/14(0120) ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Ayokunle Olumuyiwa Omobowale

Keyword(s):

Cold War ◽

International Development ◽

Development Assistance ◽

Secondary Data ◽

Development Aid ◽

Development Projects ◽

Usual Practice ◽

Self Help ◽

The Cold War ◽

And Control

Most of the discourse on development aid in Africa has been limited to assistance from Western countries and those provided by competing capitalist and socialist blocs during the Cold war era. Japan, a nation with great economic and military capabilities; its development assistance for Africa is encapsulated in the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) initiative. The TICAD started in 1993 and Japan has so far held 5 TICAD meetings between 1993 and 2013 during which Africa’s development challenges and Japan’s development assistance to the continent were discussed. The emphasis on “ownership”, “self-help” and “partnership” are major peculiar characteristics of Japan’s development aid that puts the design, implementation and control of development projects under the control of recipient countries. This is a major departure from the usual practice in international development assistance where recipient countries are bound by clauses that somewhat puts the control of development aid in the hands of the granting countries. Such binding clauses have often been described as inimical to the successful administration of the aids and development in recipient countries. Though Japan’s development aid to Africa started only in 1993, by the 2000s, Japan was the topmost donor to Africa. This paper examines the context of Japan’s development aid to Africa by analyzing secondary data sourced from literature and secondary statistics.

Download Full-text

U.S. Military Civic Action in Honduras, 1982-1985: Tactical Success, Strategic Uncertainty. CLIC Papers

10.21236/ada205085 ◽

1988 ◽

Author(s):

Bernard E. Harvey

Keyword(s):

Strategic Uncertainty ◽

Civic Action ◽

Military Civic Action

Download Full-text

Mechanisms of official development assistance to foreign economic activity during the Covid-19 pandemic

Voprosy regionalnoj ekonomiki ◽

10.21499/2078-4023-2021-47-2-214-221 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 214-221

Author(s):

Л.И. Хомякова

Keyword(s):

Economic Policy ◽

International Development ◽

Significant Role ◽

Economic Activity ◽

Development Assistance ◽

Official Development Assistance ◽

Foreign Economic Policy ◽

Financial Flows ◽

Regional Institutions ◽

Funding Programs

Институты содействия международному развитию являются важным ресурсом для подготовки, реализации и финансирования проектов, а также выработки мер поддержки внешнеэкономической политики (в том числе в рамках государственно-частного партнерства). Пандемия Covid-19 выявила необходимость перераспределения потоков официальной помощи развитию и финансовых потоков, нацеленных на поддержку внешнеэкономической деятельности, с целью минимизации последствий пандемии. Существенную роль выполняют программы финансирования, реализуемые международными и региональными институтами содействия международному развитию. International Development Assistance Institutions are an important resource for the preparation, implementation and financing of projects, as well as for the development of measures to support foreign economic policy (including within the framework of public-private partnerships). The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to redistribute the flows of official development assistance and financial flows aimed at supporting foreign economic activity in order to minimize the consequences of the pandemic. Funding programs implemented by international and regional institutions for international development assistance play a significant role.

Download Full-text