Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Social and Behavioral Science/Development Aid Effectiveness (Spring 2024)

International development assistance has evolved considerably from WWII. Although some of the initial development agencies are still operating and remain influential, the way they function has evolved and important new players have entered the field. This course provides an overview of the organizational structure of aid organizations, the contractual arrangements with the recipient countries, and the political and economic motivations behind these relationships.

In the first part of the course we will study the different players in the aid game: on the one side, the aid recipients, and on the other side, the aid donors. We will study the governance structure and behaviour of multilateral donor agencies (like the World Bank or the Inter-American Development Bank), of bilateral agencies (like the AFD, GTZ, USAid,...) and of Non-Governmental organizations. We will also look at the new donors’ (e.g., China’s) strategies and motivations.

We will study the comparative advantage of each of these institutions, how they allocate funds, how they interact, and how their behaviour affects the aid recipients' behaviour. We will also look in detail into the effectiveness of aid flows, and the factors that affect this effectiveness. We will conclude with a discussion on the (lack of) coordination between donors and how it affects the effectiveness of aid.