Doing good or doing harm? The factors affecting the provision of effective development aid: the case of Ukraine

Date

2019

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Tartu Ülikool

Abstract

Development aid is very complex, multifaceted and disputable topic which has changed tremendously since the modern development aid started after the World War II. Development aid has witnessed a number of different “phases” – once having a focus on economic growth, then on poverty reduction, and then on providing aid in order to achieve one’s self-interests. To start with, this thesis seeks to open the complex framework of development aid, give a brief overview of its history, introduce its key IR concepts, and show what is the motivation for countries to provide it. There are a number of questions in development aid which do not have one right and clear answer – does development aid work or not? Is it effective? It is important to study the factors affecting the provision of effective development aid because it could help finding out if the provision of aid needs only fine-tuning or fundamental changes. The framework which is the basis for the analysis consists of seven different factors that could affect the provision of aid. These factors are knowledge of local conditions, tied aid, aid fragmentation, security, corruption, targeting and timing. Some of these factors are donor-dependent, some recipient-dependent. The focus of this thesis is on Ukraine because since the Revolution of Dignity the need for development aid has increased rapidly and Ukraine has become a huge arena for the international donors. Ukraine is also always “in the picture” because of the ongoing war in the eastern part of the country. All the studied factors can be applied to the context of Ukraine and the most relevant out of them is the knowledge of local conditions together with aid fragmentation, targeting and timing. Other three – tied aid, corruption and security are not, at least in the case of Ukraine, factors which can affect much the provision of effective development aid.

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