<p>Sweden introduced a development assistance policy in 1952 and thirteen years later Sida, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency started, in 1965. But in 1995, five separate development assistance authorities came together and established the new Sida as it is today. Sida is Sweden’s representative in the development assistance policy field and they work through projects that have to be presented through a Country Strategy Process (CSP). The aim of this paper is to point out Sida’s perspective on the conducted development assistance policy and what guide lines that are followed. The main purpose of the development assistance policy is to create better conditions for the distressed countries. Russia is a country that receives big sums of money from Sida, but the support given is about to be phased out and in 2010 it will be completely terminated. The cooperation with Russia will go through a transition to normal cross-border cooperation as a neighboring country. We have chosen to characterize Sida’s work with Russia and other countries through two perspectives on poverty; an orthodox perspective, which is a more ideologically conservative approach, and an alternative perspective, which is a more liberal approach.</p>

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria (GF) offers new approaches and challenges in international aid for health. Little research is available exploring the experiences of individuals and communities working within the confines of GF policies in Latin America. The study fills this gap through a qualitative exploration of local experiences with tuberculosis (TB) services and the GF in Nicaragua. <p>This study sought to examine local stakeholders (administrators, health personnel and persons affected by TB) experiences related to GF policies relevant to TB services in Nicaragua. The study drew from a population health perspective and was informed by an ethnomethodological approach. Key themes focused on TB control, health systems and health rights. Data collection involved contextual analysis, participant observation, in-depth interviews and focus groups. The study involved 6 months of fieldwork in Nicaragua from November 2005-April 2006. Fieldwork was conducted with the support, participation and assistance of the Centre for Health Research and Studies, the Damian Foundation and the National Tuberculosis Control Program. <p>Analysis of findings shows various internal and external challenges in communication/procedural and disbursement/execution aspects of the GF grant. In TB control, participants identified private sector participation, case detection & reduced abandonment as improvements resulting from the GF project, though sustainability was a key concern. In health systems, concerns of efficiency and efficacy in the use of funds were commonly expressed. The focus on human resource development via the GF was considered a strength of the project. Community participation and the reduction of stigma, two facets of health rights, were perceived to have improved through the GF grant; however, remain identified as key issues for improving the context of TB in Nicaragua. The experiences of people working to implement or receiving TB services and GF activities in Nicaragua offer valuable insight into the strengths and challenges of this country-driven approach to aid for health. The GF needs to give more attention to such experiences a resource for improving flexibility and assuring sustainability in program strengthening and human resource development.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria (GF) offers new approaches and challenges in international aid for health. Little research is available exploring the experiences of individuals and communities working within the confines of GF policies in Latin America. The study fills this gap through a qualitative exploration of local experiences with tuberculosis (TB) services and the GF in Nicaragua. <p>This study sought to examine local stakeholders (administrators, health personnel and persons affected by TB) experiences related to GF policies relevant to TB services in Nicaragua. The study drew from a population health perspective and was informed by an ethnomethodological approach. Key themes focused on TB control, health systems and health rights. Data collection involved contextual analysis, participant observation, in-depth interviews and focus groups. The study involved 6 months of fieldwork in Nicaragua from November 2005-April 2006. Fieldwork was conducted with the support, participation and assistance of the Centre for Health Research and Studies, the Damian Foundation and the National Tuberculosis Control Program. <p>Analysis of findings shows various internal and external challenges in communication/procedural and disbursement/execution aspects of the GF grant. In TB control, participants identified private sector participation, case detection & reduced abandonment as improvements resulting from the GF project, though sustainability was a key concern. In health systems, concerns of efficiency and efficacy in the use of funds were commonly expressed. The focus on human resource development via the GF was considered a strength of the project. Community participation and the reduction of stigma, two facets of health rights, were perceived to have improved through the GF grant; however, remain identified as key issues for improving the context of TB in Nicaragua. The experiences of people working to implement or receiving TB services and GF activities in Nicaragua offer valuable insight into the strengths and challenges of this country-driven approach to aid for health. The GF needs to give more attention to such experiences a resource for improving flexibility and assuring sustainability in program strengthening and human resource development.

This thesis aims to explore how human rights practitioners interpret human rights (as either universal or contextual), and if their interpretation influence the way in which human rights are implemented in development assistance. In order to answer this question, I have conducted field studies in Stockholm, Sweden and Kampala, Uganda. By viewing the outcomes of these field studies through a theoretical lens concerning the universality or contextuality of human rights, the study intends to cast light on human rights practitioners’ own personal notions of human rights and what implications these views have for development assistance.   The study shows that all of the respondents in the case studies share a common view concerning the universality of human rights, and that the rights articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) are indeed universal and should be shared by all people everywhere. That being said, the result also demonstrate that there is a common notion among the respondents from Kampala that this universality does not exists in the practical implementation of human rights in development assistance. Furthermore, the results show that all respondents see that clear prioritizations are made in terms of which rights are focused on in the field of development assistance specifically. The respondents perceive these prioritizations to be set on the basis of the political agenda of the international community and major donors. Which priorities end up at the top of the agenda depends on any number of cultural, historical, ideological and economic factors that differ from situation to situation.   In light of these findings, I argue in this study that there exist weaknesses in the universal approach to human rights that are claimed by Jack Donnelly and the donor community when it comes to practical implementation in development assistance. The results of this study show that the universality of human rights is threatened by uneven power dynamics that exist between donors and partner countries. This has implications for the ability of both practitioners in the field of human rights and donors to instill confidence in a local context. Therefore, this thesis suggests that there is a need for a re-examination of how this universality is approached from the international community and the donors when it comes to the practical implementation in development assistance in order for the common goal to be fulfilled.

This thesis examines the relationship between the Japanese government and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) involved in Official Development Assistance (ODA). Japanese NGOs are too easily co-opted into the mechanisms of state power, sometimes putting at risk the very objectives that ODA is meant to embody. Against this prevailing trend; however, some NGOs have rallied to resist and transform undemocratic ODA policies and practices, and challenge Japan’s traditional bureaucratic politics. Gramsci’s theory of state and civil society, which treats civil society as a field of contention between hegemony and counter-hegemony, provides a useful frame of reference to understand the contradictory role of Japanese NGOs. / Graduate

Provision of aid has long been influenced by the political priorities of donors, and there is substantial evidence that the administrative rules and regulations of donor organisations create problems for recipient countries. For as long as this fact has been understood, there have been efforts to address it: most recently, spear-headed by the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and its associated efforts. This thesis seeks to deepen understanding of this tension by examining the aid relationships in the health sector using analytical frameworks drawn from governance, political economy and health policy. Part 1 ‘defines the territory’ by describing the aid effectiveness challenges faced in the sector in qualitative and quantitative terms. Part 2 seeks to understand why these challenges persist by examining the political and institutional forces which affect provision of aid from (following Reich) ‘above, within and below’. I begin by looking at the ‘high’ political forces affecting aid provision by locating health aid as an instrument of international relations. Then, I look in greater detail the central tension in governance of health aid: the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ between efforts to promote greater coherence and the reality of diversity. Finally, I explore the internal (institutional) forces within aid agencies which affect a particular dimension of aid provision: the length of donor commitments. Part 3 presents in-depth case study research which demonstrates how the political forces from above, within and below play out in practice. The emerging conclusion is that the aid effectiveness agenda, as set out in the Paris Declaration, is only ever likely to be partially successful, for two reasons. First, because global health governance is inherently iterative, dynamic and diverse it cannot be regulated through further global processes (such as aid effectiveness). Second, the aid effectiveness agenda is structured around simple concepts and solutions which (while useful for global advocacy purposes) are no match for the political, institutional and economic complexity which characterises the aid relationship at country level. Indeed, the diversity that global health creates at country level has to be managed by recipient countries themselves, according to their timetable, and in a way tailored to their own context and circumstances.

This thesis deals with the matter of development and methods of formation and goals of providing the development asistence. Furthermore, it describes the attitudes of various stakeholders participating in development cooperation. The author, in addition, offers tools for success in the fight against poverty and for achieving sustainable socio-economic development. Emphasis is placed on the microfinance system, which serves to ensure that poor people are given the opportunity to do business and escape the poverty by their working and effort.

Uganda, like several developing countries, is a recipient of development assistance. This assistance, which is provided by rich developed countries, supports among others human rights programmes in these countries. Development partners that provide this assistance wield considerable influence arising from the assistance they provide. This study seeks to determine what role development assistance plays in the promotion and protection of human rights in Uganda. The study establishes that, similar to several African countries such as Malawi, Zambia, Kenya and Ghana, Uganda is aid-dependent. Although Uganda is committed to reducing this dependence, it is concluded that without this vital lifeline of development assistance, Uganda would not be able to fully fund and run its human rights programmes or development budget. The study further establishes that international cooperation and the provision of development assistance are embodied in international human rights treaties and declarations. However, while there is an obligation to provide development assistance, stipulated in international human rights treaties, the study establishes that some development partners do not recognise this obligation. A model convention providing for the obligation to provide development assistance is elaborated in this study. The study arrives at the conclusion that development partners through the provision of development assistance have advanced the human rights agenda in Uganda, though sometimes impedding the development of an authentic domestic human rights culture. The study recommends that there is a need to reverse this situation. The study concludes with several recommendations aimed at making Uganda own its human rights agenda. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

The paper analyses relations between economic diplomacy and foreign development assistance. The ground of the analysis constitutes theoretical and practical concept of foreign development aid provided by the Czech republic and New Zealand set into the scope of economic diplomacy. The approaches of indicated countries are compared in aspect of total volume, territorial and issue allocation and the potential to utilize foreign development aid as a tool of economic diplomacy is assessed.

It has gone more than 50 years since Sweden officially started organizing and giving development assistance to needing countries. There have been many different Governments with differences in both ideological background and political aim during that time, not only in Sweden but also internationally. How much has circumstances and the different rule affected the Swedish development assistance policies? To answer that question has been the main aim for this thesis. In my study I have focused on the last 22 years, as from 1990 until 2012, and studied one budget proposition for development assistance per Government.  I have also studied some of the most important steering documents, important events and international decisions that have affected the Swedish development policies. Since the budget propositions show the ambitions of the Governments it is also their policies. It is these policies that I will analyze using the two variables: size of the aid, and the goal for the aid. The analysis is has been done using Nikolaos Zahariadis policy theory The Multiple Streams Framework. My study shows that the policies that were adopted 50 years ago still have a large, if not settling, impact on today’s policies. The main goal for the development assistance today only differs on a few words from what was written in proposition 1962:100. The economic goal which is one of the most fundamental parts of today’s development assistance, that one percent of Sweden’s GDP should go to international aid, was first decided in 1968. Finally, I have concluded that both the way the goal of the development assistance has been formulated and how extensive the frame of funding for development assistance has been, haven’t always percental been followed with how much money that have been spent on the budget point development work.