The thesis concerns the origins, creation and progress of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Most scholars believe that development assistance is largely motivated by self-interest. At first glance, the Centre appears to be an anomaly in Canadian foreign aid. The IDRC's disbursements are not formally tied, has an international board of governors, and its structure was specifically designed with autonomy in mind. This Canadian federal organisation has spent one and a half billion dollars are funded over 5,500 projects since its founding in 1970. During this time, the Centre has disbursed between 70-95% of its programme funds overseas, mostly to developing country university researchers. These researchers have designed and executed research intended to help developing countries alleviate poverty, social decay and more recently, environmental challenges. / A detailed archeology is conducted of Pearson's own internationalism regarding science and technology, foreign policy, development assistance, environment and culture. Our analysis shows how Pearson's thinking, and that of colleagues who were to have key influences on the Centre, Barbara Ward and Maurice Strong, were embedded in deeply held beliefs and values. We identify a tension between an internationalist impulses and Canadian-centered or parochial pre-occupations common in most of the federal public service, especially central agencies. Central agents, responding to pressures from academics, and the internal values and beliefs that tend to form in these secretaria, have sought to make the IDRC conform to their own expectations. The author concludes that the Centre has survived and prospered, despite these pressures, partly because of the skill of its top officers, but principally because of the IDRC's capacity to lay claim to being an expression of internationalism. / We also show how another dialectic, between more socially-oriented perspectives and more technical ones affected the development of the IDRC. The thesis suggests that the two dialectics, the internationalist and parochial, and the technical and social, are both synthesising into, respectively, interdependence and holism.

No description available.

Using regime theory, we consider in this thesis whether there is evidence of the gradual establishment of norms, principles, rules and regulations governing donor policies with regards to linking foreign aid to human rights practices. We hypothesize that, despite the constraints caused by the multiplicity of foreign policy objectives for any given donor, there is evidence of a developing human rights regime in the foreign aid policies and practices of donors of aid. Using a historical approach, we study the aid policies and practices of two international organizations (the United Nations and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) and two aid donors (Norway and the United States). We investigate the donors' policy statements, monitoring mechanisms, policy implementation and changes in donor behavior for evidence of the presence of a regime. Our findings suggest regime development occurring over three distinct periods of time (1945-50; 1973-83; 1989-94), with the resulting regime operating at three distinct levels with varying degrees of efficiency and effectiveness.

<p>Thirty years after it has achieved its independence, the Republic of Chad, which has faced a long political instability, decided to exploit its oil resources in order to achieve its development objectives. Owing to the difficulties encountered in mobilizing financial resources for the realization of the project, the Government obtained from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) a loan US$39.5 millions. The loan Agreement, signed between the two parties on 29 March 2001 included a provision referring to the Petroleum Revenue Management Program, described in schedule 5 of the Agreement. This Petroleum Revenue Management Program imposed a number of obligations, related to the actions to be undertaken by the Chadian Government prior to the release of the funds by the Bank, and to the modalities to be followed in the course of the management of the oil revenues. These obligations are also known as governance conditionalities. This theses raised the issues of the legitimacy of the Bank's Governance conditionality, its impact on both the sovereignty of the borrower to freely determine the use of its resources and the effectiveness of the loan.</p>

<p>This thesis has attempted to provide an analysis of two legal instruments / the Cotonou Agreement and the AGOA. Specific attention was directed to these instruments impact on trade between the European Union and the United States, respectively, and beneficiary African countries.</p>

This thesis aims to provide a coherent theoretical framework to guide the development of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) information systems within international aid agencies. The thesis applies soft systems methodologies (SSM) to explore the research question and to develop conceptual models. The theoretical basis for the M&E framework proposed is drawn from a transdisciplinary review of three academic fields: information systems,organisational effectiveness and project management. It is argued that inadequacies in the operationalisation of M&E systems arise from divergent epistemological and ontological assumptions about the nature of information and its role within organisations that are concerned with effecting social change. The M&E framework proposed seeks to resolve the dilemma posed by these divergent assumptions. This involves a M&E information system (i.e. MEIS) that is novel in terms of its scope, purpose and application. Firstly, the scope of the proposed MEIS takes in the entire aid organisation, going beyond the dominant, conventional approach, which is project-centric. This enables alignment of project strategies with organisational mission. Further, it aims to promote the institutionalisation of lessons learned within projects (conceived as 'social experiments') for organisational learning, thereby enabling informed debate about the effectiveness of the organisation in fostering sustainable development. Secondly, the purpose of the proposed MEIS has been defined as being concerned with promoting organisational success. The critical success factors of learning and accountability are identified, and the role of M&E in encouraging responsive management decision-making and critical inquiry and reflection is described. Thirdly, the application of the proposed MEIS involves a modified logframe. The '3D-Logframe' serves as a conceptual basis to address limitations found with the conventional two-dimensional logframe matrix when employed for M&E purposes. The proposed M&E framework was developed out of iterations of action in the field and reflection. Further research will involve applying the framework in its entirety.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Murdoch University, 2007. / Thesis submitted to the Division of Arts. Includes bibliographical references (p. [235]-268).

Thesis (Honors)--College of William and Mary, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-107). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 1992. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-73). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2005. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.