This thesis is exploring interactions of Japanese NGOs to be influential in official foreign aid from outside of the exclusive Japanese decision-making process. Three case studies have been undertaken to examine how Japanese NGOs have developed or adopted various means to exert influence on the government. Japanese NGOs have emerged as powerful actors in foreign aid under a policy of "Kao no Mieru Enjyo (visible Japanese aid)" in the 1990s following some domestic incidents and an international trend in development. However, the Japanese government has maintained a hostile attitude toward NGOs despite its official claim of regarding NGOs as 'partners'. The government's awkward reaction to NGOs comes from Japan's traditional idea of extreme respect for the government and looking down on citizenry. This traditional political culture of "Kan Son Min Pi (supremacy of bureaucracy)" has dominated Japan and that has made the government hostile to powerful outsiders such as NGOs, which may threaten their supremacy. The exclusive decision-making system, "the Iron Triangle", has also contributed to distance NGOs from the government. By this means, an atmosphere between NGOs and the government in Japan has been far from 'partnership'. Against this hostile environment, Japanese NGOs have developed and adopted interactions to exert influence. Various means have been used by each NGO in accordance with each speciality and operation field. The thesis has focused on three areas of Japan's foreign aid - development, anti-personnel landmines and environment - and undertaken three case studies. Four NGOs have been analysed - Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC), Japanese Campaign to Ban Landmines (JCBL), Greenpeace Japan and Friends of the Earth (FoE) Japan. Some NGOs have developed their own interactions and others have been adopted from international partners and authorities. On a whole, they have all crafted these interactions to suit the Japanese political culture. Among several interactions, building international networks and personal relationships with powerful individuals such as politicians have appeared to be most useful. These two interactions work effectively on Japan's reactive and highly personalised aspects of politics, which is reactive to external pressure (Gai-atsu) and rely heavily on the personality and ability of individual leaders. The case studies reveal that Japanese NGOs have exerted influence effectively by making use of these valuable interactions. However, Japanese NGOs are at a crossroad because of high turn-over of staff and a focus-shifting in Japan's foreign policy to sending Self-Defence Forces (SDF) overseas. NGOs also need to obtain solid financial source which is getting difficult after a downturn in the Japanese economy. These will be the issues that Japanese NGOs need to tackle soon in order to be true 'partner'.

New Zealand’s aid programme reflects many of the controversies surrounding foreign aid more generally. From issues relating to the influence of political considerations and the administration and evaluation of aid agencies, to the fragmentation of the global aid system and the volatility of aid, these issues compromise the efficacy of aid provided to developing countries. This paper analyses the evolution of New Zealand’s aid programme and critiques its current policy and administrative structure in the context of these current controversies, in order to highlight the ways in which New Zealand’s aid can be delivered more effectively. The paper concludes, among other things, that New Zealand’s change in focus to economic development, its close alignment of aid policy with foreign policy and the re-absorption of its semi-autonomous aid agency NZAID back into its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade risks compromising the effectiveness of the aid that New Zealand provides.

New Zealand’s aid programme reflects many of the controversies surrounding foreign aid more generally. From issues relating to the influence of political considerations and the administration and evaluation of aid agencies, to the fragmentation of the global aid system and the volatility of aid, these issues compromise the efficacy of aid provided to developing countries. This paper analyses the evolution of New Zealand’s aid programme and critiques its current policy and administrative structure in the context of these current controversies, in order to highlight the ways in which New Zealand’s aid can be delivered more effectively. The paper concludes, among other things, that New Zealand’s change in focus to economic development, its close alignment of aid policy with foreign policy and the re-absorption of its semi-autonomous aid agency NZAID back into its Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade risks compromising the effectiveness of the aid that New Zealand provides.

The United States emerged from the Second World War determined to play a leading role in the maintenance of international order. Increasing levels of tension between the United States and the forces of communism after 1945, however, slowly forced a redefinition of what might be more distinctly termed America's "global" responsibilities, such that by 1961 John F. Kennedy declared that the United States would "pay any price. . .in order to assure the survival and success of liberty." An identifiable Cold War consensus took shape based on the assumption that it was America's responsibility to lead, protect, and defend, the "free-world." Since America was effectively waging a battle to ensure the successful spread of its own values, the Cold War consensus also served to severely limit debate—dissent essentially implied disloyalty. By the mid-1960s, however, the Cold War consensus began to crack and a debate over American foreign policy began to emerge. That debate is the focus of this dissertation, which looks at the opposition to Cold War policies which emerged in the Senate, most notably among the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee --many of whom had once played a role in developing the very foreign policies they now protested. The war in Vietnam provided the focal point for much of the dissent, but the foreign aid program also became heavily criticized, as did America's NATO policy, particularly the size of the American military presence in Europe. More important, however, Senate dissenters came to question the United States' very position as the principle defender of the free world. They did not dispute the idea that America had a significant role to play in the global arena, but they did not believe that role should consist of being the world's policeman, the self-appointed arbiter of other’s affairs, and the keeper of the status quo. Because of their views, the so-called dissenters were labelled as "neo-isolationists." They saw themselves the true "internationalists," however, believing that the Cold War had led to confusion between internationalism and indiscriminate global involvement.

This study sought to analyse the role of foreign aid in poverty alleviation and economic development of Ghana from 1957 to 2008. Literature related to the study on foreign aid and economic development was reviewed to get an insight into the views of other writers on the topic under study. The study adopted both primary and secondary sources of data to examine the concept of foreign aid, poverty reduction and economic development in Ghana. The study collected data using qualitative interviews consisting of open- and close-ended questions from the field. Content analysis involving the use of existing materials by researchers and the analyses of data originally collected by others was also relied on as a complement to the primary sources in the study. The study found that donor aid is not well coordinated in Ghana because of the proliferation of donor agencies in the country. Though aid is provided to the Ghanaian economy to address poverty and economic development challenges, the study found that foreign aid did not achieve the set objectives because of poor management of donor resources. This study, therefore, recommends that the informal economy should be promoted with funding from microfinance as an alternative to donor-driven development to effectively harness the natural resources in the country for development. / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)

Este trabalho tem como objetivos analisar os acordos ajuda externa assinados pelo Brasil entre 2005 e 2010 e estudá-los à luz das diretrizes diplomáticas brasileiras no período, identificando suas determinantes conjunturais e estruturais. Em oposição às modalidades tradicionais de cooperação internacional, que são acordadas entre países com diferentes níveis de desenvolvimento econômico e diferentes interesses estratégicos, a cooperação Sul-Sul se caracteriza por envolver países em desenvolvimento, com maior potencial de identificação mútua e de convergência de interesses. Não surpreende, portanto, que essa modalidade tenha ganhado força ultimamente, na medida em que países emergentes alcançam projeção internacional e se encontram em condições mais favoráveis para fortalecer laços diplomáticos, promover o desenvolvimento econômico de parceiros comerciais (efetivos ou potenciais) e aumentar, quantitativa e qualitativamente, sua influência no âmbito internacional. No Brasil, o órgão responsável pela articulação dos acordos de cooperação internacional é a Agência Brasileira de Cooperação, vinculado ao Ministério das Relações Exteriores. Sua criação, em 1987, acompanhou o processo de abertura democrática do país e sua atuação já atravessa sete mandatos presidenciais tão variados em suas orientações políticas quanto nos contextos externos que eles enfrentaram. A compreensão de sua relevância estratégica na política externa brasileira não acompanhou, entretanto, a atenção que a Agência Brasileira de Cooperação tem ganhado por parte do governo federal. Este trabalho pretende analisar, a partir de um conjunto de dados coletados junto à Agência Brasileira de Cooperação, a política externa brasileira e a relevância estratégica que os projetos de cooperação Sul-Sul ganharam nos últimos governos. / This dissertation has two main objectives: analyze the aid donation agreements signed by Brazil between 2005 and 2010 and study their relation to the main ideas informing Brazilian diplomatic relations in the period. As opposed to traditional models of international cooperation, which are agreed between countries with different economic capacities and different strategic interests, South-South cooperation distinguishes itself by involving only underdeveloped countries, which have greater potential of mutual identification and of converging interests. Thus it does not come as a surprise that this practice has been increasingly gaining importance lately, as emergent countries have been experiencing greater international projection and meeting more favorable conditions to strengthen diplomatic ties, to promote trade partners (effective or potential) economic development and to increase, quantitatively and qualitatively, their influence on the international realm. In Brazil, the bureaucratic body responsible for the articulation of cooperation agreements is the Brazilian Cooperation Agency, under the Ministry of Foreign Relations. Its creation in 1987 followed the Brazilian democratization process, and within its lifetime it has gone under the command of seven presidential administrations as diverse on their political orientations as on the international challenges they had to face. However, the comprehension of the Brazilian Cooperation Agencys strategic role in Brazils foreign policy did not follow the increasing relevance attributed to it by the federal government in recent years. This paper intends to study Brazilian foreign policy and the strategic relevance of South-South cooperation in the last presidential administrations, based on data collected at the Brazilian Cooperation Agency.

In all types of debates - regardless of topic - research findings, investigations, evaluations and media reports regarding aid will find one prominent question, namely whether there is any clear connection between aid and economic growth in countries that have received high amounts of foreign aid. One argument has been that the connection between a high amount of foreign aid and economic growth is none existing. However, this assumption has been questioned by reports that claims the opposite: that aid, with the right conditions, could have a positive effect on a country’s economic growth. This study makes an effort to examining the effects of foreign aid in Bolivia by looking at the country’s development process in terms of economic growth. Questions like - who were the main donors that contributed with foreign aid in Bolivia? In what way were this foreign aid applied? How do development agencies asses the macro economic impact of aid? - will be discussed and answered throughout the thesis. The findings of the study demonstrate the complexity of measuring development within a certain case. It depends on what one chose to include in the term as well as which area is being investigated. Furthermore, the results seems to vary between the different programs evaluated that has been shaped and implemented by foreign donors. However, drawing from the findings presented in this study, the result indicates that foreign aid in general has had a positive effect on Bolivia’s economic growth.

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L'objectif de cette thèse est d'élargir le champ d'étude relatif à l'aide étrangère, en examinant aussi bien les conséquences des flux d'aide sur les pays en développement que les implications et tenants des politiques d'aide pour les économies développées. Dans le Chapitre 1, nous montrons que l’aide peut améliorer les institutions politiques lorsqu'elle est allouée par des agences multilatérales. Ses bénéfices sont d'autant plus notables que l'économie de l'Etat récipiendaire se délie des rentes pétrolières. Le Chapitre 2 révèle qu’aucune relation causale n’existe entre l’aide et la corruption au sein des Etats bénéficiaires. Le Chapitre 3 montre que l’aide améliore l'efficience technique avec laquelle les Etats bénéficiaires assurent leur production nationale, d'autant plus que les pays bénéficiaires se démocratisent et contrôlent leur inflation. Le Chapitre 4 révèle que les politiques d'aide, de migrations et de chômage sont intimement imbriquées. En particulier, la décision d'allouer des fonds d'aide étrangère est tributaire de la santé économique des Etats émetteurs (le taux de chômage) et soumise aux pressions des flux migratoires. / The objective of this dissertation is to contribute to the existing knowledge about foreign aid, either about its consequences on the developing world or about its implications for developed economies. Chapter 1 shows that aid improves public institutions when aid is allocated by multilateral agencies. The benefits of aid are even more valuable in countries not reliant on their oil resources rents. In Chapter 2 we analyse the possible Granger causal relationships running between foreign aid and corruption in developing countries. Our data reveal that aid does not result in more or less corruption, and reversely corruption does not exert a significant influence on future assistance. In Chapter 3 we evidence that foreign assistance enhances the recipient country's efficiency of production, in particular when the country has democratic and macroeconomic sound institutions. Chapter 4 reports our data analysis on donors' domestic policies. Aid, migration and unemployment policies are recognized to be tightly connected for OECD donors. Specifically, aid policies are partly shaped by the burden of unemployment and the stock of migrants observed in the donor country.

Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / The effectiveness of foreign aid in bringing economic and social development is mired in controversy. However, despite the controversial debates on its effectiveness, poor countries of the world have been receiving and using aid as a leverage to relieve themselves from development constraints they faced. Ethiopia is no exception amongst developing countries. Since the time it joined the World Bank group in 1945, foreign capital inflow has remained an important source of revenue for the government. This paper examines the fiscal impact of aid inflow into Ethiopia using time series data for the period 1975-2005. The empirical findings reveal that inflow of foreign aid influences public decision on revenue and expenditure patterns. The result shows that a larger proportion of aid is allocated to capital expenditure and that only a small proportion goes to recurrent expenditure. There is a strong positive association between aid inflow and capital expenditure. The finding also shows that, while a very weak negative association exists between aid and taxation effort, aid and borrowing are used as alternative source of finance. / South Africa