This thesis investigates the place of African states in the international system and seeks to understand what space exists for aid-dependent governments to exercise agency in relations with donors. In exploring these issues I focus on the case of Uganda’s NRM regime which has enjoyed very substantial international support despite its increasingly authoritarian nature, destabilising regional policy and questionable human rights record. The two central questions posed are therefore: ‘why has Uganda benefited from such uncritical international support and what role has the NRM regime itself played in bringing about this situation?’ The thesis also compares Uganda’s experience to those of Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda to demonstrate the broader relevance of these questions. I argue that donors have taken a lenient approach to Uganda because they perceive it as valuable as an economic success story, an ally in the ‘War on Terror’ and a guarantor of regional stability. The study stresses, however, that these perceptions are just that: perceptions. They do not necessarily reflect reality nor are they formed without input from Africa, as some inadvertently suggest. Indeed, the principal contention of this thesis is that these three donor perceptions of Uganda have been actively constructed, moulded, managed and bolstered by Kampala itself in an effort to shore-up international support. Using a variety of ‘image management’ strategies the regime has succeeded in convincing its donors to see it as a valuable ally worth supporting. The same is true of the Rwandan and Ethiopian governments, I suggest, but not of the Kenyan. In doing so, the thesis contends, Kampala has carved out a subtle but substantial degree of agency in relations with donors and this raises important questions for scholars and policy-makers.

Although the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade has generated great interest from foreign aid donors, its impact. in terms of increased service levels has been poor. These disappointing results have been explained by the UN and other donors in terms of inadequate funding and lack of cost recovery, poor operations and maintenance, lack of personnel, unacceptable technology, poor logistics and non involvement of the beneficiaries. However, an alternative explanation revolves around factors contributing to poor project design. These include the lack of understanding of the development process, donor bias and self interest, and poor coordination and commitment by the recipient government. A review of the development and trends of contemporary aid philosophy and its translation in to rural development and water and sanitation projects, which led to the launch of the IDWSSD, provides a number of lessons that can be used to formulate a hybrid model for project design and the sector development process, that defines the relative roles of donors, recipient governments and people themselves. The model is based on coordinated development, community participation, and sector growth from pilot projects to large scale programmes. The developments in the rural water and sanitation sector that took place in Zimbabwe from 1974 to 1987, provide a unique opportunity to test this model using a systems analysis approach. After gaining Independence in 1980, Zimbabwe's development assistance funding grew tenfold with the influx of foreign donors, and major commitments were made by the new Government to rural development and the goals of the IDWSSD. However, the large investments in water and sanitation which included the preparation of a national master plan with external technical assistance, had both positive and negative impacts on the continuing development of the sector, the start of which can be traced back, well before Independence, to small pilot projects sponsored by non government organizations that used appropriate technology developed by the Rhodesian Government. This development process and the changing approach to project design is illustrated by a series of case studies of projects supported by multilateral and bilateral donors, and non government organizations, that were milestones during this period. Finally the project and sector development model is modified based on the practical lessons from Zimbabwe and recommendations for future practice are made together with suggestions for areas of further research.

The Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols aim to protect those people who are not “participating in the hostilities” of war, such as “civilians, health workers and aid workers” and are the pillar of humanitarian law (International Committee of the Red Cross, 2010). The humanitarian principles including humanity, neutrality, independence and impartiality, are based on the international humanitarian law and committed to by all member states of the European Union (European Commission, 2019). Although these principles exist to guide the humanitarian organizations in their assistance and allocation of humanitarian aid, they are sometimes overlooked in terms of, for instance, self-interest, strategic motives and media attention. This results in ethical dilemmas for humanitarian organizations. The aim of this thesis is to examine how Swedish aid donors, both a governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), reason ethically in relation to the allocation of humanitarian aid towards conflict-affected areas. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with four Non-Governmental Organizations and one governmental organization in order to examine and compare their ethical reasoning. The theories of consequentialism, utilitarianism, deontological ethics, socialization and rational choice have been applied to investigate the research questions further. The results broadly indicate that all participating organizations reason similar in terms of ethics in contrast to the findings in the previous research. For instance, they all follow the humanitarian principles and use additional ethical frameworks in the allocation of humanitarian aid. Many similarities were found among the NGOs and the governmental organization as well as a few differences.