Tsarist Russia, the USSR and modern Russia have had unique perspectives on Africa and aid, due to geographical location, changing ideologies, non-colonial history with Africa, the Cold War, alternating aid status of recipient and donor, and a historic view of Africa in a tripartite relationship with the West. Western development discourse evolved to produce a large aid apparatus, accompanied by depoliticised discourse on Africa. The USSR’s discourse on Africa was political. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), Discourse Historical Approach (DHA) and a postcolonial approach, with a structural analysis of 262 pages of Soviet newspaper Pravda and discourse analysis of 54 articles, this thesis relates findings to the Russian, Soviet and Western contexts in which the discourses arose. It shows that Pravda used Africa and aid as discursive tools to establish the USSR’s position in the international hierarchy, used Africa as a rhetorical proxy, and carried a theme of “freedom as development”. Similarities between Soviet, Russian and Western representations of Africa, development and aid (for example Africa’s low status) were built on different motivations and assumptions, and used different tools. The USSR’s Cold War rhetoric conveyed a partial and incomplete construction of Africa, aid and development. Pravda conveyed assumptions that all countries, including the USSR, are developing, that the USSR and Africa are comparable and in some ways similar, and that freedom is an overriding aspiration. Constructing development as natural, Pravda constructed a weak link between development and aid, and in general Pravda presented aid as harmful Western aid. Russia’s legacy is an ideology in which Africa is still eternally “developing” but shares this activity with all countries, Africa is weak and yet is Russia’s friend and ally, competition continues between Russia and the West over Africa’s friendship, and aid has mainly humanitarian rather than development value. Socialist ideological discourse of equal nations remains in today’s Communist Pravda. This thesis explores the evolution of perceptions in Soviet Pravda discourse, and makes a substantive analytical contribution to the literatures on development and aid, Russian foreign policy and international relations, and postcolonialism. It increases knowledge of Cold War Africa, and the USSR’s and Russia’s self-perceptions and attitudes towards others. Russia’s status as a non-Western donor and recent aid recipient make its legacy and attitudes of particular interest.

No description available.

This diploma work analyzes two different approaches to "fight" poverty -- foreign development aid and self-help in communities. First part is concerned with international poverty and its dimensions. Second part concerns with ideas, background theories, goals and adverse effects of foreign aid. As an alternative to foreign aid, self-help in communities is analyzed in next part, with its advantages and shortcomings. The two approaches to development are tested on Kenya's example. Major task of this work is to compare the two concepts and try to decide which one conducts better in development. Outcome of this work suggests that foreign development aid fails to fulfill its goals and has many adverse effects on a recipient country (including Kenya). On the other hand, self-help has usually direct impact on conditions in which poor people are living, therefore is more effective in figthting poverty.

The main aim of this thesis is to reveal the importance of the development aid in Kenya and to demonstrate, on the example of Slovak republic, which type of aid plays more important role -- wheather the official or unofficial aid. Effectivness of aid in Kenya is evaluated on the basis of correlation of the amounts of development aid and indices which show improvement or degradation of economic and social situation of the country. The significance of the official and unofficial aid is evaluated by comparing the projects that are supported by ODA and projects supported by non-governmental organizations on the basis of financial criterium and the reach of the projects. The contribution of this thesis is to show effectivness of development aid in poor countries on the example of Kenya. The work has three chapters. The object of the first chapter is to present economic and social situation in Kenya and individual factors which can help her to get over the underdevelopment. The second chapter offers characteristics of individual donors and evaluates the relevance of development aid. The last chapter presents concrete projects of ODA of Slovak republic and of Slovak non-governmental organizations and evaluates which of the two types of aid is more important.

The objective of this thesis is to evaluate, whether microfinance are a suitable instrument for development aid. It maps the factors that caused the microfinance crisis in 2008 to 2010 and validates the proposed reform measures. It describes and compares the effeciency and results of microfinance substitutes in the field of development aid, which are governmental, non-governmental and commercial programmes with similar objectives declared. It also analyses data from 2008 to 2014 from the point of view of social indicator reporting and acceptance of the new concept among microfinance institutions. Conclusion is reached based on these three components: ability to reform microfinance, possibilities of other programmes and situation in social reporting. Microfinance isn´t a suitable instrument for poverty reduction as such, but serves as a complement to provide for development of poor regions and financial inclusion of poor inhabitants.

The purpose of this research is to generate an insightful study of the effectiveness of U.S. aid on Mozambique's developing economy. Over the past 30 years, the U.S. , along with numerous other multilateral and bilateral organizations, has given large amounts of development assistance to Mozambique and, in the same duration, the country has seen tremendous economic improvement. Thus, this study aims to detennine the exact nature of the relationship between U.S. aid and per capita GDP from 1981-2007 for both Mozambique and a panel of African countries. According to prior studies, aggregate development assistance has greatly benefited Mozambique's economy and is a proven factor of economic growth for developing countries. This research, while showing a positive correlation between total official development assistance and growth, proves the effect of U.S. aid contributions to be insignificant.

The end of the Cold War changed radically the international environment as well as the scope of development aid and cooperation within it. The development agenda in the new millenium has started to significantly focus on the develpment aid effectiveness. In this context the use of the instrument of budget support is rising. The thesis aims to assess the concept of the partnership general budget support and the way it responds to the requirements imposed on development aid mainly by the Paris Declaration On Aid Effectiveness in 2005.

Au-delà des grands discours, les relations internationales se concrétisent dans des actions de coopération entre les États. Au cours des deux décennies après 1990, dans un contexte d’apparent consensus idéologique international sur la démocratie et le développement, notre travail a étudié la traduction des grands discours dans des actions sur le terrain. Nous avons étudié l’action de l’Union Européenne, un acteur des relations internationales en construction pendant cette période qui se présente comme un champion de la démocratie. Comme terrain de mise en œuvre, nous avons choisi la Colombie, un pays fortement divisé au niveau idéologique, qui a été traditionnellement sous l’influence des États-Unis, mais où l’Union Européenne augmente son investissement après 1990. Nous avons analysé les stratégies de coopération de l’Europe dans des domaines comme la construction de la démocratie, la gestion de fonds et l’éducation. Nous avons aussi étudié des documents concernant 13 projets sur le terrain entre 1990 et 2010. Il s’agit de documents de formulation, de communication externe et de suivi de projets ainsi que d’entretiens avec des personnes ayant participé de leur mise en œuvre. Nous avons pu apprécier la polysémie et les contradictions, les résistances et les interprétations qui ont lieu à l’heure de traduire les idées politiques dans des projets sociaux ou éducatifs. Notre travail a permis d’identifier les caractéristiques du modèle particulier de citoyenneté démocratique qui s’est construit dans les pratiques de coopération de la Commission Européenne en Colombie, mettant ainsi en relief les projets politiques et la nature historique de ces pratiques qui sont le plus souvent analysées d’un point de vue purement technique.Nous avons tiré aussi des conclusions sur les spécificités des pratiques européennes de relations internationales dans la construction de la démocratie par rapport notamment aux pratiques des États-Unis. Enfin, les conclusions de notre travail portent sur le processus de construction de la paix et de la démocratie en Colombie et le rôle de l’action internationale dans le pays par rapport aux dynamiques internes. / More than just great speeches and treaties, international relations take form in actions of cooperation between states. During the two decades following 1990, in a context of an apparent international ideological consensus around democracy and development, our work has studied the translation of discourses into actions on the ground.We have studied the action of the European Union, an actor of international relations in consolidation during this period who presents itself as a champion of democracy. As a field of implementation, we chose Colombia, a strongly ideologically divided country that has been traditionally influenced by the United States, but where the European Union increases its investment after 1990.We analyzed Europe's aid strategies in areas such as democracy building, fund management and education. We also studied documents relating to 13 projects in the field between 1990 and 2010. These are formulation, external communication and projects’ follow-up documents as well as interviews with people who have participated in their implementation.Thanks to this, we were able to appreciate the polysemy and the contradictions, resistances and interpretations that take place at the time of translating political ideas into social or educational projects.Our work allowed us to identify the characteristics of the particular model of democratic citizenship built in the European Commission's cooperation practices in Colombia, highlighting the political projects and the historical nature of these practices that are, most often, analyzed from a purely technical point of view.We also drew conclusions on the specificities of European practices of international relations in the construction of democracy in relation, in particular, to the practices of the United States. Finally, our conclusions concern the process of building peace and democracy in Colombia during the two decades and the role of international action in the country in relation to internal dynamics.

The international aid sector is a multi-billion dollar industry that has continued to grow in size, influence and complexity since the 1970s. The stakeholders are globalised and diverse, from elite UN politicians in New York and Geneva to malnourished infants in Somalia. This study attempts to focus on the professional development of one category of player in this multifaceted sector, that is the expatriate field leader employed international non-government organisations (INGO) and responsible for the implementation of projects in a cross-cultural environment. The study found that relationships, results, and grit were three foundational traits of exemplary expatriate filed leaders in the international aid sector. This collective case study takes a grounded theory approach to explore the professional journeys of 12 exemplary expatriate field practitioners in the international aid sector who work in Central Asia, Middle East, and North Africa with ten different INGOs and have an average of 12.5 years of field experience. The participants were nominated for the study by their supervisors or peers as being exemplary field leaders. The study purposes to gain insight into the professional journey of exemplary field leaders by examining their work-life experience from age 18 until present. Biographic narrative interviews were conducted and supplemented with professional development timelines to create the initial data set. The study provides insight into the processes of professional identity formation of expatriate aid workers and identifies seven events that shape their professional self-identity. These experiences consist of a variety of reflected appraisals and intrinsic rewards that validated or changed how the research participants saw themselves. Participants credited good relationships and seeing the results of their work as what keeps them going in spite of difficulties. On the other hand, the most difficult work experiences of the aid workers were not carjacking, riots, dust, heat, bugs, strange food, or low funding but relational conflicts and the grief associated with relational disappointments. Interpersonal relationships were core to both the best experiences and the most difficult experiences of the research participants. Gritty appears to be a better construct to describe exemplary field leaders than resilient. Grit is a trait defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals. The research participants demonstrated grit in many situations, not least of which was in their commitment to learn the local language in-situ of crisis-affected people. The research participants believed that learning local languages was a key to establish and maintain meaningful relationships and cooperation with local people. The study also includes a discussion of an apparent incongruity in the international aid sector. On one hand the sector promotes the necessity of humanitarian professionals to establish and maintain collaborative relationships with crisis-affected people, but survey evidence suggests most workers in the humanitarian sector put a low priority on learning the languages of crisis-affected people while others do not have sufficient opportunity to learn the local languages because of the well-entrenched tradition of short-term employment contracts of 1-12 months and the practice of churning (rotating experienced staff from project to project). It appears that the current system of doing business in the humanitarian sector may actually obstruct professional competence and contribute to failed outcomes.

This diploma thesis addresses globally discussed topic of potential development co-operation effects on conflict prevention in Africa. After theoretical and historical analysis of the roots and development of conflicts in 11 selected Sub-Saharan African states, this thesis points out through several real examples different and often unexpected results of development programs. From partial conclusions, which have clear geographic connection, the thesis uses simple induction method to evaluate and to recommend further proactive changes in development policies.