This diploma thesis looks at Czech non-governmental non-profit organisations operating in the area of development cooperation and humanitarian aid, their role, functioning and dilemmas they face. In the the part, it describes generally non-governmental non-profit organisations, their history, legislative framework, financing possibilities and work they with volunteers in the Czech environment. The second part summarises the results of questionnaire investigation carried out among member organisations of the Czech Forum for Development Cooperation.

This paper is focused on the quantitative analysis of the role of the faith-based organisations (FBOs) in development cooperation. The aim of this work is to determine to what extent do selected FBOs cooperate with government donors in development cooperation. The role of FBOs in development was so far neglected topic in Czech academic literature and this work thus fills to some extent this gap. In this work I characterise selected organizations based on their income, country of origin and religion, on which the organization is based. Then I gradually investigate to what extent do selected FBOs involve in European development cooperation, to what extent are selected FBOs publicly funded and finally compare the structure of revenues of selected FBOs with the revenues of secular nonprofit organizations.

This thesis deals with EU development cooperation and efforts to increase its efficiency. One of the most important commitments to increase efficiency was the Paris Declaration. The document, whose main goal was to help meet the MDGs, was adopted in 2005 in response to insufficient level of cooperation. The European Union and its member states were amongst its signatories. The first chapter defines development cooperation, concept of its effectiveness and important documents, which address the issue of development cooperation effectiveness. The second chapter contains an analysis of the EU development cooperation, including the review of basline situation in 2005 and progress in following years based on series of published surveys on progress. The last chapter discusses the results of efforts to improve effectiveness, challenges and future development cooperation framework.

This thesis discusess the aid effectiveness focusing on volunteering in development. Its main part is a case study that examines the impact of non-governmental organization engaged in volunteering FIDESCO on the city of Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The thesis does not analyze the aid effectiveness as a whole, but tries to point out the importance of organizations working with volunteers in the field of development cooperation.

The present thesis, "The Economic Importance of Bolivia in South America and its commercial Perspectives with the Czech Republic", is a complete and unique study which aims to determine, from an in-depth analysis of the current socio-economic situation in Bolivia, the opportunities that arise from its close cooperation in projects common with the European Union as a whole and the Czech Republic in particular, leading to fulfil the new vision of a multinational Bolivia. In order to accomplish this objective, the thesis is divided into 6 chapters. Each chapter brings forward those individual characteristics which best describe Bolivia. Firstly, it analyses Bolivia as a developing country, a situation common to its Latin-American neighbours, and the current tendency of this group of countries in terms of their "intraregional and interregional" integration. Furthermore, Bolivia is evaluated from a socio-economic perspective on a macro-regional, departmental and sectorial basis, focusing on the most outstanding sectors. This evaluation revealed its potentialities as well as specific areas which are still in need of further financial support for their development, in accordance with the current vision of Evo Morales' government. As this study aims to encourage investments in the Bolivian territory from the European Union and particularly from the Czech Republic, it also describes in detail the cooperation and commercial relations in which Bolivia currently participates, at a bi-regional (EU-Latin America), interregional (EU-Andean Community of Nations), unilateral (EU-Bolivia) and bilateral level (Czech Republic and Bolivia). Finally, the thesis identifies a variety of potential projects which any country from the EU, specially the Czech Republic, could participate in, seeking mutual benefit based on their individual supply and demand rates. To achieve this, it is critical for the EU and the government of Bolivia to reformulate and strengthen their bilateral and multilateral commercial relations.

The thesis analyzes two forms of International Development Cooperation, particularly Microfinance and Interregional Cooperation. The goal is to stress these forms and find suitable models for their application in the Czech environment.

The topic of this thesis is Norwegian democracy support in the context of Norwegian development cooperation. This thesis focuses on the period since 1990, when promotion of democracy in development cooperation was explicitly identified as an essential part of development for the first time, until the time of writing the paper. First, the thesis develops theoretical and methodological basis, democratization in general, development cooperation and promoting democracy are discussed. This knowledge is then applied in the empirical part. First, the Norwegian development cooperation and its goals for the upcoming years are presented. Further, Norwegian democracy support is analyzed in detail including its development in time. Democracy support is analyzed from three points of view. First, declared objectives of promoting democracy are examined, and then the financial framework for the promotion of democracy and the realization of the objectives of promoting democracy in practice are analyzed. Last chapter of this thesis offers a case study of Norwegian democracy support in Tanzania, where certain democracy support projects are presented in detail.

The overall aim of this master’s thesis is to increase our understanding about the framing of gender in EU’s development policies. To reflect to this aim, the thesis examines how gender is framed in EU’s development cooperation with Ethiopia in the governance sector. The EU is collectively the biggest donor for international aid in the world, while claiming to be “a global front-runner” in promoting gender equality as a key political objective of its external action. However, previous research has criticized the EU’s gender policies, explaining that gender is not mainstreamed in all the policies and that gender equality is often motivated on instrumentalist arguments. The previous research is however somewhat outdated, lacking the consideration of effects of the SDG’s and the improved gender equality policies by the EU. Previous studies are furthermore mostly concerned with country comparisons and therefore selecting one field of study and one country could shed light to matters that may have been left unnoticed in previous research. Therefore, based on previous research and theories focusing on gender equality and development, WID and GAD, this study analyses how the EU is framing gender. This study is designed as an in-depth case study which uses a frame analysis and interviews as a method to study the research question. The main findings of this study are that both references to WID and GAD framing of gender are actively used in EU’s development policies. Even though these approaches are contradictory in many ways they seem to be overlapping in several cases, presenting women as a vulnerable group that needs to be empowered. Arguments for WID approach include instrumentalist arguments, women seen ass add-ons’ to the development structures, women seen as a vulnerable and homogenized group and the effects of the girl effect. Arguments supporting GAD approach include women’s rights framing, patriarchal system framing, women’s empowerment framing and the social justice framing.

This thesis studies the symbolic regimes of Southern and Northern development cooperation partners. Symbolic regime is understood as the jointly articulated discourse of the Southern and Northern development partners. South-North cooperation is a suitable topic for study due to its peculiarity. The power structure typically seen in development cooperation is inverted, with the Southern country being the primary architect of cooperation between the two countries, unlike in traditional development cooperation. The study is placed in the context of wider research on convergence between Southern and Northern countries. Symbolic regimes are studied by inductively generating theoretical categories using a grounded theory method on documents from China’s Belt and Road Initiative and comparing those categories with established North-South and South-South symbolic regimes, which are framed using gift theory. The results suggest that China and its Northern partners’ symbolic regime is similar to the symbolic regime from South-South cooperation, without the emotional claims of solidarity or empathy. Jointly articulated discourse was found primarily to detail intended consequences and facilitating conditions, while individually articulated material showed that there are realities which are obscured by the symbolic regimes.

The private sector is an integral part of the global mainstream political development discourse. It appears in different contexts that define its roles in the field of development cooperation policy and therefore imply diverse political actions. The thesis analyses the Czech development discourse in connection with the private sector from 1995 until today. Based on the method of discourse analysis of the outputs of relevant development stakeholders the research identifies four different types of development discourse in relation to the private sector: "The private sector - a taboo", "We pay, we want Czech enterprises in development cooperation", "The private sector, the careless destructor", "The private sector, the darling of the development cooperation policy stakeholders." Out of the discourses identified, every type is typical for a specific time period as well as a specific set of stakeholders employing the discourse. Generally, until the Czech accession to the EU, the private sector does not seem to be an important element of the governmental development discourse since the theme is practically absent. This changes with the global economic crisis and even more notably after 2015 when generally all of the relevant development actors, including the traditionally very critical NGO sector,...