O presente trabalho tem o objetivo de analisar como mudanças nos discursos sobre desenvolvimento que operam na Nicarágua afetam organizações de mulheres rurais no país. A partir de uma abordagem etnográfica, são analisadas as trajetórias e estratégias de duas organizações de mulheres que executam projetos com financiamento de agências de cooperação internacional e que mantêm relação com políticas sociais, buscando perceber como estas relações se vinculam com suas escolhas políticas. Tomo como referência a divisão em três períodos históricos do país, cada um vinculado a um macro-discruso específico sobre desenvolvimento: a Revolução Popular Sandinista na década de 1980, e a guerra que a acompanhou; os dezesseis anos do período neoliberal (1990 – 2006), que vieram acompanhados por um enorme volume de recursos de Ajuda Internacional para o Desenvolvimento (AID); e, a partir de 2007, a volta da Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) à presidência do país, marcada por sua aliança econômica com a Venezuela, e pela redução significativa de recursos de AID. O argumento é que estes macro-discursos, apesar de diferentes, se baseiam em lógicas de colonialidade/modernidade que colocam a “mulher rural” como um “outro” atrasado, que deve ser corrigido por algum tipo de desenvolvimento. No entanto, seguindo o desafio do feminismo pós-colonial, a proposta deste trabalho é desconstruir uma visão monolítica sobre “mulheres do terceiro mundo”, evidenciando as particularidades dos processos locais, apesar de compartilharem de elementos nas dinâmicas de estabelecimento de relações de poder em todos os espaços da vida. O trabalho de campo indica que elas constroem diferentes possibilidades a partir da construção de espaços exclusivos de mulheres, que se dá também em relação com discursos sobre desenvolvimento e gênero nacionais e internacionais. / This paper aims to analyze how changes in development discourses operating in Nicaragua affect rural women's organizations in the country. From an ethnographic approach, the trajectories and strategies of two women's organizations running projects with funding from donor agencies and affected by social policies are analyzed, seeking to understand how these relations are linked with their political choices. I take as reference the division into three historical periods of the country, each tied to a specific macro-discrouses on development: the Sandinista Popular Revolution in the 1980s, and the war that followed; sixteen years of the neoliberal period (1990 - 2006), which were accompanied by a huge volume ofresources from Agencies for International Development (AID); and, from 2007, the return of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) to the presidency of the country, marked by its economic alliance with Venezuela, and the significant reduction of AID resources. The argument is that these macro-discourses, although different, are based on the logic of coloniality / modernity that put the "rural woman" as an "other" that needs to be corrected by pre-established development models. However, following the challenge of post-colonial feminism, the purpose of this paper is to deconstruct a monolithic view of "women of the third world", highlighting the particularities of local processes, even if they share dynamics of power relations in every areas of life. The field work indicates that these women build different possibilities from the creation of exclusive womens spaces, which also happens in relation to national and international development and gender discourses.

If we understand development as an emergent property of a complex system, then effective development assistance needs to adapt and evolve in-context. This thesis explores how learning and adaptation practices might help aid organizations apply complexity thinking to improve their effectiveness. Based on a new framework of organizational practices, this study uses a mixed methods approach to assess the extent to which 12 small and medium international aid organizations in Haiti learn and adapt. The study supports the assumption that learning and adaptation contribute to effectiveness, and finds that organizations vary significantly in their learning and adaptation practices. It finds that development organizations employ more learning practices than humanitarian assistance organizations, and that organizations are generally better at collecting information and adopting learning attitudes, than they are at establishing the structures and processes they need to be truly adaptive. The research also finds that the barriers that make learning and adaptation more difficult for organizations are largely structural and related to aid system dynamics, while organizations benefit from enablers that are largely attributed to individual agency. This thesis argues for the important role that aid organizations can, and must play in making aid more effective – at the project, organization, and aid system levels. However, the aid system itself does not encourage learning. International aid organizations will therefore need to actively engage in learning if they are to play an effective role in development, and be a meaningful part of the system-level aid effectiveness dialogue.

Bibliographic note Ertürk, Saadet (2019). The Rise of China and its Implications for Western Development Cooperation Policy. Master Thesis. Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Studies, Supervisors: Dr. Michal Parízek & Dr. Sebastian Ziaja. Abstract Recently new donors are beginning to challenge the international aid architecture of traditional Western donors by providing huge amounts of foreign aid to Sub-Sahara African (SSA) countries without political conditions attached, thereby undermining the bargaining power and influence of OECD DAC donors. Especially Chinas new role as aid donor causes a lot of scepticism among researchers. This master thesis investigates whether OECD DAC donors changed their aid allocation policies and patterns in response to rising Chinese foreign aid activities in SSA countries. So far, the literature investigating the relationship between foreign aid provided by traditional Western donors and aid by the Chinese government has been limited mostly due to the lack of accurate data on Chinese foreign aid. This study makes use of a new dataset on Chinese foreign aid flows in order to examine the response of OECD DAC donors to Chinese foreign aid activities in SSA between 2000 to 2014. It finds that contrary to current assumptions OECD DAC donors do...

For the last 60 years, Sweden has been known as a generous donor country. International development cooperation has become a principal objective of Swedish society.  My research aims to examine whether the recent changes in the domestic political scene concerning the uprising of the national right political party, the SD, has affected this international aid paradigm in Sweden. One particular focus of the study has been the aftermath of the 2015 migration crisis.  A qualitative desk study was adopted, and content analysis of official documents was conducted through abductive reasoning to make this study possible   The finding of this study is that solidarity and the moral duty towards those in need have been a very well consolidated motive in the Swedish aid thinking. Accordingly, no noticeable changes are yet to be observed as regards the official aid policy in Sweden. However, the SD´s rhetoric is increasingly echoing in both the press debate and the political scene in Swedish society and is slowly influencing the thinking of both other parties and the society at large.

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Yes / ¿Part 1: The congestion of humanitarian space¿, assesses what affect the rapid proliferation of the international aid community¿s presence in Sri Lanka has had on local level relationships and emergency response capacities. It contends that the burgeoning presence of aid agencies resulted in humanitarian assistance becoming a hotly contested and competitive activity. It goes on to identify the possible factors that have contributed to the rapid congestion of this space in suggesting an explanation of why the humanitarian communities¿ normative standards appear to have failed.

This research examines the media characterization of the conflict, regime, survivors, and rebels in the aftermath of the 2023 Syrian Earthquake which occurred during the Syrian Civil War. Investigating the effect of these media characterizations on governmental legitimacy. Using a sample of 143 articles from the BBC, DW, NPR, and Al-Jazeera published within the one year of the earthquake, articles were coded as positive, negative, or neutral regarding the conflict, regime, survivors and rebels. The research found media characterization of the conflict, regime, and survivors to be largely negative, while the rebels were characterized as neutral largely because most of the sample articles did not provide details on the rebel groups. This research indicates media characterizations can shape public perception in the aftermath of a disaster which in turn affects governmental legitimacy.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how international development organizations are working to communicate campaigns and photographs from one cultural context to another. Additionally, will challenges in making campaigns which are both ethical appropriate and engaging be highlighted and discussed in relation to today’s impatient media landscape where globalization and development are dominated by economic interests. This research follows the international development cooperation We Effect and explore their whole media production process while making external communication from the work in Kenya to the target group in Sweden. The researcher has done interviews with decision makers at the head office in Stockholm, regional communicators in Nairobi, independent photographers and farmers in the fields of Kenya, visible in We Effect’s campaigns in Sweden. Additionally, ethnographical observations and diary notes contribute to answer the question how international organizations are planning, creating and distributing ethical and engaging media about development organizations long-term development work. In theoretical discussions, anchored in concepts about global culture, cosmopolitanism and how to mediate distant others, together with previous literature by Lilie Chouliaraki, Roger Silverstone and Stuart Hall, will this research state that there are several challenges in communicating messages from one cultural context to another. The distance, both geographical and mental, makes it challenging for the media producers and spectators to understand the same message; this research states that both the media producers and spectators’ interpretations of photographs and messages are dependent on their cultural background.

This paper is characterized as a critical case study aimed to scrutinize the continuous situation regarding Syrian refugees in Lebanon from an ethical theoretical approach. Mainly, two specific theoretical models regarding ethics in migration and a theoretical standpoint regarding ethics in migration are presented as the theoretical and scientific framework. Arash Abizadeh’s two models, known as the state sovereignty model and the liberal model are implemented in order to understand and to pinpoint the course of the Lebanese situation. Additional, Joseph Carens’ theory concerning ethics in migration is implemented parallel with the two models, to enhance the analytical tools and to introduce a normative perspective. Regarding the empirical result, three distinct perspectives are utilized in order to cope with the situation on a fair and nuanced ground. The Syrian refugees themselves, international involvement and the Lebanese government are presented as the empirical pathways throughout this paper. Concluding results of this paper tends to pinpoint uncertainty and unawareness to be the key factors in explaining the actions of the Lebanese government. Based on the theoretical framework presented in this paper, there is an established tendency to conclude that Syrian refugees has not been treated accordingly to ethical concepts. Because of the distinct ideal differences between the two theoretical models, the results tend to be more evident. The Lebanese government has initially tended to affiliate itself with the liberal model. However, as time has progressed the government has acted accordingly to the state sovereignty model, with not acknowledging ethical limitations in its decision making. While remaining in the grasp of the state sovereignty model, the government and the civil society has begun lighting sparks in actions that have been taken. These actions tend to recognize ethical limitations, thus moving Lebanon towards the liberal model, but far from being completely implemented. In summary, Lebanon’s situation has brought it to a tendency to conduct temporary policies in an increasingly permanent situation.

This thesis explores how three international volunteers taught in rural Indigenous communities in Ecuador. It positions this exploration in the complexities and dilemmas of International aid education (IAE) projects and cross-cultural volunteer teaching. The study uses literature on anti-colonial theories, Indigenous knowledges and culturally relevant teaching (CRT) as a conceptual framework to understanding IVTs perceptions of and approaches towards cross-cultural teaching and its relationship with Indigenous students’ lived experiences. Onsite observations and interviews with international volunteer teachers’ (IVTs) and discussions with local teachers and volunteer program director are used in a cross-comparative analysis, which examines how their teaching was sensitive to and reflective of these Indigenous peoples’ ways of knowing and learning. The findings show that the three IVTs varied greatly in their understanding and enactment of CRT. The thesis concludes by exploring the implications of IAE and sets out recommendations for creating more culturally relevant education for Indigenous students.