Learning Journal 2000 worlds
Nayef_222
NGOsandtheAidSystem.pptxNGOs and the Aid System
Ipshita Basu
What has Aid Actually Done for Anyone?
Responding to the Dark side of Aid
“The scandal is the most glaring symptom of a deeper dilemma that has confronted the aid industry since it emerged in its modern form during Nigeria’s Biafra civil war in the late 1960s: the inevitably yawning imbalance of power between the givers and recipients of aid.”
What will we learn in this lecture?
The significance of the relationship between NGOs and the international aid system:
What is the political economy of aid?
UK Aid, understand changes since the pandemic.
How has the aid system influenced NGOs?
Why do some NGOs choose to operate outside the aid system?
Aid Defined
Intergovernmental grants and subsidised loans in cash or kind.
ODA – 0.7% of GNI target agreed in 1970.
Overseas development assistance (ODA)
From the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (also aid from non-OECD)
Promotion of economic development and welfare
Concessional in character (better than commercial terms)
Can include goods, technology and expertise
Not military assistance, peacekeeping
Humanitarian aid vs. Development aid
Development aid : promotes development and poverty reduction
Humanitarian aid : used to respond to emergencies accounts for less than 15% of all ODA.
What strategic and ideological priorities does international aid serve?
FOREIGN POLICY - Foreign Office decide on aid allocation
ECONOMICS - Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has big stake in aid allocations (aid for trade)
Responsibility to Protect
Aid since the Pandemic
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) says its work in Syria has been severely impacted with up to 75% of the funding reduced from last year.
In Yemen, regarded as the world's worst humanitarian disaster, the UK's commitment to relief efforts for 2021 has gone down to £87.2m ($123.23m) from the £139.1m ($196.56m) that was pledged in 2020.
In Pakistan, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the cuts will have an impact on education, and nearly 11,000 girls in rural Pakistan may not attend school if the funding stops.
In a letter accessed by the BBC, eight non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that provide humanitarian aid to Bangladesh's Rohingya refugees say UK funding of £321m has been cut by 42%.
UK Aid Spending since 1970: In 2021, UK spending was £11,423 million
Comparing Aid from DAC Donors vs UK
DAC DONORS- IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Top 15 recipIents of total DAC Members bilateral aid
Top five recipients of UK aid, 2021
UK Region/Non-region specified Aid in 2021
UK Aid by Sector, 2020-2021
Aid in historical context
Cold War architecture; 45-89 - USA’s Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe. Aims for prosperous international economy
World Bank - International Bank for Reconstruction and Development; International Development Association 1960
Post Cold War architecture 90 – present
Aid to transition countries
HIV/AIDS/ Now Covid 19?
Post-9/11 development and security
Aid’s systemic problems
There are two main systemic problems of official development aid:
(1) official aid is given voluntarily by individual donor governments, each of which chooses how much aid to give and to whom that aid will be given.
(2) the choices about recipients and volumes of aid are informed and shaped based on:
development/poverty needs of the recipients but
also by the short-term political and commercial interests of the donor country
NGO Funding
In 2004, $23 billion, i.e. 30% of ODA went to NGOs. In 2011, $19.3 billion i.e. 14.4% of ODA was allocated to and through NGOs by DAC members. CSOs raised $32 billion from private sources in 2011.
Social infrastructure and services followed by humanitarian intervention are two main areas for aid channelled through NGOs
DAC donors either give Aid TO NGOs or channel aid THROUGH NGOs
NGO have two channels for receiving funds from the aid system:
APPLY FOR GRANTS (core support)
CONTRACTING FOR DONOR PROGRAMMES (earmarked funding)
Why donors channel funds through NGOs?
AUTONOMY: NGOs have a measure of independence from strategic and geopolitical interests that drive foreign policy. For instance, NGOs can maintain priorities around MDGs even as foreign policy strategic focus shifts towards security or economic interests of states.
GLOBAL CIVIL SOCIETY: NGOs provide more opportunities for citizens from north and south to engage as volunteers and activists on a number of developmental and other issues.
How do donors effect NGOs?
POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES
The closer NGOs are to donors the less independent they become. “He who pays the piper calls the tune!”
Depoliticisation of approaches to poverty reduction as NGOs become more central to funding chains. Focus on meeting targets and achieving project outcomes than on political change.
Negative impact on grassroot organisations as donors are more inclined to show results to their home constituencies and are less interested in supporting long-term projects.
NGO Accountability
NGOs Operating outside the aid system
BRAC, Grameen, Concern
Volunteering
Market-based mechanisms
Social Business
NGOs and Social Business
NGOs outside the aid system
Why have some NGOs chosen to operate outside the aid system?
Less dependency on international donors.
Priorities are set in and by local contexts
Sustainability: development programmes are linked to social business.
NGOs play an influential role as global civil society actors
What are the possible disadvantages?
Large NGOs turn into quasi multinational companies.
Large NGOs dominate over smaller community based organisations.
Donors and private companies may choose to channel funds chiefly through NGOs.
NGOs and State have a precarious relation in local contexts.
Summary
Development NGOs were a relatively small part of the aid system until late 1980s, with NGOs becoming the favoured actor to erase poverty.
From late 1990s NGOs got out of favour again as donors move to direct donor-government recipient model to build higher government ownership of poverty reduction strategies.
Development NGOs have positively influenced aid system but have also been negatively been influence by reporting strategies that take attention away from grassroot clients to donors.
