Foreign aid channelled through NGOs - a narrative literature review

Mgr. Sindre Kristensen Grødem

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Foreign aid has steadily evolved to become an integral part of foreign politics. Although spanning a history of almost two hundred years, it gained prominence after World War II, helped along by the establishment of the UN and the Bretton Woods system. The post-war destructions and newfound aspiration for spreading welfare and prosperity on a global scale laid the foundation for what was to evolve into a practice which now administers billions of dollars every year. With program areas spanning anything from social services to environmental protection, aid initiatives have a direct effect on millions of people all over the world. Instrumental to the aid process have been the inclusion of non-governmental organisations as vehicles for administering aid funding through various projects. When donor countries turned their focus towards building democracy in developing states sometime in the late 1980s they quickly turned towards civil society in an effort to find partners outside the sphere of government. This master thesis seeks to map the evolution of foreign aid and look at how NGOs have come to channel substantial parts of the total funding made available through such initiatives. The first part will deal with the general concepts of foreign aid and civil society actors like NGOs. The second part explains why and how NGOs are included as partners, intermediaries and recipient of aid funding, whereas the third part is made up of a case study of the EEA and Norway Grants which are European development programs administered by the EEA and EFTA states.

Keywords

foreign aid, development aid, non-governmental organisations, NGO, EEA Grants, Norway Grants

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 17. 12. 2012

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 17. 1. 2013
• Supervisor: doc. Mgr. et Mgr. Oldřich Krpec, Ph.D.
• Reader: Mgr. Vladan Hodulák, Ph.D.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Social Studies

Master programme / field:
Political Science / European Politics (Eng.)