Alternative Approaches to Development Aid

Mgr. Klára Hovanec Pácha

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Over the past two centuries, the world has experienced spectacular progress and an enormous shift in wealth. Nevertheless, the historical reconstructions of global poverty and the most updated reports demonstrate that poverty remains one of the very largest issues in the world, leaving the results of development aid dull and ineffective. The following research aims to assess current official development aid, including its framework, program, problems and efficiency, to demonstrate the unavoidable necessity of an alternative approach and to investigate relevant alternative approaches. In the first part, the research importance, significance and purpose are presented, followed by an overview of the research structure. The following part shows the essential methodological and theoretical background of developing countries and significant issues thwarting growth. The subsequent section relates to development aid, covering appropriate requisites, activities of official aid providers and resulting aid efficiency. This is followed by an outline of fundamental problems of the current aid approach, providing a connection with previous chapters. The final chapter provides an investigation of alternative approaches to development aid, addressing the comprehensive understanding brought by the research findings. The methodological process involves primarily the utilization of qualitative methods of data collection. The research is predominantly based on a literature review, including statistics and reports of international organisations figuring as official aid providers and the core bibliography of eminent development economists and authorities. Those instruments bring valid, precise and data for this research and are supplemented by other relevant sources serving as secondary data collection. The key research findings expand the debate about development aid and its efficiency, highlighting that aid in its current form does not work and often causes more harm than good, addressing cardinal reasons behind the aid failure and demonstrating the existence of alternative approaches capable of addressing the problems of the aid system. The implication of the findings indicates that the state-led approach and lack of adaptability of official aid providers represent a major factor behind the aid inefficiency, followed by the absence of individual approach essential for grasping specificities of developing countries in aid and the neglect of the role of the private sector and entrepreneurship in development. These findings emphasize the ultimate necessity of addressing aid in an alternative, flexible approach, specifically the pro-market approach, being contingent on the ability of aid providers to admit failure, accept responsibility and make adaptable changes towards effective methods.

Abstract:

Over the past two centuries, the world has experienced spectacular progress and an enormous shift in wealth. Nevertheless, the historical reconstructions of global poverty and the most updated reports demonstrate that poverty remains one of the very largest issues in the world, leaving the results of development aid dull and ineffective. The following research aims to assess current official development aid, including its framework, program, problems and efficiency, to demonstrate the unavoidable necessity of an alternative approach and to investigate relevant alternative approaches. In the first part, the research importance, significance and purpose are presented, followed by an overview of the research structure. The following part shows the essential methodological and theoretical background of developing countries and significant issues thwarting growth. The subsequent section relates to development aid, covering appropriate requisites, activities of official aid providers and resulting aid efficiency. This is followed by an outline of fundamental problems of the current aid approach, providing a connection with previous chapters. The final chapter provides an investigation of alternative approaches to development aid, addressing the comprehensive understanding brought by the research findings. The methodological process involves primarily the utilization of qualitative methods of data collection. The research is predominantly based on a literature review, including statistics and reports of international organisations figuring as official aid providers and the core bibliography of eminent development economists and authorities. Those instruments bring valid, precise and data for this research and are supplemented by other relevant sources serving as secondary data collection. The key research findings expand the debate about development aid and its efficiency, highlighting that aid in its current form does not work and often causes more harm than good, addressing cardinal reasons behind the aid failure and demonstrating the existence of alternative approaches capable of addressing the problems of the aid system. The implication of the findings indicates that the state-led approach and lack of adaptability of official aid providers represent a major factor behind the aid inefficiency, followed by the absence of individual approach essential for grasping specificities of developing countries in aid and the neglect of the role of the private sector and entrepreneurship in development. These findings emphasize the ultimate necessity of addressing aid in an alternative, flexible approach, specifically the pro-market approach, being contingent on the ability of aid providers to admit failure, accept responsibility and make adaptable changes towards effective methods.

Keywords

Development aid, alternative approaches, developing countries, poverty, development, fundamental problems of development aid, aid efficiency

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 13. 12. 2021

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 8. 2. 2023
• Supervisor: PhDr. Ing. Radka Havlová, Ph.D.
• Reader: PhDr. Pavel Pšeja, Ph.D.

CEVRO Institute

Master programme / field:
Philosophy, Politics, Economics / Philosophy, Politics, Economics