29
Oct
In the field of international development aid, there is growing acceptance of the need for both developing countries and donors to consider accountability as a two-way process – not only for those countries providing development aid but also for those receiving it. For example, donors
have started to focus on those countries who have good policies, such as governance systems based on the influential work of Burnside and Dollar (1997; 2000) and the World Bank “Assessing Aid” (1998), which concluded that aid effectiveness depends on the policy environment in which it occurs (Samy 2010, 84). This implies that developing countries need to provide a justification for receiving international development aid by showing their willingness to reform policy and to formulate national plans based on tools such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP). Furthermore, in September 2000, the United Nations adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which deemed the reduction of poverty as the highest goal of international development aid. In a further step toward the realization of these goals, the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness was adopted at the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) High Level Forum in March 2005. The Paris Declaration required both donors and partner countries to adopt and take actions toward aid effectiveness. Thus, the provision of development aid requires not only a justification for providing development aid from the donor side but the recipient country also requires a justification for receiving donor aid. These justifications are important because development aid needs to be implemented through an interface with developing country governments and donors around
development resources. As a result, both ways of acceptance and provision of development resources in developing countries can have a significant impact on the nature of development on the ground.
Access and download the full JICA Research Institute report here: http://jica-ri.jica.go.jp/publication/assets/JICA-RI_WP_No.82.pdf