Korea’s official development aid to MENA region countries

The aim of this study is to increase the effectiveness of Korean aid provision for countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, which are important ODA recipient countries from a Korean perspective, but have not been studied extensively in Korea. Although there are twenty countries in the MENA region, in this study five countries, Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran and Iraq, which are considered important from a Korean perspective, are targeted. The analysis includes an examination of the regional characteristics and the long-term development plans of these five countries, and the size and contents of aid projects provided by Korea to these countries. It is expected that as a result of this analysis Korea will be able to carry out aid projects involving these countries more effectively in the future.

Development Aid, Economic Growth Volatility and Poverty Volatility in Developing Countries

This article has analysed the effect of development aid flows on poverty volatility in developing countries, including through the economic growth volatility channel. Using a sample of 106 countries over the period 1980-2017, and the two-step system Generalized Methods of Moment (GMM) technique, the analysis has shown that development aid flows dampen the positive poverty volatility effect of economic growth volatility: the magnitude of the negative effect of development aid on poverty volatility rises as the degree of economic growth volatility increases. Additionally, development aid exerts a higher negative effect on poverty volatility as countries face higher poverty rates. These findings highlight the importance of development aid for stabilizing poverty rates.

African Asylum Seekers in Europe: The Interplay between Foreign Aid and Governance in Origin Countries

This paper empirically investigates the effects of governance quality on the number of African asylum seekers in Europe over the period 1996–2018 and evaluates the extent to which official development aid acts as a catalyst. With this purpose in mind, different gravity model specifications and estimation approaches have been employed. The obtained results suggest that the asylum flows are strongly determined by governance quality in the country of origin and that this effect does depend on the amount of foreign aid received from developed countries. Moreover, it is also found that development aid is only effective in reducing asylum applications coming from countries with good governance. Moreover, we find no differences in the estimated elasticity of foreign aid on asylum claims for the beneficiaries of the European Union Emergency Trust Fund (EUTF) for Africa, the main aim of which has been to improve living conditions of potential migrants in their countries of origin.

Triangular Francs: The Eisenhower Administration’s Complicated Franco-American-South Vietnamese System of Foreign Aid to Saigon

This article examines the little-known system of foreign aid that the Eisenhower administration called “triangular trade.” Created to increase development aid without specific Congressional authorization, U.S. officials managed it chaotically and often secretly. This article analyzes U.S. application of this policy in relations with France, focusing on an examination of “triangular francs” whose most important manifestation occurred in South Vietnam. It tries to understand the complicated and often contentious relationships between the three nations with respect to “triangular francs,” illustrating its often neo-colonial aspects. After first presenting the system, the article proceeds to examine each of the three participants’ role in it and reservations about it. In particular, it seeks to show how Saigon’s leaders sought to influence the system to make it more advantageous to them and the impact this had on both Paris and Washington.

Evaluating complex interventions in international development

Complex interventions are those that are characterized by multiple components, multiple stakeholders, or multiple target populations. They may also be interventions that incorporate multiple processes of behavioral change. While such interventions are very common and receive a large proportion of development aid budgets, they are rarely subject to rigorous evaluations. The CEDIL Methods Working Paper, Evaluating Complex Interventions in International Development reviews promising methods for the evaluation of complex interventions that are new or have been used in a limited way. It offers a taxonomy of complex interventions in international development and draws on literature to discuss several methods that can be used to evaluate these interventions. The paper focuses its attention on methods that address causality and allow us to state conclusively whether an intervention works or not. It shows that several rigorous methods developed in different disciplines can be adapted and used to evaluate complex interventions in international development.

Effect of Productive Capacities on Economic Complexity: Do Aid for Trade Flows Matter?

This is the first study to examine the effect of productive capacities on economic complexity and understand whether the Aid for Trade (AfT) flows is important for this effect in recipient countries. The analysis uses a sample of 126 developed and developing countries for 2002-2018 and adopts the two-step system Generalized Method of Moments approach. Results show that strengthening productive capacities enhances economic complexity. Furthermore, productive capacities and total AfT flows are strongly complementary in positively affecting economic complexity, and the degree of complementarity is higher for poor countries than for other AfT-recipient countries. Similarly, productive capacities are strongly complementary with total Non-AfT flows, as well as for total development aid. These findings highlight the need for scaling-up development aid flows, notably AfT flows, in favor of developing countries and poor countries having the lowest levels of productive capacities.

Peculiarities of Polish-Ukrainian Partner Cities’ Cooperation in the Context of Poland’s Public Diplomacy

Polish public diplomacy is a multilateral instrument of foreign policy, which represents Poland’s soft power. Numerous and developed Poland’s public diplomacy activities are in post-Soviet states, especially in Ukraine. This country plays a specific and important role in Poland’s foreign policy. The main fields of Poland’s public diplomacy in Ukraine are those connected with cultural, scientific and educational, as well as development aid issues. Apart from them, there is another field that is less addressed and studied by scholars – cooperation between partner cities. Such a field could be presented and examined separately in the frameworks of ‘city diplomacy’ and as a part of public diplomacy as well. This article presents an analysis of Polish-Ukrainian partner cities cooperation, using public diplomacy as a tool for establishing mutual understanding between people.

Agriculture and Rural Development as a Main Objective of Polish Cooperation and Development Aid for the Republic of Moldova

Agriculture and development of rural areas are important sectors of Polish-Moldovan cooperation and development aid. Importantly, both of them constitute structural problems, similar to those which faced agriculture in Poland in the 1990s. Through Polish aid and development cooperation, various measures are initiated which increase the competitiveness of Moldovan agricultural production, improve sanitary and phytosanitary conditions, bring technological innovations in agricultural farms, ensure modernization of rural infrastructure, providing support to small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, cooperatives, and agricultural consultants, along with professional activation of the Republic’s residents.