The political strategy of external aid

ABSTRACT

When creating a process of international aid, the definition of a political strategy is critically important. In theory, a government able to deliver services and goods to its population and to guarantee participation in decision-making might not need the presence of international aid. International aid should bridge an existing gap between a government and its own population by adopting a relevant political strategy. This viewpoint proposes a reference framework for international cooperation actors to define their basic political strategy and provides a comprehensive framework for situating different political strategies into a wider approach.

KEYWORDS:

• Aid – Development policies, Capacity development
• Civil society – Participation
• Methods
• Governance and public policy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Javier G. Schunk is now the co-ordinator of the Masters in International Cooperation (Development-Emergencies) and the Diploma of Development in ISPI (Milan), and an instructor at the SUPSI in Lugano, the IULM in Milan, the Catholic University of Milan, EU agencies, associations, and NGOs. After two years of field experience in Senegal, Dr Schunk became project manager at the headquarters of an Italian NGO in 1990 and was general coordinator of programmes from 1994 to 2003. He undertook many electoral missions in the Balkans between 1996 and 2000 in collaboration with OSCE and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 2003 to 2006 he was engaged as an expert in EC projects by an agency in Brussels, and undertook consultancy in PCM for the EC, ILO, UNDP, UNAIDS, OSCE, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Italian Conference of Bishops, the Italian federation of NGO-FOCSIV, and Italian decentralised cooperation agencies and NGOs.

Notes

1 We commonly refer to “governance” when the central state is only one of the local actors who hold power.

2 The neutral approach was introduced in the middle of the 1990s, during the UN meeting in Copenhagen.

3 In opposition to social dialogue, that proposes the participation of governments, chief of enterprises and trade unions, civil dialogue enlarges this participation to all local stakeholders.

4 Local empowerment is a:

“Process that foster the population to find and define their lives and the kind of society where they want to live. In other words … to enable people to organise and to influence their access to the knowledge, the political, financial, and social processes and the natural resources management.” (Thomas-Slayter)

5 The rights-based approach to development is to increase the capacity of both duty bearers and rights holders.

6 Capacity building is the ability of individuals, institutions, and societies to perform functions and solve problems.

7 The capacity development approach is the process through which individuals, organisations and societies obtain, strengthen and maintain the capabilities to set and achieve their own development objectives over time.

8 A cooperative arrangement between two or more public and private sectors, typically of a long-term nature.

9 While vertical subsidiarity concerns the distribution of powers and responsibilities among different levels of public institutions, horizontal subsidiarity relates to sharing these duties between public and private stakeholders.

10 Social innovations consist of the creation new ideas (products, services, and models) that involves the three components of the subsidiary triangle (state, civil society, and market) by creating new social relationships or collaborations between them and modifying the rules and duties of each.

11 Thematic governance is the processes of interaction and decision-making among the stakeholders involved in a collective problem that lead to the creation, reinforcement, or reproduction of social norms and institutions.