IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/intorg/v66y2012i04p571-607_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Politics of Private Foreign Aid: Humanitarian Principles, Economic Development Objectives, and Organizational Interests in NGO Private Aid Allocation

Author

Listed:
  • Büthe, Tim
  • Major, Solomon
  • Souza, André de Mello e

Abstract

A large and increasing share of international humanitarian and development aid is raised from nongovernmental sources, allocated by transnational NGOs. We know little about this private foreign aid, not even how it is distributed across recipient countries, much less what explains the allocation. This article presents an original data set, based on detailed financial records from most of the major U.S.-based humanitarian and development NGOs, which allows us for the first time to map and analyze the allocation of U.S. private aid. We find no support for the common claim that aid NGOs systematically prioritize their organizational self-interest when they allocate private aid, and we find only limited support for the hypothesis that expected aid effectiveness drives aid allocation. By contrast, we find strong support for the argument that the deeply rooted humanitarian discourse within and among aid NGOs drives their aid allocation, consistent with a view of aid NGOs as principled actors and constructivist theories of international relations. Recipients' humanitarian need is substantively and statistically the most significant determinant of U.S. private aid allocation (beyond a regional effect in favor of Latin American countries). Materialist concerns do not crowd out ethical norms among these NGOs.

Suggested Citation

  • Büthe, Tim & Major, Solomon & Souza, André de Mello e, 2012. "The Politics of Private Foreign Aid: Humanitarian Principles, Economic Development Objectives, and Organizational Interests in NGO Private Aid Allocation," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 66(4), pages 571-607, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:intorg:v:66:y:2012:i:04:p:571-607_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0020818312000252/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Le Fanu, Guy, 2014. "International development, disability, and education: Towards a capabilities-focused discourse and praxis," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 69-79.
    2. Youngwan Kim & Peter Nunnenkamp, 2015. "Does It Pay for US-based NGOs to Go to War? Empirical Evidence for Afghanistan and Iraq," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 46(3), pages 387-414, May.
    3. Moritz Schmoll, 2022. "Training for the Industry: Examining the Use of Real-life Consultancy Projects in Development Studies Programmes," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 22(3), pages 272-287, July.
    4. Andreas Fuchs & Hannes Öhler, 2021. "Does private aid follow the flag? An empirical analysis of humanitarian assistance," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(3), pages 671-705, March.
    5. Qian, Nancy & Deserranno, Erika, 2020. "Aid Crowd-Out: The Effect of NGOs on Government-Provided Public Services," CEPR Discussion Papers 14755, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Ziff, Alix, 2023. "Aid accessibility: Equity & education in Kenya," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    7. Fuchs, Andreas & Dreher, Axel & Nunnenkamp, Peter, 2014. "Determinants of Donor Generosity: A Survey of the Aid Budget Literature," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 172-199.
    8. Menard, Audrey-Rose & Weill, Laurent, 2016. "Understanding the link between aid and corruption: A causality analysis," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 260-272.
    9. Eric Van Steenburg & Nwamaka A. Anaza & Ahmed Ashhar & Andres Barrios & Ashley R. Deutsch & Meryl P. Gardner & Preeti Priya & Abhijit Roy & Anu Sivaraman & Kimberly A. Taylor, 2022. "The new world of philanthropy: How changing financial behavior, public policies, and COVID‐19 affect nonprofit fundraising and marketing," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 1079-1105, September.
    10. Erika Deserranno & Aisha Nansamba & Nancy Qian, 2020. "The Unintended Consequences of NGO-Provided Aid on Government Services in Uganda," NBER Working Papers 26928, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. John‐Michael Davis & Liam Swiss, 2020. "Need, Merit, Self‐Interest or Convenience? Exploring Aid Allocation Motives of Grassroots International NGOs," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(8), pages 1324-1345, November.
    12. Gallemore, Caleb & Jespersen, Kristjan, 2016. "Transnational Markets for Sustainable Development Governance: The Case of REDD+," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 79-94.
    13. Baldwin, Kate & Karlan, Dean & Udry, Christopher & Appiah, Ernest, 2023. "How political insiders lose out when international aid underperforms: Evidence from a participatory development experiment in Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    14. Büthe, Tim & Morgan, Stephen, 2015. "Antitrust Enforcement and Foreign Competition: Special Interest Theory Reconsidered," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205607, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Christopher J. Fariss & Therese Anders & Jonathan N. Markowitz & Miriam Barnum, 2022. "New Estimates of Over 500 Years of Historic GDP and Population Data," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 66(3), pages 553-591, April.
    16. Andrea L. Everett, 2016. "Post-Cold War complex humanitarian emergencies: Introducing a new dataset," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 33(3), pages 311-339, July.
    17. Banks, Nicola & Hulme, David & Edwards, Michael, 2015. "NGOs, States, and Donors Revisited: Still Too Close for Comfort?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 707-718.
    18. Iliana Olivié & Aitor Pérez, 2016. "Why don’t donor countries coordinate their aid? A case study of European donors in Morocco," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 16(1), pages 52-64, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:intorg:v:66:y:2012:i:04:p:571-607_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/ino .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.