IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/wdevel/v177y2024ics0305750x2400024x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Donors want it faster, humanitarian organizations get it cheaper

Author

Listed:
  • García Castillo, Jorge

Abstract

Donors provide yearly over 20 billion USD for international assistance to humanitarian organizations who transfer up to 23% of these funds to local implementing partners. Each transfer of funds seeks the maximum effectiveness through the compliance with the rules of the donor. The question of how aligned are donor policies with the ones of the recipients of funds, and what is the impact of this gap remains open. This study has gathered a unique dataset of the procurement policies from 42 institutional donors and 41 local and international humanitarian organizations. The research provides qualitative and statistical analysis on the diversity of procurement policies, and a cost model for deeper understanding of the effectiveness of humanitarian aid when implemented from institutional donors. The study shows that donors provide guidelines aiming at faster procurement, while humanitarian organizations employ more restricted processes focused on lower procurement costs and more competitive spending. The results show a statistically significant gap in the procurement thresholds of donors versus humanitarian organizations, and the existence of an efficient frontier that relates lead time and cost of the implemented projects. The results provide a unique overview of the humanitarian ecosystem and the benefits of international collaborating bodies such as the Grand Bargain in the standardization and convergence of policies.

Suggested Citation

  • García Castillo, Jorge, 2024. "Donors want it faster, humanitarian organizations get it cheaper," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:177:y:2024:i:c:s0305750x2400024x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106554
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X2400024X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106554?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dávid-Barrett, Elizabeth & Fazekas, Mihály, 2020. "Anti-corruption in aid-funded procurement: Is corruption reduced or merely displaced?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    2. Knack, Stephen & Rahman, Aminur, 2007. "Donor fragmentation and bureaucratic quality in aid recipients," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 176-197, May.
    3. Torsvik, Gaute, 2005. "Foreign economic aid; should donors cooperate?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(2), pages 503-515, August.
    4. Lentz, Erin C. & Passarelli, Simone & Barrett, Christopher B., 2013. "The Timeliness and Cost-Effectiveness of the Local and Regional Procurement of Food Aid," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 9-18.
    5. Burger, Ronelle & Owens, Trudy, 2010. "Promoting Transparency in the NGO Sector: Examining the Availability and Reliability of Self-Reported Data," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(9), pages 1263-1277, September.
    6. Pascucci, Elisa, 2021. "More logistics, less aid: Humanitarian-business partnerships and sustainability in the refugee camp," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    7. Moshtari, Mohammad & Altay, Nezih & Heikkilä, Jussi & Gonçalves, Paulo, 2021. "Procurement in humanitarian organizations: Body of knowledge and practitioner's challenges," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    8. Knack, Stephen & Smets, Lodewijk, 2013. "Aid Tying and Donor Fragmentation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 63-76.
    9. Javad Bakhshi & Saba Mani & Navid Ahmadi Eftekhari & Igor Martek, 2023. "Procurement practices in international development projects: trends, networks and performances," Journal of Public Procurement, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(3/4), pages 321-343, August.
    10. Nilima Gulrajani, 2014. "Organising for Donor Effectiveness: An Analytical Framework for Improving Aid Effectiveness," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 32(1), pages 89-112, January.
    11. Betts, Alexander & Easton-Calabria, Evan & Pincock, Kate, 2021. "Localising Public Health: Refugee-led organisations as first and last responders in COVID-19," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    12. Chloe Puett & Cécile Salpéteur, 2018. "Donor requests for economic analysis of humanitarian field programmes," Development in Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(7), pages 899-910, October.
    13. Graeme Macrae, 2008. "Could the system work better? Scale and local knowledge in humanitarian relief," Development in Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(2), pages 190-200, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Emmanuelle Auriol & Josepa Miquel-Florensa, 2019. "Taxing fragmented aid to improve aid efficiency," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 453-477, September.
    2. Kurt Annen & Luc Moers, 2017. "Donor Competition for Aid Impact, and Aid Fragmentation," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(3), pages 708-729.
    3. Philip Keefer & Christopher Kilby, 2021. "Introduction to the special issue: In memoriam Stephen Knack," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 473-493, July.
    4. Liya Palagashvili & Claudia R. Williamson, 2021. "Grading foreign aid agencies: Best practices across traditional and emerging donors," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 654-676, May.
    5. Bourguignon, François & Platteau, Jean-Philippe, 2015. "The Hard Challenge of Aid Coordination," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 86-97.
    6. Han, Lu & Koenig-Archibugi, Mathias & Opsahl, Tore, 2018. "The social network of international health aid," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 67-74.
    7. Bourguignon, François & Platteau, Jean-Philippe, 2015. "The Hard Challenge of Aid Coordination," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 86-97.
    8. Bigsten, Arne & Tengstam, Sven, 2015. "International Coordination and the Effectiveness of Aid," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 75-85.
    9. Annen, Kurt & Knack, Stephen, 2018. "On the delegation of aid implementation to multilateral agencies," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 295-305.
    10. Suzuki, Mao, 2020. "Profits before patients? Analyzing donors’ economic motives for foreign aid in the health sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    11. repec:elg:eechap:15325_15 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Andrew W. Horowitz & Raja Kali & Hongwei Song, 2021. "Rethinking the aid–growth relationship: A network approach," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 359-380, February.
    13. repec:unu:wpaper:wp2012-32 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Dreher, Axel & Minasyan, Anna & Nunnenkamp, Peter, 2013. "Government ideology in donor and recipient countries: Does political proximity matter for the effectiveness of aid?," Kiel Working Papers 1870, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    15. Bigsten, Arne & Tengstam, Sven, 2015. "International Coordination and the Effectiveness of Aid," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 75-85.
    16. Fløgstad, Cathrin & Hagen, Rune Jansen, 2017. "Aid Dispersion: Measurement in Principle and Practice," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 232-250.
    17. Tiago Freire & J. Vernon Henderson & Ari Kuncoro, 2017. "Volunteerism after the Tsunami: The Effects of Democratization," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(1), pages 176-195.
    18. Thorsten Janus, 2009. "Aid and the Soft Budget Constraint," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(2), pages 264-275, May.
    19. Gehring, Kai & Michaelowa, Katharina & Dreher, Axel & Spörri, Franziska, 2017. "Aid Fragmentation and Effectiveness: What Do We Really Know?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 320-334.
    20. Öhler, Hannes, 2017. "A micro-level analysis of the effects of aid fragmentation and aid alignment," IDOS Discussion Papers 7/2017, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    21. Molenaers, Nadia & Dellepiane, Sebastian & Faust, Jorg, 2015. "Political Conditionality and Foreign Aid," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 2-12.
    22. Resnick, Danielle & Okumo, Austen, 2017. "Subnational Variation in Policy Implementation: The Case of Nigerian Land Governance Reform," Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research Papers 265412, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security (FSP).

    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:eee:wdevel:v:177:y:2024:i:c:s0305750x2400024x. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/worlddev .

    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.