IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/eurjdr/v29y2017i1d10.1057_ejdr.2015.84.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Costs, Benefits and the Political Economy of Aid Coordination: The Case of the European Union

Author

Listed:
  • Stephan Klingebiel

    (Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)/German Development Institute)

  • Mario Negre

    (Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)/German Development Institute)

  • Pedro Morazán

    (SÜDWIND e.V. – Institut für Ökonomie und Ökumene)

Abstract

Although it is not possible to identify a specific, theoretical optimum level of aid coordination for the European Union, there is a broad consensus on the need for reduced transaction costs and greater impact through a stronger adherence to coordination standards. However, neither member states nor European institutions consequently follow a policy in line with a clear coordination principle. And nor do partner countries always push for more donor coordination. This article uses evidence from two country case studies, Myanmar and Rwanda, in which a conducive aid coordination environment is assumed. The former represents the new foundation of an aid architecture in a country, thus expecting the application of high aid effectiveness standards. The latter consists of a partner government with a strong leading role in aid. Although the political economy of donors and partner countries does not always favour coordination, strong recipient government leadership is crucial to align developmental objectives and clearly establish comparative advantages and division of labour among donors.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephan Klingebiel & Mario Negre & Pedro Morazán, 2017. "Costs, Benefits and the Political Economy of Aid Coordination: The Case of the European Union," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 29(1), pages 144-159, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:eurjdr:v:29:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1057_ejdr.2015.84
    DOI: 10.1057/ejdr.2015.84
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/ejdr.2015.84
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/ejdr.2015.84?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. Vollmer, Frank, 2012. "Increasing the visibility and effectiveness of development cooperation: how to reconcile two competing objectives?," IDOS Studies, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), volume 67, number 67, July.
    2. Knack, Stephen & Smets, Lodewijk, 2013. "Aid Tying and Donor Fragmentation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 63-76.
    3. John Eriksson, 2001. "The Drive to Partnership : Aid Coordination, and the World Bank," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 13858.
    4. Knack, Stephen & Rahman, Aminur, 2008. "Donor fragmentation," MPRA Paper 28043, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Arnab Acharya & Ana Teresa Fuzzo de Lima & Mick Moore, 2006. "Proliferation and fragmentation: Transactions costs and the value of aid," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(1), pages 1-21.
    6. Stefan Koeberle & Zoran Stavreski & Jan Walliser, 2006. "Budget Support as More Effective Aid? Recent Experiences and Emerging Lessons," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6958.
    7. Sarah Delputte & Jan Orbie, 2014. "The EU and Donor Coordination on the Ground: Perspectives from Tanzania and Zambia," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 26(5), pages 676-691, December.
    8. repec:bla:devpol:v:27:y:2009:i:5:p:581-599 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Furness, Mark & Vollmer, Frank, 2013. "EU joint programming: lessons from South Sudan for EU aid coordination," Briefing Papers 18/2013, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Baumann, Max-Otto, 2018. "Mission impossible? Country-level coordination in the UN development system," IDOS Discussion Papers 7/2018, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    2. Kaplan, Lennart, 2020. "Systemic challenges and opportunities of Franco-German development cooperation," IDOS Discussion Papers 10/2020, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    3. Erik Lundsgaarde & Niels Keijzer, 2019. "Development Cooperation in a Multilevel and Multistakeholder Setting: From Planning towards Enabling Coordinated Action?," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 31(2), pages 215-234, April.

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Molenaers, N. & Gagiano, A. & Smets, L. & Dellepiane, S., 2015. "What Determines the Suspension of Budget Support?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 62-73.
    5. Faheem Jehangir Khan, 2016. "The Aid Policy Network in Pakistan: An Actor-Network Analysis," PIDE-Working Papers 2016:140, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    6. Fløgstad, Cathrin & Hagen, Rune Jansen, 2017. "Aid Dispersion: Measurement in Principle and Practice," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 232-250.
    7. Maurizio Carbone, 2017. "Make Europe happen on the ground? Enabling and constraining factors for European Union aid coordination in Africa," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35(4), pages 531-548, July.
    8. 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).
    9. 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).
    10. Dreher, Axel & Minasyan, Anna & Nunnenkamp, Peter, 2015. "Government ideology in donor and recipient countries: Does ideological proximity matter for the effectiveness of aid?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 80-92.
    11. Svea Koch & Stefan Leiderer & Jörg Faust & Nadia Molenaers, 2017. "The rise and demise of European budget support: political economy of collective European Union donor action," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 35(4), pages 455-473, July.
    12. Kaplan, Lennart, 2020. "Systemic challenges and opportunities of Franco-German development cooperation," IDOS Discussion Papers 10/2020, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    13. Han, Lu & Koenig-Archibugi, Mathias, 2015. "Aid Fragmentation or Aid Pluralism? The Effect of Multiple Donors on Child Survival in Developing Countries, 1990–2010," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 344-358.
    14. Michael G. Findley & Helen V. Milner & Daniel L. Nielson, 2017. "The choice among aid donors: The effects of multilateral vs. bilateral aid on recipient behavioral support," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 307-334, June.
    15. Peter Nunnenkamp & Albena Sotirova & Rainer Thiele, 2016. "Do Aid Donors Specialize and Coordinate within Recipient Countries? The case of Malawi," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 34(6), pages 831-849, November.
    16. Holzapfel, Sarah & Janus, Heiner, 2015. "Improving education outcomes by linking payments to results: an assessment of disbursement-linked indicators in five results-based approaches," IDOS Discussion Papers 2/2015, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    17. Peter Nunnenkamp & Hannes Öhler, 2012. "Funding, Competition and the Efficiency of NGOs : An Empirical Analysis of Non‐charitable Expenditure of US NGOs Engaged in Foreign Aid," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(1), pages 81-110, February.
    18. Erik Lundsgaarde & Niels Keijzer, 2019. "Development Cooperation in a Multilevel and Multistakeholder Setting: From Planning towards Enabling Coordinated Action?," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 31(2), pages 215-234, April.
    19. Kimura, Hidemi & Mori, Yuko & Sawada, Yasuyuki, 2012. "Aid Proliferation and Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 1-10.
    20. 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.

    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:pal:eurjdr:v:29:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1057_ejdr.2015.84. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    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.