IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2022-160.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Evidence on aid (in)effectiveness in highly fragile states: A synthesis of three systematic reviews of aid to Afghanistan, Mali, and South Sudan, 2008-21

Author

Listed:
  • Christoph Zürcher

Abstract

This working paper provides a summary of three systematic reviews on the effectiveness of aid in Afghanistan, Mali, and South Sudan between 2008 and 2021. These three countries, like all other highly fragile countries, suffer from bad governance, lack of capacity, and violence. The systematic reviews provide robust evidence that aid interventions in precisely those fields are not effective. Aid cannot improve governance, build capacity for central governments, or stabilize the situation. The international aid community can no longer ignore this evidence.

Suggested Citation

  • Christoph Zürcher, 2022. "Evidence on aid (in)effectiveness in highly fragile states: A synthesis of three systematic reviews of aid to Afghanistan, Mali, and South Sudan, 2008-21," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-160, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2022-160
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp2022-160-evidence-aid-ineffectiveness-highly-fragile-states.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marina Ottaway, 2002. "Rebuilding State Institutions in Collapsed States," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 33(5), pages 1001-1023, November.
    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. Park, Jungho & Han, Manhee & Lee, Youngjae, 2024. "Post-conflict economic recovery and land policy in South Korea between 1948 and the early 1960 s," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    2. Fiedler, Charlotte, 2015. "Towers of strength in turbulent times? Assessing the effectiveness of international support to peace and democracy in Kenya and Kyrgyzstan in the aftermath of interethnic violence," IDOS Discussion Papers 6/2015, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    3. Peter J. Burnell, 2006. "The Coherence of Democratic Peace-Building," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2006-147, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. C.S.C. Sekhar, 2010. "Fragile States," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 26(3), pages 263-293, September.
    5. Anne Evans & Nick Manning & Yasin Osmani & Anne Tully & Andrew Wilder, 2004. "A Guide to Government in Afghanistan," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 14937.
    6. Patricia Justino, 2006. "On the Links between Violent Conflict and Chronic Poverty: How Much Do We Really Know?," HiCN Working Papers 18, Households in Conflict Network.
    7. Ghassan Dibeh, 2005. "The Political Economy of Postwar Reconstruction in Lebanon," WIDER Working Paper Series RP2005-44, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Patricia Justino, 2009. "The Impact of Armed Civil Conflict on Household Welfare and Policy Responses," Research Working Papers 12, MICROCON - A Micro Level Analysis of Violent Conflict.
    9. Fernando Lopez-Castellano & Roser Manzanera-Ruiz & Carmen Lizárraga, 2019. "Deinstitutionalization of the State and Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Contribution to the Critique of the Neoinstitutionalist Analysis of Development," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 51(3), pages 418-437, September.
    10. Deepen, Yannick & Kurtenbach, Sabine, 2023. "Coping with complexity: Dealing with non-state armed actors," GIGA Working Papers 337, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    11. Mroß, Karina, 2015. "The fragile road towards peace and democracy: insights on the effectiveness of international support to post-conflict Burundi," IDOS Discussion Papers 3/2015, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    12. Jacobo Grajales, 2020. "A land full of opportunities? Agrarian frontiers, policy narratives and the political economy of peace in Colombia," Post-Print hal-02553099, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Foreign aid; Aid effectiveness; Systematic review; Afghanistan; Mali; South Sudan;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:unu:wpaper:wp-2022-160. 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: Siméon Rapin (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/widerfi.html .

    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.