Title: Development Effectiveness and the Politics of Commitment
Abstract: Abstract International aid agencies have experienced a ‘political turn’ over the past decade, with political economy analyses becoming increasingly numerous as a means to drive development effectiveness. Yet aid agencies have so far failed to shift their aid modalities in response. The problem lies in an inadequate conceptualisation of ‘politics’. Most donors continue to see development as a public good, rather than as the focus of contestation in a context of societal struggle, and consequently fail to take oppositional forces sufficiently seriously. This facilitates the misapplication of terms such as ‘partnership’ and ‘ownership’, contributing to failures in efforts to promote reform. A more truly political analysis of aid intervention entails two innovations: the use of structural analysis to distinguish between interests in reform; and the use of this distinction, in turn, to inform the practice of taking sides in political struggles. Case studies of international aid programmes in Cambodia and the Philippines illustrate how the failure of donors to take sides with particular reformers has resulted in lost opportunities to achieve concrete outcomes from development projects. Notes 1 See S Unsworth, ‘What's politics got to do with it? Why donors find it so hard to come to terms with politics, and why this matters’, Journal of International Development, 21, 2009, pp 883–894; and VB Tolentino, From Analysis to Implementation: The Practice of Political Economy Approaches to Political Reform, Occasional Paper 3, San Francisco: The Asia Foundation, 2010. http://asiafoundation.org/publications/pdf/770. 2 P Ellis, ‘The ethics of taking sides’, in K Horton & C Roche (eds), Ethical Questions and International ngos: An Exchange between Philosophers and ngos, New York: Springer, 2010, pp 65–86. 3 L Whitfield & A Fraser, ‘Introduction’, in Whitfield & Fraser (eds), The Politics of Aid: African Strategies for Dealing with Donors, London: Oxford University Press, 2009, p 3; and R Hayman, ‘From Rome to Accra via Kigali: “aid effectiveness” in Rwanda’, Development Policy Review, 27(5), 2009, pp 581–599. 4 Whitfield & Fraser, ‘Introduction’, p 5. 5 See, for example, J Gould, The New Conditionality: The Politics of Poverty Reduction Strategies, London: Zed Books, 2005; G Harrison, The World Bank in Africa: The Construction of Governance States, London: Routledge, 2004; and TM Li, The Will to Improve: Governmentality, Development, and the Practice of Politics, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007. 6 See also M Gainsborough, ‘Present but not powerful: neoliberalism, the state, and development in Vietnam’, Globalizations, 7(4), 2010, pp 475–488. 7 Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (sida), Power Analysis—Experiences and Challenges, Department for Democracy and Social Development, Concept Note, Stockholm: sida, 2006; World Bank, Problem-Driven Governance and Political Economy Analysis: Good Practice Framework, Washington, DC: World Bank, 2009; and dfid, Political Economy Analysis: How To Note, dfid practice paper, London, 2009, at http://www.gsdrc.org/go/topic-guides/drivers-of-change, accessed 1 June 2011. 8 Unsworth, ‘What's politics got to do with it?’, pp 889–890. 9 D Warrener, The Drivers of Change Approach, Synthesis Paper 3, London: Overseas Development Institute, 2004; T Dahl-Østergaard, S Unsworth, M Robinson & RI Jensen, Lessons Learned on the Use of Power and Drivers of Change Analyses in Development Cooperation, review commissioned by the oecd dac Network on Governance (Govnet), Final Report, September, 2005; Z Scott, ‘Professional developments: the changing face of “Drivers of Change”’, Public Administration and Development, 27, 2007, p 89; A de Haan & M Everest-Phillips, Can New Aid Modalities Handle Politics?, Research Paper No 2007/63, Helsinki: United Nations University World Institute for Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), 2007; K Bird The Political Economy of Pro-poor Growth: The Challenge of Making Growth Pro-poor, Briefing Paper No 35, London: Overseas Development Institute, 2008; Unsworth, ‘What's politics got to do with it?’; and V Chhotray & D Hulme, ‘Contrasting visions for aid and governance in the 21st century: the White House Millennium Challenge Account and dfid's Drivers of Change’, World Development, 37(1), 2009, pp 36–49. 10 Unsworth, ‘What's politics got to do with it?’, p 884. 11 World Bank, Problem-Driven Governance and Polticial Economy Analysis, pp 12–13; and dfid, Political Economy Analysis, p 5. 12 Unsworth, ‘What's politics got to do with it?’, p 887. 13 D Booth, D Cammack, J Harrigan, E Kanyongolo, M Mataure & N Ngwira, Drivers of Change and Development in Malawi, Working Paper No 261, London: Overseas Development Institute, 2006, p 60; Dahl-Østergaard et al, Lessons Learned on the Use of Power and Drivers of Change Analyses in Development Cooperation; and de Haan & Everest-Phillips, Can New Aid Modalities Handle Politics?, p 12. 14 World Bank, Problem-Driven Governance, p 12. 15 G Williams, A Duncan, P Landell-Mills & S Unsworth, ‘Politics and growth’, Development Policy Review, 27(1), 2009, p 28. 16 World Bank, Problem-Driven Governance and Political Economy Analysis, p 47. 17 A Leftwich & S Hogg, The Case for Leadership and the Primacy of Politics in Building Effective States, Institutions and Governance for Sustainable Growth and Development, Background Paper 01, Developmental Leadership Program, 2007, at www.dlprog.org, accessed 1 June 2011. 18 P Landell-Mills, G Williams & A Duncan, Tackling the Political Barriers to Development: The New Political Economy Perspective, Policy Practice Brief 1, Brighton, UK, The Policy Practice, 2007; D Booth, Aid Effectiveness after Accra: How to Reform the ‘Paris Agenda’, Briefing Paper No 39, London: Overseas Development Institute, 2008; Unsworth, ‘What's politics got to do with it?’; Chhotray & Hulme, ‘Contrasting visions for aid and governance’, p 41; and Williams et al, ‘Politics and growth’. 19 Landell-Mills et al, Tackling the Political Barriers to Development, p 5. See also de Haan & Everest-Phillips, Can New Aid Modalities Handle Politics?, p 10. 20 S Odugbemi & T Jacobson, Governance Reform under Real-world Conditions: Citizens, Stakeholders and Voice, Washington, DC: World Bank, 2008. 21 World Bank, Problem-Driven Governance and Political Economy Analysis, p 20. 22 Ibid. 23 S Frenken & U Müller, Ownership and Political Steering in Developing Countries, Berlin: Nomos, 2010. 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