Rights-based Approaches and Bilateral Aid Agencies: More Than a Metaphor?

It could be argued that the rights based approach … is no more than ametaphor; a concept that catalyses a set of values into a phrase that many people can adopt and adapt. It is a general statement in favour of equitable development, involving widespread participation of those with no direct control of, or access to, the power of the state … If we still take rights as a legal concept then much of what passes as rights based is unlikely to be successful because there are often no state bodies committed to meeting the obligations implied. There is also a sense in that the “emperor has no clothes ” as there are too many people arguing about the details of what a rights approach should be and how it should be operationalised.Meanwhile, this is happening in the absence of any clear idea of what it is they are engaging with. (Pratt 2003: 2)

Compliance with International Norms: Implementing OECD DAC Principles in South Korea

This study raises the question of what determines compliance with the OECD DAC framework on the basis of a case study of South Korea. This research argues that fragmented institutional structures limit the bureaucratic capacity for greater compliance. At the same time, the findings illustrate that lack of interest from dominant institutions can limit the consolidation of political will for change at the national level. This study has implications for future DAC donors in that special and peer reviews can be useful methodologies to identify current limitations for change. Finally, the study emphasises the importance of consolidated political will in terms of readiness to adopt global standards at the domestic level before commencing membership and obligatory processes

Welfare Implications of Community Forest Plantations in Developing Countries: The Orissa Social Forestry Project

Community forest plantations are a common intervention in developing countries. We use household and remote sensing data from Orissa, India, to estimate welfare effects of community forest plantations, in terms of the value of decreased collection times plantations afford users. A selection model, accounting for possible jointness in site location and productivity, is used to estimate collection production functions for different household labor categories in natural and community forests. Two measures of an opportunity cost of time are used to determine welfare effects of time saved due to community forests. We find access to community forests is important to marginal productivity of different labor categories, but to different degrees, highlighting the need to disaggregate household data when analyzing these interventions. We also find substantial welfare improvements from time savings for many households and villages. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.

Sind Nichtregierungsorganisationen die besseren Entwicklungshelfer?

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are widely expected to provide better targeted aid than state agencies with a hidden agenda of commercial and political self-interest. However, principal-agent models question that NGOs decide autonomously on aid allocation. Summarizing the results of four new empirical studies, we show that NGO aid indeed offers no panacea: The focus of NGOs on the neediest recipients turns out to be surprisingly weak. The striking similarities across these studies suggest that poor targeting is not limited to NGO aid of a particular type or from specific sources. NGOs hardly make use of the perceived comparative advantage of working in "difficult environments." Rather, they are strongly inclined to follow the herd of other NGOs and mimic the allocation behavior of state agencies, especially if they depend on public co-financing. Copyright 2009 die Autoren Journal compilation 2009, Verein für Socialpolitik und Blackwell Publishing Ltd.