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Do Aid Donors Specialize and Coordinate within Recipient Countries? The case of Malawi

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  • Peter Nunnenkamp
  • Albena Sotirova
  • Rainer Thiele

Abstract

Acknowledging that aid proliferation and a lack of coordination impair aid effectiveness, donors have repeatedly promised to specialize and better coordinate their aid activities, most notably in the Paris Declaration of 2005. We exploit geocoded aid data from Malawi to assess whether the country's bilateral and multilateral donors have acted accordingly at the district and sector level. We do not find compelling evidence for increased aid specialization after the Paris Declaration, and the regional division of labor among donors may even have deteriorated. Our within-country evidence thus broadly corroborates what previous studies found at the national level of recipient countries.
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  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devpol:v:34:y:2016:i:6:p:831-849
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    Cited by:

    1. 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).
    2. Briggs, Ryan C., 2018. "Poor targeting: A gridded spatial analysis of the degree to which aid reaches the poor in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 133-148.
    3. Nunnenkamp, Peter & Rank, Michaela & Thiele, Rainer, 2015. "Aid fragmentation and donor coordination in Uganda: A district-level analysis," Kiel Working Papers 2001, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    4. Daniel L. Nielson & Bradley Parks & Michael J. Tierney, 2017. "International organizations and development finance: Introduction to the special issue," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 157-169, June.
    5. Harris, J. Andrew & Posner, Daniel N., 2022. "Does decentralization encourage pro-poor targeting? Evidence from Kenya’s constituencies development fund," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    6. Ronald B. Davies & Stephan Klasen, 2019. "Darlings and Orphans: Interactions across Donors in International Aid," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 121(1), pages 243-277, January.
    7. BenYishay, Ariel & DiLorenzo, Matthew & Dolan, Carrie, 2022. "The economic efficiency of aid targeting," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    8. Jung, Woojin, 2023. "Mapping community development aid: Spatial analysis in Myanmar," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).

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    JEL classification:

    • F35 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Aid

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