IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i4p2304-d751985.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strategic Allocation of Development Projects in Post-Conflict Regions: A Gender Perspective for Colombia

Author

Listed:
  • Raphael J. Nawrotzki

    (German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), 53113 Bonn, Germany)

  • Verena Gantner

    (German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), 53113 Bonn, Germany)

  • Jana Balzer

    (German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), 53113 Bonn, Germany)

  • Thomas Wencker

    (German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), 53113 Bonn, Germany)

  • Sabine Brüntrup-Seidemann

    (German Institute for Development Evaluation (DEval), 53113 Bonn, Germany)

Abstract

We know little about the general geographic allocation of development projects in post-conflict regions, and specifically of gender-focused projects. In this study, we explore whether donor agencies prefer to work in “safe” places or dare to operate in conflict-affected zones. Using Colombia as a case study, we combine data on battle deaths from the UCDP Georeferenced Event Dataset (1994–2004) with georeferenced information on the location of development projects from the Colombia AIMS dataset (2006–2013) and manually geocode data for German-funded development projects (2012–2018) with gender as a significant objective. Using count models (N = 1120), we find a statistically strong and positive relationship: an increase in battle deaths increases the number of development projects (with and without gender-focus) in a municipality. Interaction models further reveal an amplification of this relationship for regions with a large proportion of female-headed households, as well as a high number of formally employed and literate women. A context-sensitive interpretation of our findings suggests that (1) development projects in general, and German-funded gender-focused projects in particular, dare to operate in post-conflict settings; (2) women may play an active role as community leaders and mobilizers to influence the allocation of development programs to certain regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Raphael J. Nawrotzki & Verena Gantner & Jana Balzer & Thomas Wencker & Sabine Brüntrup-Seidemann, 2022. "Strategic Allocation of Development Projects in Post-Conflict Regions: A Gender Perspective for Colombia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-26, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:4:p:2304-:d:751985
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/2304/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/2304/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kotsadam, Andreas & Østby, Gudrun & Rustad, Siri Aas & Tollefsen, Andreas Forø & Urdal, Henrik, 2018. "Development aid and infant mortality. Micro-level evidence from Nigeria," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 59-69.
    2. Ruttan, Vernon W., 1984. "Integrated rural development programmes: A historical perspective," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 393-401, April.
    3. Canavire-Bacarreza, Gustavo & Nunnenkamp, Peter & Thiele, Rainer & Triveño, Luis, 2005. "Assessing the allocation of aid: Developmental concerns and the self-interest of donors," Kiel Working Papers 1253, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    4. Cameron,A. Colin & Trivedi,Pravin K., 2013. "Regression Analysis of Count Data," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107667273.
    5. Raphael Nawrotzki & Fernando Riosmena & Lori Hunter, 2013. "Do Rainfall Deficits Predict U.S.-Bound Migration from Rural Mexico? Evidence from the Mexican Census," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 32(1), pages 129-158, February.
    6. Platteau, Jean-Philippe & Gaspart, Frederic, 2003. "The Risk of Resource Misappropriation in Community-Driven Development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(10), pages 1687-1703, October.
    7. Hannes Öhler & Peter Nunnenkamp, 2014. "Needs-Based Targeting or Favoritism? The Regional Allocation of Multilateral Aid within Recipient Countries," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(3), pages 420-446, August.
    8. Monica J. Grant & Jere R. Behrman, 2010. "Gender Gaps in Educational Attainment in Less Developed Countries," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 36(1), pages 71-89, March.
    9. Child, Travers Barclay, 2019. "Conflict and counterinsurgency aid: Drawing sectoral distinctions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    10. Ranjula Bali Swain & Supriya Garikipati & Fan Yang Wallentin, 2020. "Does Foreign Aid Improve Gender Performance in Recipient Countries?," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(7), pages 1171-1193, October.
    11. Sutton, Paul C. & Costanza, Robert, 2002. "Global estimates of market and non-market values derived from nighttime satellite imagery, land cover, and ecosystem service valuation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 509-527, June.
    12. Joshua D. Angrist & Adriana D. Kugler, 2008. "Rural Windfall or a New Resource Curse? Coca, Income, and Civil Conflict in Colombia," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(2), pages 191-215, May.
    13. Nathan Nunn & Nancy Qian, 2014. "US Food Aid and Civil Conflict," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(6), pages 1630-1666, June.
    14. Jean‐Claude Berthélemy, 2006. "Bilateral Donors’ Interest vs. Recipients’ Development Motives in Aid Allocation: Do All Donors Behave the Same?," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(2), pages 179-194, May.
    15. Richard Bluhm & Martin Gassebner & Sarah Langlotz & Paul Schaudt, 2021. "Fueling conflict? (De)escalation and bilateral aid," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(2), pages 244-261, March.
    16. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    17. Alesina, Alberto & Dollar, David, 2000. "Who Gives Foreign Aid to Whom and Why?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 33-63, March.
    18. 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.
    19. Verónica Amarante & Cecilia Rossel, 2018. "Unfolding Patterns of Unpaid Household Work in Latin America," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 1-34, January.
    20. Younas, Javed, 2008. "Motivation for bilateral aid allocation: Altruism or trade benefits," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 661-674, September.
    21. Carola Betzold & Florian Weiler, 2017. "Allocation of aid for adaptation to climate change: Do vulnerable countries receive more support?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 17-36, February.
    22. Gehring, Kai & Kaplan, Lennart C. & Wong, Melvin H.L., 2022. "China and the World Bank—How contrasting development approaches affect the stability of African states," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    23. Blessing Mberu, 2006. "Internal migration and household living conditions in Ethiopia," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 14(21), pages 509-540.
    24. Dreher, Axel & Gehring, Kai & Klasen, Stephan, 2015. "Gesture Politics or Real Commitment? Gender Inequality and the Allocation of Aid," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 464-480.
    25. Francken, Nathalie & Minten, Bart & Swinnen, Johan F.M., 2012. "The Political Economy of Relief Aid Allocation: Evidence from Madagascar," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 486-500.
    26. Balla, Eliana & Reinhardt, Gina Yannitell, 2008. "Giving and Receiving Foreign Aid: Does Conflict Count?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 2566-2585, December.
    27. Emily Oster, 2019. "Unobservable Selection and Coefficient Stability: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 187-204, April.
    28. Roberto Angulo & Yadira Díaz & Renata Pardo, 2016. "The Colombian Multidimensional Poverty Index: Measuring Poverty in a Public Policy Context," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 127(1), pages 1-38, May.
    29. Piotr Lis, 2013. "Armed conflict, terrorism, and the allocation of foreign aid," Economics of Peace and Security Journal, EPS Publishing, vol. 8(1), pages 12-17, April.
    30. Ramírez, Octavio A. & Shultz, Steven D., 2000. "Poisson Count Models to Explain the Adoption of Agricultural and Natural Resource Management Technologies by Small Farmers in Central American Countries," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 32(1), pages 21-33, April.
    31. Collier, Paul & Dollar, David, 2002. "Aid allocation and poverty reduction," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(8), pages 1475-1500, September.
    32. Weiler, Florian & Klöck, Carola & Dornan, Matthew, 2018. "Vulnerability, good governance, or donor interests? The allocation of aid for climate change adaptation," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 65-77.
    33. Marlène Guillon & Jacky Mathonnat, 2019. "What can we learn on Chinese aid allocation motivations from available data ? A sectorial analysis of Chinese aid to African countries," Post-Print hal-02005784, HAL.
    34. Dipendra, K.C., 2020. "Which aid targets poor at the sub-national level?," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    35. Ofstad, Arve, 2002. "Countries in Violent Conflict and Aid Strategies: The Case of Sri Lanka," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 165-180, February.
    36. Paul Bezerra & Alex Braithwaite, 2016. "Locating foreign aid commitments in response to political violence," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 333-355, December.
    37. de Ree, Joppe & Nillesen, Eleonora, 2009. "Aiding violence or peace? The impact of foreign aid on the risk of civil conflict in sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 301-313, March.
    38. Maizels, Alfred & Nissanke, Machiko K., 1984. "Motivations for aid to developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 12(9), pages 879-900, September.
    39. United Nations UN, 2015. "Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," Working Papers id:7559, eSocialSciences.
    40. Brombacher, Daniel & Westerbarkei, Jan, 2019. "From alternative development to sustainable development: the role of development within the global drug control regime," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 100344, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    41. Gita Sen & Avanti Mukherjee, 2014. "No Empowerment without Rights, No Rights without Politics: Gender-equality, MDGs and the post-2015 Development Agenda," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2-3), pages 188-202, July.
    42. Daniel Mejía & Pascual Restrepo, 2013. "Bushes and Bullets: Illegal Cocaine Markets and Violence in Colombia," Documentos CEDE 11934, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    43. Plümper, Thomas & Neumayer, Eric, 2006. "The Unequal Burden of War: The Effect of Armed Conflict on the Gender Gap in Life Expectancy," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 60(3), pages 723-754, July.
    44. repec:pal:palcom:v:2016:y:2016:i:palcomms201614:p:16014- is not listed on IDEAS
    45. Nancy Lozano-Gracia & Gianfranco Piras & Ana Maria Ibáñez & Geoffrey J. D. Hewings, 2010. "The Journey to Safety: Conflict-Driven Migration Flows in Colombia," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 33(2), pages 157-180, April.
    46. Briggs, Ryan C., 2017. "Does Foreign Aid Target the Poorest?," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 71(1), pages 187-206, January.
    47. Paul Collier & Anke Hoeffler, 2002. "AID, Policy and Peace: Reducing the risks of civil conflict," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(6), pages 435-450.
    48. Scott Thacker & Daniel Adshead & Marianne Fay & Stéphane Hallegatte & Mark Harvey & Hendrik Meller & Nicholas O’Regan & Julie Rozenberg & Graham Watkins & Jim W. Hall, 2019. "Infrastructure for sustainable development," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 2(4), pages 324-331, April.
    49. Caren Grown & Tony Addison & Finn Tarp, 2016. "Aid for Gender Equality and Development: Lessons and Challenges," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 311-319, April.
    50. Bernal Raquel, 2009. "The Informal Labor Market in Colombia: identification and characterization," Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, Universidad de los Andes,Facultad de Economía, CEDE, September.
    51. Benjamin Crost & Joseph Felter & Patrick Johnston, 2014. "Aid under Fire: Development Projects and Civil Conflict," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(6), pages 1833-1856, June.
    52. Elvira Maria Restrepo, 2016. "Leaders against all odds: Women victims of conflict in Colombia," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 2(1), pages 1-11, December.
    53. Ibáñez, Ana María & Moya, Andrés, 2010. "Vulnerability of Victims of Civil Conflicts: Empirical Evidence for the Displaced Population in Colombia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 647-663, April.
    54. Ceron, Carlos Alberto Avila & De los Rios-Carmenado, Ignacio & Martín Fernández, Susana, 2018. "Illicit crops substitution and rural prosperity in armed conflict areas: A conceptual proposal based on the Working With People model in Colombia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 201-214.
    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. Raphael J. Nawrotzki & Marina Tebeck & Sven Harten & Venya Blankenagel, 2023. "Climate change vulnerability hotspots in Costa Rica: constructing a sub-national index," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 13(3), pages 473-499, September.

    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. Dreher, Axel & Lang, Valentin & Reinsberg, Bernhard, 2024. "Aid effectiveness and donor motives," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    2. Elisabeth Lio Rosvold, 2020. "Disaggregated determinants of aid: Development aid projects in the Philippines," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 38(6), pages 783-803, November.
    3. Eugen Dimant & Tim Krieger & Daniel Meierrieks, 2024. "Paying Them to Hate US: The Effect of US Military Aid on Anti-American Terrorism, 1968–2018," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(663), pages 2772-2802.
    4. Jung, Woojin, 2023. "Mapping community development aid: Spatial analysis in Myanmar," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    5. BenYishay, Ariel & DiLorenzo, Matthew & Dolan, Carrie, 2022. "The economic efficiency of aid targeting," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    6. Peterson, Lauri & Skovgaard, Jakob, 2019. "Bureaucratic politics and the allocation of climate finance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 72-97.
    7. Mogge, Lukas & McDonald, Morag & Knoth, Christian & Teickner, Henning & Purevtseren, Myagmartseren & Pebesma, Edzer & Kraehnert, Kati, 2023. "Allocation of humanitarian aid after a weather disaster," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    8. Gaibulloev, Khusrav & Younas, Javed, 2018. "Untying the motives of giving grants vs. loans," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 1-14.
    9. Koppenberg, Maximilian & Mishra, Ashok K. & Hirsch, Stefan, 2023. "Food aid and violent conflict: A review and Empiricist’s companion," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    10. Dipendra, K.C., 2020. "Which aid targets poor at the sub-national level?," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    11. Lis, Piotr, 2018. "The impact of armed conflict and terrorism on foreign aid: A sector-level analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 283-294.
    12. Balázs Szent-Iványi, 2015. "Are Democratising Countries Rewarded with Higher Levels of Foreign Aid?," Acta Oeconomica, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 65(4), pages 593-615, December.
    13. Breßlein, Martin & Schmaljohann, Maya, 2013. "Surrender your market! Do the G5 countries use World Bank Trade Conditionality to promote Trade?," Working Papers 0550, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    14. Gehring, Kai & Kaplan, Lennart C. & Wong, Melvin H.L., 2022. "China and the World Bank—How contrasting development approaches affect the stability of African states," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    15. Lee, Heerae & Shon, Huijoo, 2024. "Spatial and temporal patterns of energy aid and poverty in four African countries: Focusing on distributive and recognition justice," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    16. Adam, Antonis & Tsarsitalidou, Sofia, 2022. "The effect of international development association's (IDA) aid on conflict. A fuzzy regression discontinuity approach," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    17. Zhang, Liyunpeng & Zhuang, Yuhang & Ding, Yibing & Liu, Ziwei, 2023. "Infrastructure and poverty reduction: Assessing the dynamic impact of Chinese infrastructure investment in sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    18. M. Christian Lehmann, 2020. "Aiding refugees, aiding peace?," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(5), pages 1687-1704, September.
    19. Koppenberg, Maximilian & Mishra, Ashok K. & Hirsch, Stefan, 2023. "Food Aid and Violent Conflict: A Review of Literature," IZA Discussion Papers 16574, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Jing Shao & Maojun Wang, 2020. "Analyzing the spatial allocation of Japan’s aid to China: A perspective from the relations between aid allocation stakeholders," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 1277-1303, September.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:4:p:2304-:d:751985. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.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.