IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/unu/wpaper/wp-2019-12.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

What does the evidence tell us about 'thinking and working politically' in development assistance?

Author

Listed:
  • Niheer Dasandi
  • Edward Laws
  • Heather Marquette
  • Mark Robinson

Abstract

This paper critically reviews evidence on 'thinking and working politically' in development. Scholars and practitioners have increasingly recognised that development is fundamentally political, and efforts are underway to develop more politically informed ways of thinking and working. The literature does not yet constitute a strong evidence base to link these efforts to more effective aid programming: much evidence is anecdotal, does not meet high standards of robustness, is not comparative, and draws on self-selected successes reported by programme insiders.

Suggested Citation

  • Niheer Dasandi & Edward Laws & Heather Marquette & Mark Robinson, 2019. "What does the evidence tell us about 'thinking and working politically' in development assistance?," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-12, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2019-12
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/Publications/Working-paper/PDF/wp-2019-12.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hristos Doucouliagos & Martin Paldam, 2009. "The Aid Effectiveness Literature: The Sad Results Of 40 Years Of Research," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 433-461, July.
    2. Levy, Brian, 2014. "Working with the Grain: Integrating Governance and Growth in Development Strategies," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199363810.
    3. Verena Fritz & Brian Levy & Rachel Ort, 2014. "Problem-Driven Political Economy Analysis : The World Bank's Experience," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 16389.
    4. Yanguas, Pablo & Hulme, David, 2015. "Barriers to Political Analysis in Aid Bureaucracies: From Principle to Practice in DFID and the World Bank," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 209-219.
    5. Sue Unsworth, 2009. "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, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(6), pages 883-894.
    6. Batley, Richard & Mcloughlin, Claire, 2015. "The Politics of Public Services: A Service Characteristics Approach," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 275-285.
    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. Burns, Anthony Francis & Rajabifard, Abbas & Shojaei, Davood, 2023. "Undertaking land administration reform: Is there a better way?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).

    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. Niheer Dasandi & Ed Laws & Heather Marquette & Mark Robinson, 2019. "What Does the Evidence Tell Us about ‘Thinking and Working Politically’ in Development Assistance?," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(2), pages 155-168.
    2. Adam S. Harris & Brigitte Seim & Rachel Sigman, 2020. "Information, accountability and perceptions of public sector programme success: A conjoint experiment among bureaucrats in Africa," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 38(5), pages 594-612, September.
    3. Yanguas, Pablo & Hulme, David, 2015. "Barriers to Political Analysis in Aid Bureaucracies: From Principle to Practice in DFID and the World Bank," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 209-219.
    4. Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai, 2018. "The political economy of maternal healthcare in Ghana," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-107-18, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    5. Andrews, Matt & Pritchett, Lant & Woolcock, Michael, 2017. "Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198747482.
    6. Sam Hickey & Jeremy Seekings, 2017. "The global politics of social protection," WIDER Working Paper Series 115, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Yanguas, Pablo, 2021. "What have we learned about learning? Unpacking the relationship between knowledge and organisational change in development agencies," IDOS Discussion Papers 9/2021, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS).
    8. Sam Hickey & Jeremy Seekings, 2017. "The global politics of social protection," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-115, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Ricks, Jacob I. & Doner, Richard F., 2021. "Getting institutions right: Matching institutional capacities to developmental tasks," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    10. Brett, Edwin, 2020. "The development and challenges of aid relationships: where is international aid heading?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 106557, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai, 2018. "Rethinking elite commitment to social protection in Ghana: Insights from an adapted political settlements approach," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-112-18, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    12. E. A. Brett, 2020. "The Development and Challenges of Aid Relationships: Where Is International Aid Heading?," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 21(02), pages 22-26, July.
    13. Pablo Yanguas, 2016. "The role and responsibility of foreign aid in recipient political settlements," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-056-16, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    14. van Bergeijk, P.A.G. & Lazzaroni, S., 2013. "Macroeconomics of natural disasters," ISS Working Papers - General Series 50075, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    15. Kelly Gerard, 2023. "Doing aid chains differently: Evaluating the potential of Multi‐Stakeholder Partnerships," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 41(1), January.
    16. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2017. "Foreign Aid and Inclusive Development: Updated Evidence from Africa, 2005–2012," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 98(1), pages 282-298, March.
    17. Patrick Guillaumont, 2011. "Aid effectiveness for poverty reduction:macroeconomic overview and emerging issues," CERDI Working papers halshs-00554285, HAL.
    18. Denizer, Cevdet & Kaufmann, Daniel & Kraay, Aart, 2013. "Good countries or good projects? Macro and micro correlates of World Bank project performance," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 288-302.
    19. Simplice A. Asongu & Jacinta C. Nwachukwu, 2018. "Increasing Foreign Aid for Inclusive Human Development in Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 138(2), pages 443-466, July.
    20. Gregory, Julian & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2019. "Rethinking the governance of energy poverty in sub-Saharan Africa: Reviewing three academic perspectives on electricity infrastructure investment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 344-354.

    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-2019-12. 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.