Publication: Will Countries that Receive Insufficient Aid Please Stand Up?
Loading...
Published
2010-09
ISSN
Date
2017-07-17
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The Accra Agenda for Action contains a commitment to increase aid effectiveness by 'addressing the issue of countries with insufficient aid.' This paper highlights the difficulties in identifying such countries unequivocally, given the limited theoretical and empirical knowledge on optimal aid allocations. Actual aid receipts by low income countries are compared to several benchmarks derived from different aid allocation models. These models differ primarily with regard to the weights assigned to country needs and performance. The analysis shows that different aid allocation models identify different sets of countries as receiving insufficient aid. The paper does not find a greater tendency for fragile states to receive insufficient aid compared to non-fragile states. However, there appears a greater tendency for bilateral aid to leave countries with insufficient aid compared to multi-lateral aid, which in fact in many cases partly compensates for under-funding from bilateral donors. The potential aggregate cost of increasing aid to countries with insufficient aid varies significantly depending on which aid allocation model is used, but could be as high as US$ 7 billion annually. Enhanced coordination of donors' aid allocation decisions to ensure that no low income country ends up inadvertently as an aid orphan will be an important step in addressing 'the issue of countries with insufficient aid.'
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Utz, Robert. 2010. Will Countries that Receive Insufficient Aid Please Stand Up?. CFP Working Paper Series;No. 7. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/27572 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Capacity Constraints and Public Financial Management in Small Pacific Island Countries(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-12)Drawing on Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability assessment scores from 118 countries, this paper provides the first comparative analysis of public financial management performance in small Pacific Island Countries (PICs). It applies a Tobit regression model across the full cross-country sample of Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability scores and country variables to identify potential causes for the observed underperformance of Pacific Island countries relative to other countries of similar income. First, the analysis finds small population size to be negatively correlated with Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability scores, with the "population penalty" faced by small Pacific Island countries sufficient to explain observed underperformance. Second, through application of a new capacity index of Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability dimensions, it finds strong evidence in support of the hypothesis that small population size impacts scores through the imposition of capacity constraints: with a limited pool of human capital, small countries face severe and permanent challenges in accessing an adequate range and depth of technical skills to fulfill all functions assessed through the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability framework. These findings suggest that approaches to strengthening public financial management in small Pacific Island countries should involve: i) careful prioritization of public financial management capacity toward areas that represent binding constraints to development; ii) adoption of public financial management systems that can function within inherent and binding capacity constraints, rather than wholesale adoption of "best practice" imported systems; and iii) consideration of options for accessing external capacity to support public financial management systems on a long-term basis, from regional agencies, the private sector, or donors.Publication Country Financial Accountability Assessments and Country Procurement Assessment Reports : How Effective Are World Bank Fiduciary Diagnostics?(Washington, DC, 2008-04)World Bank analysis of a country's public financial management system is typically undertaken both to help the client country strengthen its system and to safeguard funds that the Bank provides against misuse, and is an important component of fiduciary diagnostics. The Bank's instruments for such analysis have generally been relevant; the resulting diagnostics have been of satisfactory quality and have fostered reform agendas in client countries. Country Financial Accountability Assessments (CFAAs) have contributed substantially, and Country Procurement Assessments Reports (CPARs) modestly, to development outcomes in a sample of 10 countries examined. Client consultation and donor collaboration in the preparation of CFAAs and CPARs have been increasing, but internal Bank coordination among the three sets of units dealing with public financial management has lagged, resulting in fragmented action plans for clients. Both instruments have had a more limited effect on managing risks to Bank assistance, owing to the lack of a sound analytical framework for assessing fiduciary risks and of associated guidance on how identified risks should be reflected in the design of country assistance strategies. The evaluation recommends: (i) ensuring that fiduciary instruments use an integrated risk analytical framework that includes a common approach to defining fiduciary risk; (ii) issuing revised guidelines along with implementing an integrated training program for relevant staff; and (iii) supporting the client in preparing a single integrated, prioritized, costed, and monitorable set of actions within an agreed framework for Public Financial Management (PFM) reform.Publication Finance for Development(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-11)Over the past couple of decades, global financing for development has changed dramatically. The biggest shifts have been the rapid increase of net private financing flows to developing countries, in particular to middle-income countries (MICs); the sustained growth of official development assistance (ODA) from Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members, even excluding debt relief; the emergence of MICs as growth poles and sources of ODA with different approaches to aid delivery than those of DAC donors; and the expanded role of private aid. In addition, past trends of proliferation, fragmentation and earmarking of aid have continued. This paper reviews broad trends in global financing for development, with a focus on ODA and the growing importance of new development partners such as the so-called BRICS. In this context, it discusses the implications of this changing landscape for aid effectiveness and the role of ODA going forward.Publication Organization of Eastern Caribbean States : Policy Note on Project Fiduciary Management(Washington, DC, 2007-11)The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) face special development challenges, including limited institutional capacity, high per capita costs of basic social and infrastructure services, and vulnerability to natural disasters and other external shocks. This note identifies specific issues related to financial management and procurement. This note focused on the implications of differing donor practices for financing capital projects in a generally weak institutional and implementation environment for capital projects. The quality of implementation is also affected by a lack of adequate project management skills. The objective of this Policy Note is to increase the efficiency of capital investment project implementation in the OECS countries by (i) contributing to a more efficient use of limited institutional and human resource capacity, (ii) lowering transaction costs, and (iii) optimizing the use of public funds, while (iv) maintaining a robust control framework. The OECS economies are highly dependent on donor assistance for funding investment projects. This note identifies opportunities for sequential mainstreaming of fiduciary functions (financial management and procurement) and for a gradual approach to using mechanisms. The OECS countries' current efforts to rationalize institutional arrangements for capital projects by consolidating implementing entities or further mainstreaming implementation within existing structures in line ministries are consistent with the recommendations of the Country Program Quality Enhancement Review conducted by the World Bank in 2004.Publication Toward Country-led Development : A Multi-Partner Evaluation of the Comprehensive Development Framework--Synthesis Report(Washington, DC, 2003)This evaluation report synthesizes the findings of a multi-partner effort to assess implementation of the Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF). The evaluation's primary objectives are to: Identify the factors that have facilitated implementation of CDF principles, and those that have hindered it. Assess the extent to which CDF implementation has affected intermediate outcomes and, to the extent possible, longer-term development outcomes. In the mid-1990s, the aid community began a candid self-assessment. Disappointing development results-especially in Sub-Saharan Africa-had raised troubling questions: Does the emphasis on structural adjustment ignore the poor? Do the many agencies and international organizations working in developing countries overburden, rather than strengthen, the capacity of recipient governments? Does the poor coordination of donors add to the challenge of making development effective? Increasingly, the painful realization of development agencies, recipient countries, and aid analysts was "yes"-the full potential of international aid to reduce poverty by achieving positive, sustainable development results was not being fulfilled.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication World Development Report 2006(Washington, DC, 2005)This year’s Word Development Report (WDR), the twenty-eighth, looks at the role of equity in the development process. It defines equity in terms of two basic principles. The first is equal opportunities: that a person’s chances in life should be determined by his or her talents and efforts, rather than by pre-determined circumstances such as race, gender, social or family background. The second principle is the avoidance of extreme deprivation in outcomes, particularly in health, education and consumption levels. This principle thus includes the objective of poverty reduction. The report’s main message is that, in the long run, the pursuit of equity and the pursuit of economic prosperity are complementary. In addition to detailed chapters exploring these and related issues, the Report contains selected data from the World Development Indicators 2005‹an appendix of economic and social data for over 200 countries. This Report offers practical insights for policymakers, executives, scholars, and all those with an interest in economic development.Publication Lebanon Economic Monitor, Fall 2022(Washington, DC, 2022-11)The economy continues to contract, albeit at a somewhat slower pace. Public finances improved in 2021, but only because spending collapsed faster than revenue generation. Testament to the continued atrophy of Lebanon’s economy, the Lebanese Pound continues to depreciate sharply. The sharp deterioration in the currency continues to drive surging inflation, in triple digits since July 2020, impacting the poor and vulnerable the most. An unprecedented institutional vacuum will likely further delay any agreement on crisis resolution and much needed reforms; this includes prior actions as part of the April 2022 International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff-level agreement (SLA). Divergent views among key stakeholders on how to distribute the financial losses remains the main bottleneck for reaching an agreement on a comprehensive reform agenda. Lebanon needs to urgently adopt a domestic, equitable, and comprehensive solution that is predicated on: (i) addressing upfront the balance sheet impairments, (ii) restoring liquidity, and (iii) adhering to sound global practices of bail-in solutions based on a hierarchy of creditors (starting with banks’ shareholders) that protects small depositors.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.