Aid Relationships in Asia: Exploring Ownership in Japanese and Nordic Aid

255 Pages·2008·1.344 MB·English

by  Alf Morten Jerve, Yasutami Shimomura, Annette Skovsted Hansen (eds.)

Aid Relationships in Asia
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Aid Relationships in Asia
Exploring Ownership in Japanese
and Nordic Aid
Edited by
Alf Morten Jerve, Yasutami Shimomura
and Annette Skovsted Hansen
Selection and editorial matter © Alf Morten Jerve,Yasutami Shimomura and
Annette Skovsted Hansen 2008
Individual chapters © Contributors 2008
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 978-0-230-00495-5
All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of this publication
may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,copied or transmitted
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as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright,Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2008 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-28177-0 ISBN 978-0-230-38917-5 (eBook)
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08
Contents
List of Tables and Figures ix
Acknowledgements x
Notes on Contributors xi
List of Abbreviations xvii
Part I The Concept of Ownership in the Aid Debate
1 Introduction: Conceptualising Ownership
in Aid Relations 3
Alf Morten Jerve and Annette Skovsted Hansen
Why this book? 3
Opening the black box – the aid relationship 5
‘Ownership’ – by whom? 10
‘Ownership’ – the Japanese discourse 14
Japanese and Nordic assistance compared 16
Conclusion 19
2. Donor–Recipient Relationships in the Aid
Effectiveness Debate 22
Machiko Nissanke
Introduction 22
The selectivity approach to aid allocation as ex-post
policy conditionality 24
Evaluating donor–recipient relationships under the new
aid architecture 30
Concluding remarks 34
3 Ownership of What?: Beyond National Poverty Strategies
and Aid Harmonisation in the Case of Vietnam 41
Izumi Ohno and Kenichi Ohno
Introduction 41
Japanese views on ownership – what is true ownership as
aspired to by recipient countries? 42
The context of Vietnam’s aid and development 48
v
vi Contents
Donor management: selectivity and diversity in dealing
with donors 49
Policy design and implementation – need for greater
coherency in policy and institutions 54
Future challenges and implications for the role of donors
in Vietnam 59
Part II Aid Relations Where Aid Dominates
4 Laos: Contestation of National Ownership – the Role of Aid
Relations and the Case of the Electricity Sector 65
Stéphanie Robert and Henrik Secher Marcussen
Introduction 65
The external dependency of Laos 66
Defying conventional notions of the state 71
Exercising national ownership while in a squeeze – the
case of the hydropower sector 75
Concluding remarks 80
5 Sri Lanka: Exploring ‘Ownership’ of Aid-Funded Projects:
a Comparative Study of Japanese, Norwegian and
Swedish Project Aid 83
Alf Morten Jerve, W.D. Lakshman and Piyadasa Ratnayake
A project approach to the study of ownership in
aid relationships 83
Case 1: Dental Faculty of the University of Peradeniya –
funded by JICA 86
Case 2: Institute of Biochemistry and Molecular
Biology, University of Colombo – funded by Sida 92
Case 3: Moneragala District Integrated Rural Development
Programme – funded by Norad 99
Case 4: Rural Infrastructure Improvement Project in
Walawe Left Bank Area – financed by JBIC 106
Conclusions 111
6 Mongolia: Unpredictable Ownership – Comparing a
Japanese and a Swedish Funded Project 116
Lkham Luvsanjamts and Marie Söderberg
Introduction 116
Mongolia as an aid recipient 117
Japan and Sweden as donors in Mongolia 120
Contents vii
The Japanese project case: the Mongol–Japan Centre 123
The Swedish project case: the good governance in a
democratic Mongolia project 126
Conclusions 130
7. Nepal and Its Donors – Partners in Learning To Cope 133
Sudhindra Sharma, Annette Skovsted Hansen,
Tatsuro Fujikura and Juhani Koponen
Introduction 133
Donor responses to political turmoil 134
Aid relationships at the operational level: hydropower
and education 142
Conclusions 148
Part III Aid Relations Where Aid Is Marginal
8 China: How Size Matters – a Comparative Study of
Ownership in Japanese and Swedish Aid Projects 153
Liping He and Marie Söderberg
Introduction 153
China as an aid recipient: exercising strong ownership 154
Dealing with its biggest donor – Japan 157
At the implementation level: the Sino-Japan Friendship
Centre – a grant aid and technical cooperation project 162
Dealing with a small donor – Sweden 163
Conclusion 168
9 Thailand: Legitimacy and Aid Recipient Ownership – the
Case of the Export Promotion Strategy 173
Yasutami Shimomura
Introduction 173
A need to transform the structure of exports 174
External assistance to Thailand between 1975 and 1990 176
Developing ‘hardware’ for export promotion: the case
of the Eastern Seaboard Development Plan 179
Developing ‘software’ for export promotion: the case of the
first White Paper on Thai–Japanese economic relations 185
Conclusion and policy implications 189
10 Vietnam: the Making of Recipient Ownership and
Responses to Swedish and Japanese Aid 191
Le Thanh Forsberg
viii Contents
Introduction 191
Ownership: learning from historical experiences
of dependency 192
Building recipient ownership: the central role of MPI 194
Diversity among donors: the cases of Sweden and Japan 198
Exercising ownership: playing on comparative advantages 202
Conclusions 205
11 Thailand: What Makes Recipient Ownership?:
a Comparative Study of Japanese and Danish Aid
to Environmental Conservation 209
Siriporn Wajjwalku and Euamporn Tasarika
Introduction 209
Case 1: The REX Project funded by Japan 211
Case 2: The Bangrong Project funded by Denmark 215
Case 3: The EmSong Project funded by Denmark 217
Conclusion: exploring the link between partnership
and ownership 220
Index 224
List of Tables and Figures
Tables
2.1 2004 criteria included in CPIA 28
3.1 Aid as a % of macroeconomic aggregates, 2003 49
4.1 Main trading partners, 1999, 2002 and 2003 67
4.2 Net official development assistance 69
5.1 Projects under study 85
7.1 Foreign aid to Nepal up to 1999 136
7.2 ODA to Nepal, 2001–2005 137
8.1 Differences and similarities between Japanese and
Swedish aid to China 169
9.1 Largest 10 export commodities of Thailand, 1973–86 175
9.2 Total inflow of external resources to ASEAN and China:
net annual average 177
9.3 ODA flows to ASEAN and China: net annual average 177
9.4 Share of external resources and ODA flows from Japan,
WB and the Nordic countries 178
9.5 Thailand’s macroeconomic imbalance in
the early 1980s 182
9.6 A difficult choice – weighing policy alternatives in terms
of possible economic scenarios 183
9.7 Trade balance between Thailand and Japan in the
early 1980s 186
11.1 Ownership dimensions 211
Figures
1.1 Aid effectiveness model 6
1.2 Aid effectiveness – institutional perspective 7
1.3 Aid effectiveness – expanded model 11
1.4 Actors in aid relations 12
3.1 Typologies of ownership 46
3.2 Two prototypes of PRSP 52
3.3 Foreign aid: grants versus loans (average of 1999–2001) 55
6.1 Japan’s ODA disbursement to Mongolia in JPY100m 121
9.1 An envisaged path to graduation 178
9.2 Map of sites under the Eastern Southern Seaboard
Development Plan 180
ix