Abstract

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)1 aim to address the needs of developing countries, and are scheduled to be accomplished by 2015. As the current efforts to meet these commitments2 do not seem to be on track to achieve this, a new international aid agenda has arisen. This agenda is led by development scholars and development entities, which have a belief that aid coordination3 should be the responsibility of the partner countries4. In addition, the agenda emphasizes the importance of donor harmonization5 in response to national strategies and priorities. The proponents of the agenda anticipate that these changes in donor and partner roles are essential to achieve ‘sustainable development’6 as outlined in the MDGs. In just five years, this group has taken full control over the international aid agenda. The inherent dilemma residing within this approach is that developing countries usually face great difficulties of identifying their problems, and moreover to find efficient solutions.However, there has been little in-depth analysis and practical scrutiny of what problems the governments of developing countries actually face in planning and coordinating aid. This research effort demonstrates that the practical implementation of national aid coordination is highly complex and will take longer to achieve than expected by proponents of the new international aid agenda. It will be shown that the prerequisites necessary for implementing this agenda are not necessarily in place in developing countries. A detailed description of the actual challenges pertaining to national aid coordination for a developing country is essential for improving the practical implementation of this new approach to development. The thesis analyzes to what extent national aid coordination takes place, and whether it affects the outcome of aid programs. As most official development assistance activities are part of larger sector programs, this research will focus on coordination of aid “programs” instead of “projects”. National aid coordination is examined in the case of Egypt, looking at the processes and mechanisms of aid coordination by the Ministry of Planning (MoP) and the Ministry of International Cooperation (MIC). The Environmental Sector Program (ESP) is reviewed within the Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs (MSEA) as a case study to analyze in detail how national coordination affects the outcome of a particular program. Extensive interviews of government officials were carried out to identify the official procedures as well as the practical implementation and challenges of the national aid coordination in Egypt.

School

School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department

Political Science Department

Degree Name

MA in Political Science

Date of Award

3-1-2006

Online Submission Date

3-1-2006

First Advisor

Yadav., Vikash

Committee Member 1

Yadav., Vikash

Document Type

Thesis

Extent

177 p.

Rights

The author retains all rights with regard to copyright.

The American University in Cairo grants authors of theses and dissertations a maximum embargo period of two years from the date of submission, upon request. After the embargo elapses, these documents are made available publicly. If you are the author of this thesis or dissertation, and would like to request an exceptional extension of the embargo period, please write to thesisadmin@aucegypt.edu.

IRB

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