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Since 2018, Canada, through its Rohingya Response Strategy in Bangladesh, has been providing targeted assistance to the impoverished Bengali host communities and Rohingya refugees living in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Under Canada's Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP), gender equality and gender-responsive humanitarian action constitute some of the core priority areas for the Canadian government. In Cox's Bazar, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) funds programmes to empower women and girls through skill-based and livelihood training and to provide sexual and reproductive health services. However, scholars like Jennifer Cadesky and Rebecca Tiessen caution against the conflation of gender equality and empowerment, arguing that it often leads to short-term, quick-fix solutions without any long-term benefit to women. Canada needs to go beyond funding recovery assistance programmes at a surface level. Without understanding social norms and cultural practices that influence women's participation, mobility, and visibility in public spaces, gender equality in Canada's response strategy will be limited to only checklist goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on more than ten years of author’s experience in international technical assistance programs, the paper considers the problem of ensuring the sustainability of their outcomes. The author substantiates the position that international technical assistance in Ukraine significantly helps the development and modernisation of certain social spheres. However, effectiveness may vary depending on specific projects/programs and specific project teams. In addition, the author argues that international technical assistance in Ukraine requires greater coordination from the government and the direct participation of representatives of relevant ministries to be able to scale, monitor and evaluate effectiveness. The article provides an example of a specific local development tool proposed and tested over the six years of the USAID/DOBRE Program that can be scaled up at the national level. Experts’ attention may be drawn to the classification of factors that hinder the sustainability of international technical assistance programs/projects in Ukraine regarding aid recipients, donor organisations and the state. The author analysed the positions of Ukrainian scientists and the international donor organisations’ approaches on the content of the concept: outcomes sustainability of international technical assistance programs and investigated the criteria for determining their effectiveness. The concept of “The phenomenon of the financial absolutism illusion” was discovered and introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The author also outlined the socio-psychological barriers that prevent Ukrainian communities from reaping the full benefits of local development instruments provided by donor countries. In addition, the author proposed some practical measures that will optimise the process of providing international technical assistance in Ukraine.

Integration with the large market of the EU creates additional competitive advantages for Ukraine. The Association Agreement and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), the status of the candidate country and international assistance, which aim to approximate Ukraine's legislation to EU norms, have become the institutional instruments of such integration. Over the recent years, the European Union has become Ukraine's main trade and investment partner. The basis of Ukrainian exports to the EU is formed mainly by crops and metallurgical products. The main items of Ukraine's imports are supplies of machine- building equipment and fuels. In terms of grains and oil crops, Ukraine is the main supplier to the EU. Under the conditions of war, the foreign trade with the EU has proven itself to be robust in volume and, in contrast to other vectors of trade, diversified. This was facilitated by the elimination of a number of tariff and non-tariff restrictions on Ukrainian exports to the EU, as well as the realign-ment of the logistics infrastructure towards the West. The structure of Ukrainian exports to the EU has seen an increase in the role of a range of agricultural products, along with a sharp decline in the role of metals. On the other hand, the EU has become an important supplier of military products and fuels to Ukraine. Along with that, with the question of security unresolved, the insufficient investment attractiveness remains to be a problematic aspect for Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Finnish Defence Forces (FDF) are tasked with the military defence of Finland, supporting other public authorities, both providing international assistance and participating in international activities, and participation in international military crisis management. The Act on the Making of Decisions Concerning the Provision of and Request for International Assistance is essential for the execution of the third of these tasks. This Act has been amended following the lessons learned from the evacuation operation in Afghanistan – but is it still necessary to understand the FDF's provision of international assistance and participation in joint operations and other international activities as an independent task? Should these functions, rather, be seen as means to an end in their own right, and be integrated appropriately into the FDF's remaining tasks? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to one of the historic periods of Mongolia of the 20th century, when the Mongolian People’s Republic built the foundations of a socialist society, and key modernization processes took place with the support of the Soviet Union. The economic component of Soviet-Mongolian relations was dominant at that time. However, the assistance from the People’s Republic of China played a definitely important role in the economic development and formation of modern Mongolian society. Labour constraint was one of the main difficulties in promoting industrial economy in Mongolia. The study of the Mongolian-Chinese economic cooperation is also relevant today, despite the influence of the “third force” in Mongolia’s foreign policy. Russian and Chinese directions are in priority. In this regard, it is important to refer to the experience accumulated by countries in the field of economic interaction, which determined the purpose of the publication ‒ to study one of the aspects of Mongolian-Chinese cooperation in the 1950s and early 1960s, namely, the employment of Chinese labour in Mongolia based on a rich source base, including both the published documents and documents from the National Archives of Mongolia, as well as historical works by Russian and Mongolian authors, and to consider such issues as the role of foreign labour, in particular, Chinese workforce in the industrialization of Mongolia, traffic of foreign workers into the Mongolian People’s Republic, and then their family members, the employment of Chinese workers, ideological and cultural events organized by party officials of the Chinese Communist Party. The research methodology is specified by the principles of scientific objectivity, historicism and historical determinism. The work uses both universal scientific methods and special methods of historical research determined by the formulated problem and includes problem-chronological method, comparative analysis method, and systemic method. The study revealed that the employment of workers from the PRC in Mongolia took place within the framework of the diplomatic relations established in 1949 and based on the agreements reached in 1956, 1958 and 1960 in respect of providing economic and technical assistance. It was emphasized that Chinese workers became an integral part of the changing Mongolian society for almost a decade, from 1955 to 1964. The Mongolian side fulfilling bilateral agreements on the working conditions of Chinese employees opened schools for Chinese children, created additional medical centers where Chinese doctors worked, and so on; all this introduced some adjustments to the everyday life of Mongolian society in the mid-20th century. Today, the process of rethinking, re-evaluating the path traversed by Mongolia throughout the 20th century continues, the external conditions of the Mongolian People’s Republic are being revised, so a detailed reference to its history can contribute to the formation of a more objective approach to this process.

The Finnish Defence Forces (FDF) are tasked with the military defence of Finland, supporting other public authorities, both providing international assistance and participating in international activities, and participation in international military crisis management. The Act on the Making of Decisions Concerning the Provision of and Request for International Assistance is essential for the execution of the third of these tasks. This Act has been amended following the lessons learned from the evacuation operation in Afghanistan – but is it still necessary to understand the FDF’s provision of international assistance and participation in joint operations and other international activities as an independent task? Should these functions, rather, be seen as means to an end in their own right, and be integrated appropriately into the FDF’s remaining tasks?

This article analyzes the contribution of the Guidelines for the Implementation of the 1999 Second Protocol to the Hague Convention of 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (the Guidelines) to better protection of cultural property in peacetime and in times of armed conflict. The first part of the article introduces the Guidelines within the context of the implementation of the 1999 Second Protocol to the Hague Convention of 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (1999 Second Protocol) and the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, and provides examples of UNESCO's other standard-setting instruments such as the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural or Natural Heritage, the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage and the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, as well as bodies providing for guidelines for these instruments. The second part underscores the most important advances of the Guidelines in the implementation of the 1999 Second Protocol. The third part focuses on the contribution of the Guidelines as subsequent practice in the application of the 1999 Second Protocol establishing the agreement of the parties regarding its interpretation in the framework of Article 31(3)(b) of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Finally, the fourth part concludes by highlighting the main advantages of the Guidelines in providing better protection for cultural property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beekeeping can provide important sources of cash income for farmers in developing countries where land is unconducive to crop and livestock production systems. In many low-income countries however, attrition among beekeeping adopters remains a chronic problem, colony losses are high, support for and coordination of the sector is low, and practices, production and income from beekeeping is often inefficient. This study investigated the key drivers and practices influencing incomes from beekeeping, honey production and numbers of hives owned by beekeepers in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. Survey data from 117 beekeepers revealed that beekeeping contributes to improving farmers resilience and security in times of financial hardship with 85% of beekeepers reporting using their honey as a form of a bank and beekeepers earning average annual net incomes of US$715.50. Specifically, our results highlight the importance of supplementary feeding, multiplying colonies by making splits, reinvestment into beekeeping enterprises and access to more than a single apiary site as key factors influencing productivity and income. This study provides guidelines for optimising beekeeping outcomes in low-income countries and provides recommendations to inform policy options for strengthening beekeeping for sustainable community development programs and partnerships.

Canada’s new Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP) will succeed only if it leaves behind its instrumentalist feminist approach and takes on a transformative one. Instrumentalist approaches have been the status quo for such policies in the past, but they are limited in their reach because they confine themselves to relatively easy measurements of progress. These measurements include counting how many women and girls are involved in, or affected by, policy interventions that have broader societal and other goals. A transformative approach, however, goes deeper by working to permanently change the structures and institutions that perpetuate inequality.

The West is concerned over the crisis of the liberal world order attributing it to the conduct of emerging powers, such as China, India and Russia. Are its concerns legitimate? Drawing on social identity theory, the authors analyze the emerging powers’ stances on international development through the lens of status dynamics. In particular, three issue areas are investigated: the debate over the UN development agenda, which has revealed differences between Western and non-Western approaches, the changes in the membership of donor and recipient groups over the last decade and the discourse of emerging countries concerning science and technology, which betrays their self-image of a “developed” or “laggard” state.The key finding of the paper is that the crisis of the liberal world order as a set of institutions created by the US-led countries after WWII manifests itself in the distorting symbolic exchange between developed and developing countries. The emerging states are unwilling to recognize the authority of the West and its leadership in setting the direction of global development. Meanwhile, they are trying to gain the status of development front-runners using their own foreign aid programs and science and technology development strategies. However, the rising states are not uniform and consistent in posing a symbolic challenge to the liberal order – while the Russia is striving for a “developed non-western country” status (thereby copying the USSR’s image), India and China, though to different degrees, are positioning themselves both as developed industrial states and as developing countries which receive aid packages from richer members of the international community. What leads to the distortions in this symbolic exchange is the desire of some emerging powers to use the resources of the West and reap the benefits of the world order created by it while denying it a high status. Thus, a classic economic “free-rider problem” arises in international relations: while benefiting from the liberal order created by the West, the rising states do not recognize the status it ascribes itself ignoring the symbolic hierarchy which, as viewed by western countries, underlies this order.The authors declare the absence of conflict of interest.

The 2013–2014 Revolution in Ukraine has spurred a boom in civic anti-corruption initiatives across Ukraine. There is as yet little consolidated understanding of how effective these initiatives are and what explains variation in effectiveness. Insights from academic and practitioner literature suggest that factors associated with success in anti-corruption activism fall under three broad categories: environmental factors, advocacy strategies of civil society organizations, and their organizational characteristics. Drawing on a comprehensive study of anti-corruption activism in the regions of Ukraine, this article asks how these insights relate to anti-corruption activism in the regions of Ukraine. We find that anti-corruption initiatives generally face two key dilemmas: insufficient capacity in terms and financial and human resources, and the absence of a credible base of support. Anti-Corruption organizations that are most effective tend to be those that convincingly solve either one of these two dilemmas. In addition, we find that political will among local authorities is an important conducive factor to the effectiveness of anti-corruption activism. The article also discusses the implications of our findings for practitioners of international assistance.

Through the complementarity principle of the International Criminal Court, international criminal law enforcement is transferred from international courts to national courts. This has led to an increase of international actors' focus on national courts to achieve international criminal justice. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) presents a significant example to examine the prosecution of international crimes by national courts and international actors' support to Congolese legal system to promote complementarity and international criminal justice. International actors provide assistance to mobile hearings to prosecute international crimes and to implement complementarity at the national level in the eastern DRC. This article explores mobile hearings through their role in implementing complementarity in the DRC and international and national influences on mobile hearings regarding the prosecution of international crimes. The main argument is that although mobile hearings are significant to bring justice closer to local communities and increase the visibility of justice in remote and rural areas, their independence is in question as a result of the selective interest of international actors and political interferences coming from Congolese political and military elites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the new dataset of Political Agreements in Internal Conflicts (PAIC) and presents its first application. PAIC captures the institutional provisions in political agreements concluded between 1989 and 2016. It provides information on 91 variables, along five dimensions: power sharing, transitional justice, cultural institutions, territorial self-governance and international assistance. First, the paper presents the data collection and coding procedures. Then it replicates Hartzell's and Hoddie's (2007, Crafting Peace, The Pennsylvania State University Press) seminal study on the relationship between power sharing and negotiated agreements, showing the long-term importance of a previously overlooked realm: commissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) started its operations in Egypt in 1975. Its work on education development included supporting access and gender equity, community participation, professional development, and also extended to policy reforms. Education Reform Program (ERP) was one of USAID’s initiatives implemented between 2004 and 2009. The program intended to support the Egyptian Ministry of Education (MOE) with strategies to enhance a system-wide reform. It also piloted school-based reform in 256 schools across seven governorates. This study explores the sustainability of practices that were advocated as part of ERP’s professional development (PD) component. A qualitative approach was adopted to afford a better understanding of the long-term impact of ERP’s PD activities. Document analysis and semi-structured interviews were used as data collection tools with 38 participants (teachers, heads of training units, and administrators) in four selected schools. Participants were asked about the PD practices at their schools, and the sustainability of changes introduced as part of ERP. Results highlight varying degrees of continuity of practices across participating schools and individuals and offer implications for future consideration.

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Covid-19 pandemic requires a review of the working mechanism within the Alliance due to global enlargement and serious consequences. During this difficult period of time, NATO's international assistance demands show that some military structures are able to manage and react quickly even in civil emergencies. In recent years, NATO has played an important role in providing humanitarian and other assistance during major disaster, through civilian and military structures. The Covid-19 pandemic crisis has involved a process of updating NATO's strategy, meaning to design of new entities and tools in order to manage this crisis as efficiently as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essence of «international assistance» phenomenon is investigated in this paper. It is determined that most researchers consider the positive role of international assistance for recipient countries, but emphasize the presence of discussing issues related to the lack of investigations of a number of theoretical and practical aspects of this phenomenon. The objective of the investigation is to clarify the terminological apparatus of the «international assistance», «international technical assistance» concepts, their typology; in the analysis of current features of international assistance for Ukraine. The following types of international assistance are highlighted: humanitarian assistance and international technical assistance. International technical assistance is provided in the form of scientific and technical assistance. It is proposed to define international technical assistance as assistance provided under various conditions in accordance with the treaty in the framework of international cooperation in forms (irreversible, rotary) from official and informal institutions of donor countries, international organizations, individuals, which is provided to the recipient country for the purpose to solve the urgent tasks for ensuring sustainable country development. It is proved that international technical assistance plays a positive role in the socio-economic development of Ukraine, especially in the processes of Donetsk and Luhansk regions reconstruction from the consequences of the military conflict in eastern Ukraine. In 2018, more than 600 international technical assistance projects with the cost amounted to 6 billion U.S. dollars were implemented in Ukraine. It was determined that the largest donors of international technical assistance in 2018 were the United States – the assistance amounted to more than 2 billion U. S. dollars, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development – 800 million U. S. dollars, European Union countries – 500 million U. S. dollars. The implementation of international technical assistance for Ukraine is analyzed. It is recommended to adopt the Law of Ukraine «On International Technical Assistance», specifying the types and forms of assistance, the regulatory procedure for concluding aid agreements, the implementation, control and monitoring of these processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After several long decades of civil war Afghanistan since 2001 has been the main focus of attention not only of leading political and economic analysts and researchers around the world. Western political scientists have already dubbed Afghanistan as «a failed state» due to continuing instability and internal conflicts. Nevertheless, many experts consider this formulation to be an exaggeration because since 2001 the government has made some positive changes. Summarizing the results of the analysis, the author concluded that today Kabul faces a difficult task to improve the life of the population, which can be achieved by stabilizing the domestic situation and by economic development.

The cooperation between countries with different levels of economic development in the field of the provision and use of international assistance becomes a key factor in international relations. The international assistance solves the global problems of mankind that require significant material and human resources. The United States of America is one of the most powerful donors providing the international assistance to the countries with poor economic development. This assistance is aimed at the economic growth and democratization of the society. The US support for thesecountries, including Ukraine, is one of the key areas of the US foreign policy, which requires detailed analysis and study. The main goal of the article is to investigate the key item and direction of international relations between the United States and the recipient states in the sphere of application and using of international assistance. This article includes the main theoretical and practical issues of the official development of assistance from the United States. The historical and political processes of providing international assistance according to the Marshall Plan after the Second World War have been considered. The empirical part of the investigation focuses on the international contract relations between Ukraine and the United States in the field of the provision and use of international assistance. The author also determines the political aspects of implementation and application of the foreign aid from the United States. The issues of the provision and use of assistance that Ukraine had been receiving over the years have been explored. The author also determines the political and legal aspects of implementation and application of international aid from the United States. The main content of the foreign policy of the United States has been determined in relation with the recipient states in spheres of application and using of international assistance. Special attention is paid to the issue of providing grants as the most effective form of assistance from the United States. As a conclusion, the author notes the peculiarities of providing foreign assistance by the United States, as well as the provision of military technical assistance and a broad interpretation of US national interests in the provision and use of assistance from the US Government.

During the 1950s and 60s, Lester Pearson came to see international assistance as central to Canada's constructive international engagement. Yet how Canada's greatest diplomat became a key architect of, and advocate for, international assistance remains relatively unexplored. This paper aims to chart the evolution of Pearson's thinking regarding international assistance, in a presentation organized chronologically around the major chapters of Pearson's career. It enhances the narrative of a storied political career, consolidates Pearson's thinking on a critical issue and provides historical insight relevant to contemporary official development assistance policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universal access to essential medicines is both a core obligation under international human rights law and a key component of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for health. In light of the high prices of some essential medicines and finite health budgets, how can states' core obligation to provide essential medicines be interpreted? We propose that the lens of reasonableness offers a deeper understanding of states' minimum core obligation in relation to resources. Enshrined in the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the standard of reasonableness suggests that in the context of essential medicines, the right to health may be better fulfilled by applying uniform criteria to set the scope and texture of local minimum standards rather than a one-size-fits-all universal list of medicines. Drawing on authoritative guidance by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, this article selects four criteria to evaluate the standard of reasonableness: deliberate, targeted, and concrete measures to mobilize state resources; low-cost policy options; international assistance; and non-discrimination. The framework allows policymakers, judges and civil society to assess states' compliance with their core obligations with regard to essential medicines. Examplesfrom domestic law and policy for access to medicines illustrate the potential definition, scope, and value of the first three criteria for domestic legislators and judiciaries while depicting how such a consideration could be discharged in practice. This proposal is relevant for progressing towards the SDG target of universal access to essential medicines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every year in the world there happens about 150 different types of disasters. Natural disasters that accompanied the Earth since the dawn of history cannot be predicted. International assistance and cooperation in case of disaster is the result of experiences that humanity has gained as a result of the dramatic events following the mass. The study characterized the main entities involved in international aid for disasters as well characterized procedures taken in case of such events.

Scholars of Development Studies have largely distanced themselves from research into external advice on governance reform in Ukraine, regarding post‐communist reconstruction as a political rather than developmental project. This article suggests that these seemingly distinct fields of donor intervention have more in common than is usually thought. It examines the influence of external advice on an issue which has particular resonance in the light of recent events in Ukraine, the relationship between Kyiv and the regions. It is argued that the impact of international assistance in this area has been negligible, largely due to institutional factors on the donor side, and that the most persuasive explanations for this are to be found in the literature of Development Studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2013-2014 Revolution in Ukraine has spurred a boom in civic anti-corruption initiatives across Ukraine. There is as yet little consolidated understanding of how effective these initiatives are and what explains variation in effectiveness. Insights from academic and practitioner literature suggest that factors associated with success in anti-corruption activism fall under three broad categories: environmental factors, advocacy strategies of civil society organizations, and their organizational characteristics. Drawing on a comprehensive study of anti-corruption activism in the regions of Ukraine, this article asks how these insights relate to anti-corruption activism in the regions of Ukraine. We find that anti-corruption initiatives generally face two key dilemmas: insufficient capacity in terms and financial and human resources, and the absence of a credible base of support. Anti-Corruption organizations that are most effective tend to be those that convincingly solve either one of these two dilemmas. In addition, we find that political will among local authorities is an important conducive factor to the effectiveness of anti-corruption activism. The article also discusses the implications of our findings for practitioners of international assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the clean development mechanism (CDM) in order to overcome the limits that exist in the conventional financing methods for North Korea's development. In examining North Korea's CDM projects implemented thus far, it is found that the use of the CDM as a financing platform for North Korea's development is taking place at a very low level. However, if North Korea applies this framework effectively, it can expect additional financial inflows and technology transfer. Especially with regard to financial inflows, the diverse finances used in the implementation of CDM projects can also be adopted into North Korean CDM projects. Moreover, the adoption methods are expected to be more innovative than the conventional finance for development (FfD) methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International Development Assistance (IDA) architecture is rapidly changing and becoming more complex as new providers of assistance enter the scene. These new providers of assistance, while not members of the traditional club of donors, nonetheless make meaningful contributions, both financial and in-kind, to key development and humanitarian challenges. New providers of assistance such as the BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa – or Turkey, South Korea, are important for international assistance not only because of their financial and human resources, but also for the value they bring as regional leaders in their respective parts of the globe and contribute with their own unique experience and success in addressing development challenges at home as well as how best to cooperate with traditional donors.

The article makes two substantive contributions to the existing literature on the ethics of international assistance and global justice. First, it builds what we take to be a widely held set of propositions about international assistance into a consistent view (i.e. the relief view), and articulates a strong case against its desirability. Second, it sketches a more attractive alternative (i.e. the development view). To do so the article uses Sen’s idea of agent-oriented development as a starting point while at the same time providing a generalization of Sen’s account and a justificatory framework that does not rely on the capability approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite good intentions, development assistance from donor countries are often underutilized by recipient nations due to weak absorptive capacities. Addressing this issue has become more imperative with recent international accords engendering the rapid influx of massive climate assistance funds into the developing world. Particularly, interventions are focused on addressing exceptional vulnerabilities of developing nations to near-term climate impacts, for example, devastating typhoons and associated hazards. Fundamental to this effort is establishing the necessary technology infrastructure for generating quality climatic and environmental information, which serves as valuable logistical support for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management plans and activities. Efforts to address this in developing countries, however, are often sluggish or met with gridlocks. This is despite following internationally-prescribed best-practice roadmaps, conditioned by access to foreign aid. The Philippines' experience in implementing its technological self-reliance policy provides a possible framework for overcoming this difficulty. Contribution analysis, through dissecting and examining the policy implementation period of 2010-2015, reveals that a more cooperative sociopolitical landscape, engendered by the visibility of a program "championing" the country's drive to break away from technological dependence, can provoke rapid technological catch-up, bringing about the desired transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the crisis of capitalist seduction through the lens of online shopping platforms that raise funds for international assistance organizations and development celebrity advertising. Consumer-based giving has altered the commodity fetish into cliché, subsequently masking the capitalist produced crisis of endemic poverty and global inequality. Celebrity supported consumer-based giving and product advertising are used to illustrate the seductions of capitalism. This article argues that international assistance organizations are embedded in the substance and lifeblood of capitalisms' dependence on inequality and poverty to generate profits/wealth. Consumer driven assistance remains a pervasive crisis hidden by seductive shopping platforms camouflaged as compassion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The catastrophic earthquake that devastated Haiti on January 12, 2010, drew aid from many countries and international organizations. However, despite rapid response of the world community, the large-scale relief operations were confronted by legal problems related to restrictions on entering the territory of Haiti and deployment of humanitarian efforts in that country by different international organizations, as well as by lack of a comprehensive body of codified international legal norms, enabling aid to be provided promptly and efficiently.The article offers a review of international legal and other sources, applicable to regulation of provision of international aid to a country struck by a natural disaster, and provides examples when aid was admitted with consent of an affected country. It further discusses the threshold of the magnitude of a disaster in its relation to the scale and modalities of international response action. As a case-study, the article describes legal aspects of participation in Haiti earthquake response actions of Russian Emergency Ministry’s rescue teams and of elements US Armed Forces.

This article aims to identify aid discourses as applied to the North Korean case, and examines whether or not international assistance has been promptly delivered. The aid discourse on fragile states in accordance with the New Deal, which focuses on strengthening a recipient country's foundation of development by alleviating its fragility, is deemed to be the relevant discourse because the international community considers North Korea to be a fragile state. However, the corresponding norms have not been applied by major international donors in the delivery and disbursement of aid to North Korea, despite its fragile state status and in spite of the fact that its fragility has not declined and is still perceived to be critical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cambodia is constructing a broad partnership to guide the delivery of public health services in a context of historical anarchy in the health sector and of contemporary political obstacles. Ironically, the conditions of this partnership undermine the sovereignty of the national programme and hinder the ability of the government to provide comprehensive services. National authorities have given in to the pressure of international funding agencies to adopt approaches characterized by verticalization, multicentred interventions, volunteerism and private partnership. The malaria eradication programme is an example of how the disjointed strategy of combining various interventions can lead to increasing spatial and social health inequalities. In addition, the Cambodian government is often overburdened in trying to manage a multitude of frequently incoherent external interventions. The criteria for efficient delivery reveal an unsustainable national public health vision. Local planners should reconsider the parameters under which they engage with external parties and shore up the autonomy of their decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the Oslo Accords were signed between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in September 1993, the international community has supported civil policing programmes. It has done so as part of its development commitments to Palestinian state-building. Such programmes were, until the outbreak of the second Intifada in 2000, largely regarded as successful in terms of supporting the establishment of a Palestinian civil police (PCP). Such programmes were essentially Western imported models which loosely mixed community and public order policing approaches. With re-engagement in the Palestinian security sector (PSS) in the West Bank in 2007, the international community has once again sought to play a major role in PSS reform. This role includes supporting rehabilitation and retraining of the PCP as a principal institution of state-building. Such activities alongside the so-called transformation efforts within the wider realm of the PSS have re-established as their goal law and order. Within the transformation agenda, there are inherent demands with respect to Israel and the Palestinian National Authority's security and counterterrorism agendas. This analysis examines these activities, and accompanying political intent to contend that such approaches are undermining principles of democratic policing including civil police primacy (CPP). CPP reinforces police universality and means supporting rule of law by putting security under governmental control with proper mechanisms of accountability. This article argues that support to the security sector in the West Bank has increasingly only paid lip service or sought to subvert normative approaches to democratic policing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in the three West Africa countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a public health event of international concern in August 2014. The disease, which has caused more than 10,000 deaths from over 25,000 cases, has thrived on a failed disease control system, national denial, and a poor and fragile healthcare delivery system. The slow and initially uncoordinated national and global response turned the outbreak into an unprecedented humanitarian disaster. Prevention and control of future outbreaks depend on improving and upgrading disease surveillance into a responsive component of a reliable and efficient health care delivery system. Appropriate capacity building with a conducive operating environment, which has been lacking in the past few decades, will be key to the health system strengthening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the creation of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). It specifically examines the significant influence of 9/11 on the origins and framing of an entirely new foreign aid organization. The paper argues that President Bush developed a very effective political frame, or justification, for the MCC within the context of 9/11 and the fear that it entailed. The paper evaluates chronologically Bush's efforts in formulating foreign aid and the MCC. It approaches the topic in a qualitative research manner, using mostly official government documents. It concludes with an overall assessment of Bush's successful approach to persuading the public and Congress to support the creation of the MCC on January 23, 2004. And, it makes recommendations for future research on the MCC and other issues that involve framing in policy making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International Development Assistance (IDA) architecture is rapidly changing and becoming more complex as new providers of assistance enter the scene. These new providers of assistance, while not members of the traditional club of donors, nonetheless make meaningful contributions, both financial and in-kind, to key development and humanitarian challenges. New providers of assistance such as the BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa - or Turkey, South Korea, are important for international assistance not only because of their financial and human resources, but also for the value they bring as regional leaders in their respective parts of the globe and contribute with their own unique experience and success in addressing development challenges at home as well as how best to cooperate with traditional donors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International aid and assistance to the Western Balkans, which began more than two decades ago after the disintegration of SFR Yugoslavia, has been severely criticised on various grounds by academics, politicians, and domestic elites. One of the main points of criticism has been heavy foreign interference into domestic affairs, which deprives local policy-makers of 'policy ownership.' This paper uses four paradigmatic examples of reform in Serbia - in the areas of labor market, income taxation, pensions system, and privatization - to show that, despite the widely accepted view of the dominant role of international actors in the creation of the reform agenda, there was significant room for local policy-makers in Serbia to exercise full ownership over the ongoing reforms. What policy-makers really needed was expertise, a clear vision of the desired reforms, the determination to defend their agenda, and technical skills to implement it. The significantly different outcomes of the four areas of reform analyzed in this paper, despite involving virtually the same actors of international intervention, seem to illustrate well our hypothesis that the failure of some important sectoral reforms in Serbia during the post-2000 period was the result of the policy-makers' own weaknesses, rather than the result of external conditionality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the role of women's organizations and activists in the electoral breakthroughs in Serbia and Croatia in 2000. When, how, and to what effect, it asks, did women organize during transformational moments to promote their goals of political liberalization and gender equality? I argue that political opportunities-shaped by the domestic constellation of forces and international assistance programs-are essential to explaining political success. I identify what I call the insider/inclusionary strategy that characterizes women's organizing in Croatia and the outsider/oppositional strategy that characterizes women's organizing in Serbia. These strategies resulted in different imme- diate outcomes for women's political equality in the electoral breakthroughs in Croatia and Serbia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With continuing challenges facing the international presence in Afghanistan, the need to secure local legitimacy, or ‘winning heart and minds’ of the local population is gaining increasing foothold in contemporary policy-making and academic debate on international intervention. However, knowledge of how international actors in the field understand local legitimacy remains limited. The purpose of this article is to take a first cut at examining how the two leading actors of international intervention – the UN and NATO – frame the issue of local legitimacy in Afghanistan, and to evaluate the potential impact of these findings on the prospects of inter-organizational coordination in the field. Based on a qualitative comparative analysis of statements issued in UN SC Resolutions, SC Debates, and S-G Reports (2001–2011) and NATO Declarations and Opinions (2003–2011), the study finds that the UN and NATO frame the issue of local legitimacy in surprisingly similar ways. However, the framing appears problematic in terms of how it depicts the relationship between the international presence and the Afghan state and its people. To illustrate, both the UN and NATO tend to externalize the issue of local legitimacy by linking it to the strength of the Afghan state rather than to the quality and effectiveness of international assistance and furthermore do not explicitly recognize Afghan civilians to have any autonomous influence on the level of local legitimacy. Instead, civilians are only portrayed to affect the level of legitimacy indirectly as the victims of insurgent or coalition attacks. The results of the study thus indicate a lack of awareness and self-criticism within the international intervention apparatus towards the potential pitfalls of international assistance, and it signals a lack of attention paid to the agency of local Afghans, which stands the risk of jeopardizing prospects for international civil–military coordination with Afghan stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Bologna Declaration of 1999 is the basis for continuing reforms in higher education intended to support international mobility in employment within the European Union. This paper describes the standardised structure and nomenclature for courses that have been implemented, together with a credit transfer system, a quality assurance regime, and the ERASMUS and MUNDUS programmes that support international student mobility. However, the European Commission has left crucial aspects of the implementation of the Bologna principles to Member States, and several issues have arisen because of national variations. The paper expresses concerns about differences in assessment standards and conventions, and questions the relevance of various attempts that have been made to produce model lists of competences and curricula. The European Union's international assistance programmes, TEMPUS and ALFA, have encouraged collaboration in assisting development in non-member states, but with limited effect, perhaps because of organisational changes that stemmed partly from the Bologna process. The changes in higher education stimulated the establishment of a pan-European association, EUCLID: the European association for library and information education and research, but the paper argues that the expectations of the founders of the association remain largely unfulfilled, and argues for more empirical research to review issues such as the academic level at which education for librarianship is undertaken, and the need for a European accreditation scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sarajevo Social Science Review is the property of University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Political Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article considers the European Union's legal framework and its ability to facilitate - or hinder - international assistance for natural disasters occurring within the European Union. At a time when the frequency and severity of natural disasters in the EU appears to be increasing, and when it is more likely that affected EU Member States are required to seek assistance from outside their borders, or even outside the EU, it is important to ensure that international assistance is able to reach its intended target. Member State domestic legal frameworks may delay, obstruct or prevent international assistance from reaching those in need, often due to a failure to consider the special situation of disasters when drafting, interpreting and applying legislative regimes. For example, immigration, customs, food and transport laws may not contain sufficient exemptions for emergency personnel, materials and goods, and domestic licensing requirements and quality standards may prevent a nation from accepting assistance. At the same time, there is a need to ensure that any assistance accepted by an affected Member State is subject to appropriate quality standards without unduly impeding the delivery of assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the impact of international efforts to cultivate effective and authoritative local governing institutions in the Western Balkans, a prime testing ground for democratization aid to post-war states. It explores three hypotheses, each of which argues that a particular approach of international actors toward domestic officials best improves the quality of local governance. The study's gathering of interview and survey data from field-based actors enables it to evaluate local government reforms' impact on domestic communities. This investigation arrives at three findings. First, in the view of Western Balkan peoples, local governance reforms do not produce benefits when they are either imposed or ignored by international authorities. Secondly, reforms produce benefits for local communities when they are designed to meet domestic concerns. More specifically, reforms valued by local communities are designed in ways that respond to domestic, rather than international, concepts of good local governance that emphasize socioeconomic aspects and produce tangible benefits. Well designed reforms also include significant aid targeting local governance that is coupled with the promise of a larger political settlement that is attractive to powerful domestic elites and contingent on clearly articulated local governance reforms. Thirdly, such aid best characterises European Union efforts only in Macedonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From an examination of the impact of international civil-society-building programmes on Czech environmental movement organisations (EMOs), it is clear that international influence left a deep imprint on eastern European civil societies. It did not however curb opportunities for environmental political activism, as supposed by an important part of the traditional scholarship, but instead helped create a particular form of activism based on advocacy organisations capable of staging political protest when necessary. While international donors have clearly channelled activist organisations towards professionalisation, this process has not necessarily been accompanied by de-politicisation and de-radicalisation of activist organisations. In fact, drawing on quantitative as well as qualitative data, employing protest event analysis and the small-N comparative method, it appears that activists dependent on foreign funding have often displayed a more assertive stance in political conflicts than their domestically embedded counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the current state and a challenge faced by teachers and teacher education in Vietnam, and analyzes international aid projects providing support to teacher education there. It is necessary to grasp changes in teacher education in Vietnam in the context of the current comprehensive reform of education, which has been greatly influenced by world trends. In Vietnam today, improving the quality of basic education has been given a high priority, in line with the global movement for Education for All (EFA). The main task for improving the quality of education in Vietnam is the effective implementation of the new curriculum adopted in 2002. Teacher education is the key to completing this task. It is important for teachers to learn new methods of instruction, and teacher education needs to be strengthened to allow them to acquire these new methods. A great deal of international assistance is provided for the promotion of this type of teacher education. Projects in this area are provided by the World Bank, Belgium, and Japan. This paper analyzes these projects, and examines the challenges facing international assistance for teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of reforming policing systems in transitional, conflict-torn, and failed states has become a major focus of donor assistance projects, for without effective, efficient, equitable, and accountable policing wider social, economic, and political development is not likely to be sustained. Although a large reform literature, written by members of a global police policy community, has been generated, few long-range improvements can be pointed out. We argue that this failure to have a stronger impact through aid and assistance has resulted mainly from the priority of donor over recipient interests, lack of knowledge about policing, non-appreciation of the complexities of local security conditions, and the inability to link conceptual advice to the practicalities of implementation. We suggest some changes in how policing reforms should be approached. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue Tiers Monde is the property of Librairie Armand Colin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Six Black sea and five Caspian sea riparian countries began their way to modern managerial practice at their coasts in 1990s of the previous century. For five Black sea and four Caspian sea countries the time has coincided with launching complicated transitional period from socialism to market economy. The most important activities were carried out within framework of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea (CEP) Environmental Programs and resulted in National and Regional ICZM Reports (Coastal Profiles), ICZM Networks, Transboundary Diagnostic Analyses, Strategic Action Plans. The international assistance in ICZM development in the regions is very important, but the large specificity of the regions and countries required and keeps demanding improvement of the approaches, methods, criteria for efficiency and practical significance of the international activities. The paper analyses heritage, current situation and possible prospects of ICZM development in the regions under consideration. During the last decade, important steps have been taken for the improvement of managerial process at the Black and Caspian seas countries coasts, but the clear need should be emphasized now to move from planning to implementation stage. Among the main findings of this stage are: ICZM is very difficult for real implementation and takes years, it needs proper understanding, and it has to be implemented using both top-down and bottom-up approaches, it has to be implemented using all possible tools and procedures. At the moment the use of sustainable development approaches to the coasts depends, in the first place, on social responsibility and vital motivation of certain key decision-makers, especially at provincial and local levels. Meanwhile, two recent events: (a) new activity in the Black sea region initiated by EU, and (b) launching of the long-waited CEP second phase - produce real infrastructural opportunities for moving forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the end of the cold war, 69 per cent of the countries with the lowest (HDI) in 2005 have experienced violent conflict and almost a quarter of them have suffered declines in their human development in the period 1990-2005. Due to the impact on human development, countries experiencing conflict are less likely to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The relationship between security (i.e., the absence of conflict) and development has encouraged aid donors and recipient countries to examine ways to address this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]