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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]