Description
The notion of country ownership responds to the realisation that ‘template policies’ do not promote development in the same way, if at all, in different countries and contexts – and indeed development may be undermined in specific scenarios following donor countries’ imposition of their own idea of successful policies. Much attention has been devoted, accordingly, to the role of country ownership in improving aid effectiveness. The literature, nonetheless, has mostly focused on the role of developing country governments during the negotiation phase and/or as coordinators of aid efforts across donors. In turn, the aid relationship has evolved to include new forms of donor presence in aid-recipient countries, for example through the use of donor-based aid delivery vehicles. The implications of the latter with respect to aid development impact, nonetheless, remain largely unexplored.
This paper aims to advance this gap by exploring the role of country ownership, as determined by donor- versus recipient-based aid delivery channels, in shaping economic inequality outcomes of Aid for Trade (AfT) programmes in Colombia and Peru. While 34.8% of AfT projects in Peru have been delivered by donor agencies, this figure is much higher for Colombia at 40.9%. The paper will employ in-depth interviews with representatives from AfT delivery agencies in both the donor and the recipient side in each country, to contrast the degree of consideration, community consultation and/or amelioration measures for potential inequality consequences of the respective programmes.
