Development Studies

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    Engaging with the private sector for development : a critical analysis of attempts to partner with business for women's economic empowerment in Vietnam : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University, Manawatū, Aotearoa New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2023) Nguyen, Lan Phuong Thi
    Development agencies have increasingly recognised the private sector as playing an important role in the progress toward achieving sustainable development. While scholars contest the private sector’s role in development, development agencies and NGOs continue collaborating with the private sector to deliver social results for the poor. There have been numerous studies on the role of large companies, mostly multinational corporations, in development. However, limited literature sheds light on the engagement of donors with micro and small enterprises in development as well as their impacts on women’s economic empowerment. This research aims to fill this gap by critically investigating donor-private sector partnerships implemented under an Australian aid programme in which micro and small enterprises are engaged to economically empower ethnic minority women in Vietnam. My findings suggest that micro and small businesses are important development partners in creating economic opportunities for low-income women. Locally- and socially-embedded businesses can achieve success and sustainability through their ability to engage with ethnic minority women. They also have the potential to create economic, social, and cultural impacts. They can be inclusive, with some small businesses reaching poor ethnic minority women regardless of production scales, and they can help women improve their incomes by supporting women to cultivate and sell unique, traditional, and cultural products. However, these private sector partners face challenges that constrain their partnership with development agencies and limit the objective of empowering ethnic minority women. My research findings challenge the instrumentalist notion of women’s economic empowerment, which donors commonly deploy in partnerships with a business by focusing solely on providing training and access to productive resources for market integration. It confirms that this instrumentalist approach is insufficient to genuinely empower women. Instead, my research recommends a holistic donor-private sector partnership framework for women’s empowerment to plug the gaps and transform the prevailing women’s economic empowerment approach. This proposed framework includes two elements which emerged from the research findings: relational and collective empowerment. Relational empowerment emphasises the importance of the relational aspects of empowerment and how changes in power relations in the surrounding environment affect women's empowerment. Collective empowerment reflects the need for collective action to influence changes in social norms and rules to recognise and improve women’s positions within households and the broader community. The proposed framework also involves civil society organisations, non-government organisations, and local governments as important partners in addressing unequal structures and barriers to women and enabling transformative outcomes for women. These research findings will support development agencies to better engage with the private sector to enable ethnic minority women’s empowerment.
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    Government, ODA and sustainable development : their linkages and the case of Vietnam : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Phylosophy [i.e. Philosophy] in Development Studies at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2002) Nguyen, Duc Minh
    Sustainable development, the role of government, and ODA are three major concerns in Development Studies. Sustainable development is an interest that has recently emerged but has become quickly and widely accepted in the field as a desirable vision for the future of humankind. It affects the rationale and redefines the responsibilities of both government and ODA. Government has two interrelated roles in development: a sovereign regulator and a powerful developmental actor. ODA is a means through which governments and external agencies interact in the development field. This present thesis articulates an integrated perspective to sustainable development and applies it to discuss major issues of government, ODA, and especially their developmental roles. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to the debate on the role of government in making ODA work for sustainable development. Its arguments and recommendations are confined to the case of Vietnam – an aid recipient country in transition. In general, it is found that the donor and recipient governments play very important roles in making ODA work for sustainable development due to three reasons. First, they are essential for sustainable development as both necessary and irreplaceable regulator and powerful developmental actors. Second, ODA is not automatically, but is potentially, helpful for sustainable development. Last but not least, the governments have decisive roles in affecting the volume, scope, scale, and effectiveness of ODA resources and activities. In the particular case of Vietnam, the role of the government in the ODA - sustainable development link is momentous because it is presently the major force that overwhelmingly influences the direction and controls significant shares of resources and activities of development (in comparison with the private sector) in the country. For ODA to work for sustainable development in Vietnam, the key recommendations are that, firstly, the government needs to improve its administrative ability, especially its ability in ODA management, and maintain its national independence in making development decisions on behalf of the people. At the same time, the government needs to put sustainable development as the goal for all of its development planning and intervention activities in order to establish the foundation for cooperating with the donor community, integrating ODA resources into the country's total resources for sustainable development and facilitating ODA to best supplement the sustainable development process of Vietnam. Last but not least, the government has to act more carefully and effectively in utilizing ODA resources to intervene into the society and the economy in order to ensure all the productive potential is released and all the latent possibilities of all components of the economy and the society are developed in a sustainable manner.
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    Japan's official development assistance : its shape and implications for recipients : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies, Massey University
    (Massey University, 1996) Scheyvens, Henry
    Japan's ODA programme is surrounded by controversy regarding the motives that propel it forward and the degree to which it meets recipient needs. This study hopes to add to the debate regarding Japanese ODA by uncovering those factors that shape Japan's contemporary aid activities and to interpret their implications for recipients. Rather than adhering to any one particular view of Japan's international relations to explain Japanese ODA, an inductive approach is used to identify the contextual mix in which aid policy is formulated. Japan's cultural legacy and development experience are found to define the broad boundaries that ODA policy must operate within and these factors continue to colour Japan's unique brand of foreign aid. An analysis of the evolution of Japan's contemporary aid programme also shows that ODA has been used to promote Japan's national interests in a variety of ways as international circumstances have changed. Economic and security needs have played influential roles in the size and direction of aid flows throughout the evolution of Japan's aid programme. More recently, a growing desire for an international leadership role explains why Japan's ODA programme continues to expand at a time when many other major donors are suffering 'aid fatigue'. Although Japan's ODA activities undoubtedly promote the country's foreign interests, this study has also found that the aid programme has undergone a process of reform to better attune aid to recipient needs. The quality of Japanese ODA has steadily improved over time and many popular development themes have been incorporated into Japan's ODA policy. A desire to present Japan as a responsible member of the international community, combined with ideological development as Japan's aid agencies have gained greater experience, are used to explain this reform process. Previous studies of Japan's ODA programme have largely been a study of Japan as a donor with little consideration given to the impact of aid activities on recipients. To help fill this void a case study of Bangladesh was undertaken and Japanese projects, project evaluations and country reports analysed. In this study the empowerment approach was used to identify how appropriate and effective Japanese aid is in assisting impoverished peoples in Bangladesh. The findings were that, despite the extent of reform in Japan's aid policy, aid practice in Bangladesh is dominated by Japan's traditional aid activities, that is, the construction of large-scale economic infrastructure projects. An analysis of Bangladesh's recent development history reveals that the production-based, trickle-down growth strategy that these aid activities are founded upon has little to offer the poor. In contrast, this thesis suggests that the poor will only be included as active agents in the development process when they have been politically, socially and economically empowered. Recent reforms within the Japanese ODA programme make it more receptive to the needs of the poor. However, it is likely that Japan's national interests, rather than those of the poor, will remain the main determinants in shaping aid activities.
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    The New Zealand Defence Force as an agent of development : the case of East Timor : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2003) Hull, Michael Richard
    This thesis aims to investigate a phenomenon that has become particularly apparent since the end of the 1980's and the end of the cold war. During this period there has been not only an increase in intrastate conflict but also a change in international approaches to dealing with it and its aftermath. While many may be familiar with the existence of aid agencies of various types that make attending to the fallout of these conflicts a central part of their business, it would appear that fewer recognise the increasing role that various military establishments are playing in aspects of relief delivery and reconstruction for which they receive aid donor funding. It has been suggested elsewhere that given the expansion of this role, the military may be seen as a development agent and that as such members of the development community could possibly engage with them more. This thesis investigates one aspect of the role of the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) in East Timor as a case of a military organisation engaged in a major peace operation that has seen it involved in not only security activities normally associated with the military, but also a range of activities, including some that civilian aid agencies working in the same area have also been engaged in.
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    Peace on a plate : aid, reintegration and the thesis of liberal peace, Timor Leste, 1999-2004 : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2005) Hubscher, Ruth
    This thesis examines the impacts of aid agencies on the reintegration of repatriated refugees to Timor Leste. Scholars and aid practitioners involved in post-conflict peace building suggest that refugee reintegration is vital to the achievement of durable peace. They claim that reintegration will best occur through the reversal of structural inequalities and the adoption of a representative democratic structure and a market economy. Many of the relief and development activities aid organisations instigate are intended to contribute towards these ends. They are thus claimed to build a facilitating environment for returnee reintegration. The research is based upon the interviews of ninety-seven groups of returnees, stayees and community leaders and a number of aid agencies, which operated programmes between 1999 and 2004 in Timor Leste. The research concludes that aid agencies played a positive role in refugee reintegration however the non-aid aspects of people's lives were of greater significance to the success of their overall reintegration. The short time spans that most aid agencies operated in and their failure to develop close working relationships in the communities they operated in, prevented them from significantly contributing to deeper level social, political and economic change that may have contributed to the state of liberal peace.
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    Western involvement in the Pacific Islands region : security concerns and development aid ; a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1993) Pattiya, Patranan
    Security concerns and development aid are closely-linked issues in the Pacific island region. In the broadest sense, security needs – either economic, political or strategic-explain the involvement of external powers in the Pacific island countries and their aid policies in the region. As security is multi-faceted, there is a difference in the security priorities of Western donors and Pacific island recipients. Different perceptions and concerns led to global-oriented rather than regional-oriented policies for most of the donors, especially at the height of the Cold War. Pacific island countries' concerns have been subordinate to those of the Western donors because these island nations are heavily aid-dependent. Aid-giving is therefore an effective mechanism to help guarantee regional stability and thereby protect the security interests of donors; on a per capita basis, the aid given to the region is very high by Third World standards. The trend of high levels of aid flows in the region has not been significantly affected by the end of the Cold War. Economic vulnerability and intra-regional political problems have been brought to the forefront as potential threats to regional stability, however, in place of wider East-West tensions. Continuing economic dependency means that the Western powers still hold a strong influence in the region.
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    Submission based direct funding : does it concur with the principles of empowerment? : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2000) Gardner, Caroline
    After a review of recent developmental writings, it can be concluded that an effective system for encouraging and promoting endogenous development is yet to be fully articulated in both development practice and theory. It is proposed in this thesis, that SBDF presents an alternative and effective distribution system for small community run project/programmes compared to that which is currently being employed by the majority of ODA agencies. SBDF is based around the idea of partnership between local and international development agencies, this model situates the donor in the role of facilitator to endogenously directed development. SBDF can be described as a system where local groups plan, design and implement projects with the support of a donor agency. This paper analyses the SBDF system used by the Canada Fund (CF) in Samoa to fund small community-run projects. This funding system differs from other small funding programmes in a number of important ways: • The fund is actively made available to vulnerable subgroups within the community. The CF utilises networking and 'cold-calling' to access these groups. This proactive approach to disseminating information about the fund is specific to the CF. • The CF provides support throughout the project process where this is required, thereby ensuring that organisational capacity building is an ongoing and organic process. • A partnership is created between the donor and the local organization. This is defined by open dialogue between both partners throughout all stages of the project and the necessity for local partners to contribute resources and finance to the project; thereby ensuring local ownership of projects. The study concluded that the SBDF model embodies much of the current theoretical thinking on empowerment, which places emphasis on the need for the primacy of endogenous control in the project process. A number of problems with the SBDF are recognised and recommendations are made for the improvement of the system, namely in regard to how local groups can increase their capacity in the areas of monitoring and accountability with the assistance of the donor agency.
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    Gender, culture and business assistance in Western Samoa : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1996) Shadrake, Andrew
    This thesis examines the question: How far did the planning and implementation of the Small Business Enterprise Centre of Western Samoa take into account the gender and culture perspectives of development, and to what degree are those perspectives reflected in its outcomes? It does so by reviewing the gender and culture perspectives of development, and concluding that each can be divided into two approaches. The gender perspective comprises the market approach, which aims to use women's effort to achieve economic growth, and the empowerment approach, which aims to increase the ability of women to alter the gender balance of women and men, in favour of women. The culture perspective comprises both the utilitarian approach, which advocates adapting development projects to local culture to make them more likely to succeed, and the moral approach, the purpose of which is to reduce the harmful effects of development on indigenous culture. The thesis identifies indicators of the different approaches in a development project, and then uses a four-stage analytical model to discover whether they were present in the Small Business Enterprise Centre of Western Samoa. The thesis concludes that the planning and implementation of the Small Business Enterprise Centre showed a limited application of the market and utilitarian approaches, but did not show any application of the empowerment or moral approaches, though the outcomes of the SBEC included some empowerment of women, and few harmful effects on Samoan culture. The thesis shows the primacy of neo-liberal thinking in New Zealand's overseas small-business development practice during the period 1990-1995, despite its stated concern for women and, to a lesser extent, for culture. The thesis reached three conclusions which concern wider issues: • While the nature of Western Samoan culture, and gender relations, is changing, there is no fundamental inconsistency between them and small business development. • Neo-liberalism can adopt perspectives of development which appear to spring from a concern for social welfare, and turn them to its own ends. • The combination of indicators of different perspectives and the four-stage analytical model used in the thesis can be used, very effectively, for detailed assessment of the planning, implementation and outcomes of a development project.
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    The effectiveness of aid delivery a comparative study : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in development studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1995) Thorpe, Tim
    This study sets up a process for the systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of aid agencies in aid delivery through evaluating the projects and programmes that they are implementing. It evaluates and compares five different aid agencies comprising of a bilateral aid donor, non-government organisation, community based organisation, development bank and multilateral aid donor. The common ground for comparison is that these agencies have all been providing assistance to, or working in, the forestry sector in the Solomon Islands over a relatively long period. The study found that it is possible to apply a systematic comparative evaluation process to aid agencies, and the projects and programmes that they were implementing, despite seemingly large differences in aid philosophy and aid management among them. By applying systematic comparative evaluations such as the one set up in this study it is possible to learn from all agencies how to enhance the effectiveness of aid delivery for the ultimate benefit of donor and recipient alike. The study found that none of the agencies reviewed in the study were necessarily more effective than any other agency in aid delivery. There was likewise no evidence that any one theoretical position on development, or any particular approach to aid delivery was necessarily any more effective when it came to implementing aid projects or programmes. There are too many variables affecting the implementation of projects and programmes for any one approach to aid delivery or theoretical position to be the most effective in all cases.