Foreign Aid and its Unintended Consequences
Dirk-Jan Koch, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands
Foreign aid and international development frequently bring with it a range of unintended consequences, both negative and positive. This book delves into these consequences, providing a fresh and comprehensive guide to understanding and addressing them.
The book starts by laying out a theoretical framework based on complexity thinking, before going on to explore the ten most prevalent kinds of unintended effects of foreign aid: backlash effects, conflict effects, migration and resettlement effects, price effects, marginalization effects, behavioural effects, negative spillover effects, governance effects, environmental effects, and ripple effects. Each chapter revolves around a set of concrete case studies, analysing the mechanisms underpinning the unintended effects and proposing ways in which policymakers, practitioners, and evaluators can tackle negative side effects and maximize positive side effects. The book also includes personal testimonies, a succinct overview of unintended effects, and suggestions for further reading.
Providing a clear overview of what side effects to anticipate when planning, executing, and evaluating aid, this book will be an important resource for students, development practitioners, and policymakers alike.
Zoom link to join online
https://unu-merit-eu.zoom.us/j/88430097951?pwd=a3V2TGh6c1F4TVY2Q3RLM1VhaG1YUT09
About the speaker
Dirk-Jan Koch, Chief Science Officer of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Special Professor of International Trade & Development Cooperation at Radboud University. His research interests are in the areas of poverty, inequality and sustainability and he is an expert on the topics of intended and unintended effects of international cooperation, aid & trade, NGOs, Central Africa, natural resources and policy coherence for development.
Dirk-Jan finished his PhD (cum laude) at the Radboud University in 2009 and focused on geographic choices of international development NGOs. He was based for 5 years in the DRC and 2 years in Kenya, where he worked among others as a regional director at Search for Common Ground, as a professor at the Catholic University of Kinshasa and as a diplomat of the Netherlands to the DRC.
Venue: Room 0.18, Boschstraat 24, Maastricht (UNU-MERIT) and Online
Date: 07 March 2024
Time: 12:00 - 13:00 CEST