Political Conditionalities and Foreign Aid

Evidence has shown that over the last four decades, in least developed countries, the impact of aid on economic and democratic development has been sobering, On the positive side, aid does seem to work better in democratic settings.These insights called for political conditionalities which figured either as entry conditions for aid (selectivity), and/or as an active lever for change in least developed countries. Although academic research - covering different time periods, zooming in on different regions and different cases - on both selectivity and aid as a lever for political change has generated important insights, the question is if these insights still hold with the emergence of a new aid architecture approach (as endorsed by the Paris Declaration) which induced significant changes in donor policies and practices, in aid modalities and in conditionalities. The limited and uncomplete coverage of the period 2000-today, where substantial changes have taken place within de donor community and beyond, calls for an articulation between existing insights on political conditionalities and new practices. The workshop particularly wants (1) to gain insight regarding emerging patterns and evolutions of political conditionalities under the new aid architecture, and, (2) to gather evidence on the (in)effectiveness of political conditionalities under the new aid approach? Papers that look into the political and economic conditions - on the donor and/or recipient side- which enable or constrain the effectiveness of political conditionalities under the new aid architecture (post-2000) are particularly welcome.