Beyond the Dualism of Program and Project Aid

From the lessons of aid in the past and the limited capacities of governments in recipient countries, program aid has been advocated as an alternative to project aid. Especially in Africa, the application of aid approach has become a choice between program or project aid in the progress of the Sector Wide Approach and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper.This paper redefines the concepts of program and project aid by re-thinking development aid in the context of policy structures of donor and recipient countries.The case of Tanzania was selected as there have been active discussions on program and project aid. As a result, it became clear that, although a movement toward program aid with strengthened aid coordination has been seen, the changes have only been gradual, and were not at all a linear process. In analysis using the above framework, we clearly see diversities in aid modalities, and the political strategies of each donor.Donors have to stress contribution to the recipient countries' policy structure and their budget management. However, donors can take various approaches. Regarding Japanese aid to Africa, efforts should be made to move to program aid in the long term, but its influence on the recipient's policy structure, and the budget implication of the support should be considered fully even during the implementation of project aid

Aid effectiveness · Business · Context (archaeology) · Developing country · Development aid · Economic growth · Economics · Government (linguistics) · Modalities · Political science · Politics · Poverty · Process (computing) · Process management · Program evaluation · Sociology · Tanzania · Computer Science · International Development and Aid · Public Administration