The Political Economy of Aid: Can We Follow the Money?

• In Event: IPE Theory in Transition

Abstract

This research examines how global aid moves. It asks why and how we can track the movement of aid from global funders to the United Nations, international organizations, and states, and whether it is possible to follow the money to the local level. The Grand Bargain commitments made by the world’s largest donors and humanitarian organizations in 2016 call for putting more support and funding in the hands of local and national responders. Drawing on a review of cutting-edge literature and data collection efforts in the political economy of aid, I show that what we know about aid funding varies greatly by geographic region, national source of aid, and recipient type, and identify differences in how international actors count ‘the local’ as an essential barrier to studying the flow of foreign aid.

Authors

• Emily K.M. Scott, University of Birmingham

• Merve Erdilmen, McGill University