Comments

Good read. It would also be interesting to know if the lower administrative burden inside the aid agencies has had any impacts on the amount of administration being done by implementing partners (and subsequent funding they receive to do this work). In other words, has the merger just shifted the administrative burden to the implementing partners thus painting a crude image of 'efficiency'? The other area which warrants some more analysis is whether the merger also impacts the modalities and types of aid funding (ie. bigger programs/ less contracts) and what this means for the amount of oversight and type of work being done by aid managers inside the organisation. A subsequent question might focus on what is the right amount of aid management and technical expertise within the aid agencies and whether there is a good equilibrium to be reached whether in an autonomous or merged Department. The answers to these questions will have important implications for aid effectiveness also.

Hi David, Good to hear from you. We have pretty good evidence to suggest that donations to NGOs do not serve as ideological substitutes to support for ODA. Specifically, at the unit of analysis of the Australian electoral district, there is a strong correlation between levels of surveyed support for ODA and the proportion of electorates' populations who donate to aid NGOs (based on actual donations data). We have a working paper on this here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2489713 And a blog summary here: https://devpolicy.org/putting-our-money-where-our-mouths-are-donations-to-ngos-and-support-for-oda-in-australia-20140902/ Some data caveats (as always) but still a pretty clear result. cheers Terence

"The UK is now the only OECD donor that organises aid in a separate government department." What about Japan with JICA? JICA is referred to as a 'quasi-government' organization; it is a separate aid agency but MOFA also delivers aid programs.

Hi Terence and Jonathan, An interesting fact and really looking forward to seeing the further analysis and your thoughts on which explanation is the best. A question / comment. How do you think donations interact with public attitudes towards government aid? Are attitudes to government aid aligned with donations, or are donations a substitute for those folks who are concerned for distant strangers but are more politically conservative? I know it's likely to be a bit of both, but I wondered with your (other?) data you could answer this? Cheers, David

I enjoyed what you wrote, this is the very same thing happening in Malawi. Corruption is at its peak, the elite being in the forefront of misusing the public funds.

Hi Ashlee, Thanks for your encouraging words and insights. Indeed, more mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) will be integral to breaking cycles of violence the world over. It's why, we believe, any work in the areas of conflict and violence need to ensure MHPSS support is a foundational aspect of any response. It's more than just a health issue, but an issue that impacts the very core of social life for all, amongst its influences in so many other areas of individual, family and community life. Ali

Hi Stephen, I think J&T is the best available evidence because, they run a comprehensive range of regression models, including IV models, and time series analysis. And the also run a good range of robustness tests. In addition to this they use aid data data to disaggregate different types of aid flows. This seems to me more sophisticated than some approaches to date (some which have been simply theoretical, others--dubious--single case studies such as that of Somaliland, and others which have involved regression analysis but less comprehensively). That said, I'm still aware of the limitations of the type of analysis that J&T undertake. And perhaps their findings will be refuted in further work. (Hence, 'best available', rather than 'definitive'.) However, in between the J&T findings and some other pretty good work on the relationship between aid and democratisation and the like (see below) my reading of the evidence is that, overall, available evidence shows positive aid/governance relationship. And that it certainly doesn't show the negative one so central to Deaton's arguments. Maybe this body of evidence is wrong, but, if it is, the burden of proof ought to fall on those who believe it is wrong to show that it's wrong, before making claims about a negative aid/governance relationship. Also, it's worth noting that J&T aren't outliers with respect to their findings. Some other related papers with similar (or otherwise interesting) results: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.11.009 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0007123413000264 http://www.personal.psu.edu/jgw12/blogs/josephwright/Dietrich%20Wright%20OUP%20Ch3.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2010.00501.x http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0020818304582073 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2014.05.014 cheers Terence

The National Court still retains a total independence void of any political and/or bearucratic influence. So its decisions on such matter of critical importance to national significance was firm and final. Thanks for an update well presented.

Hi Ron, 4 years ago i visited Siem Reap as a tourist.I was asked on the street if I could donate a bag of rice to an orphanage.. I visited the Heart and Love Center,At the time 25 children lived full time with a christian Pastor and his family.. The conditions were terrible!! Now I sponsor this center,,,I live in Cambodia for 6 months every year,have rented a house for staff and 43 children..They go to school. learn English,have access to medical and dental. I pay the rent, food, electricty, wages and anything else that I consider necessary. I have fund raised and purchased a new motor bike and tuk tuk....I have a few people who help me and many people who have visited the center and helped us ....Every cent of a donation goes to improving the lives of staff (all live at the center with their own children) and the children I pay all my own expenses....I will be in Siem Reap from november 27th... Helen McLean,,,proud to be sponsor of the Heart and Live Center

Great public service. But do want to query the description of Jones and Tarp as the best available evidence on aid-governance. Better than all the other cross-country regressions on this very subject which give such contradictory results? The Sacks survey-based article looks much more promising.

Thanks Hayley, Megan and Alison -- a really important issue, and good to hear some of the steps that are being taken. It's also important to recognise the links between mental health and other development challenges -- for example, we see high rates of gender violence in many post-conflict areas in our region, and studies show the intergenerational consequences of exposure to violence or abuse in childhood (i.e. <a href="https://devpolicy.org/in-brief/violence-in-south-pacific-has-intergenerational-impact-unicef-report-20150521/" rel="nofollow">high numbers</a> of adult perpetrators and survivors of violence have been exposed to it as children). As we work to target these issues, we need to recognise the importance of mental health interventions for survivors and perpetrators of violence as part of wider efforts to break the cycle.

What rise in sea levels has already occurred and what is predicted for the next 50 or even a 100 years?