Technical cooperation within the context of foreign aid: trends for the CEE countries in transition (1991—2004)

Abstract

This article investigates technical assistance (TA) to CEE countries in relation to development aid in general. There is plenty of literature examining the foreign aid, but specific components of aid, like technical assistance, remain largely unexplored. One debate about development aid focuses on whether aid is primarily given to improve the situation in the recipient countries or if this improvement is simply a side-effect from aid based on political-military factors. This article argues that development aid, unlike technical assistance, is often provided based on political-military factors with the accompanying side-effect of improving the situation. To investigate aid money to CEE countries during their transition (1990—2004), we used data from OECD DAC that distinguishes technical assistance as a component of foreign aid. The analysis shows that the foreign aid to CEE countries in general seems to have been largely determined by political factors while the money provided for TA is shown to be especially determined by the recipient countries’ needs. The technical assistance has proved to be much more sustainable. The article concludes that empirical research should analyze the components of aid separately.

Points for practitioners

The volume of technical assistance to CEE countries cannot be explained by political and military developments in recipient countries. Instead, such assistance is intended to contribute to the adaptation and development of the recipient countries to their new situation. This analysis shows that the main motivation for TA is to improve the situation in the recipient country. This underlines the importance of such technical assistance as well as efforts to improve the way in which such the technical assistance is planned, provided and evaluated.