Deck 9: National Development Agencies and Bilateral Aid

Question 1

What is bilateral aid?

A) Foreign aid given to, and distributed by, international institutions like the World Bank or UN agencies.
B) Foreign aid provided directly to the government of a developing country by the government of an industrialized country.
C) Foreign aid that is only given in cases of humanitarian disasters, such as famines or earthquakes.
D) Aid that is given in much smaller amounts than multilateral foreign aid.
E) None of the above

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The expression "foreign aid" is often used interchangeably with which more technical term?

A) Results-based aid
B) Tied aid
C) Bilateral development assistance
D) Non-governmental assistance
E) Official development assistance

Answer 2

E

Question 3

Which of the following is a controversial practice regarding official development assistance?

A) Imposing harsh penalties for delinquent loans
B) Increasing the ratio of grants to loans
C) Counting the cost of resettling refugees
D) Setting higher grace periods for repayment of loans
E) Providing concessional loans

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Approximately what percentage of global official development assistance is provided by members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC)?

A) Less than 70 per cent
B) 70-75 per cent
C) 75-80 per cent
D) 80-85 per cent
E) 85-90 per cent

Question 5

Which of the following is NOT a common use of foreign aid?

A) To purchase technology
B) To provide training and build local capacity
C) To prevent policy reform
D) To provide humanitarian assistance
E) To promote social services

Question 6

What was the total amount of official development assistance in 2017?

A) US$90 billion
B) US$43 billion
C) US$88 billion
D) US$147 billion
E) US$207 billion

Question 7

Which country provided the highest total amount of official development assistance in 2018?

A) Sweden
B) Denmark
C) China
D) The United States
E) Canada

Question 8

In which decade did total aid increase rapidly?

A) 1950s
B) 1960s
C) 1970s
D) 1980s
E) 1990s

Question 9

In what year did the UN set the goal for all member nations to contribute 0.7 per cent of their total GNP?

A) 1970
B) 1980
C) 1985
D) 1990
E) 2000

Question 10

Which of the following is NOT a common motivation for giving foreign aid?

A) A selfless desire to help less fortunate people abroad.
B) A humanitarian emergency, such as a natural disaster.
C) The pursuit of other foreign economic or security objectives.
D) International legal requirements set by the United Nations.
E) A means of increasing the international prestige of the donor country.

Question 11

Which of the following statements is true of "tied aid"?

A) Tied aid is foreign aid that must be used to purchase goods and services from the donor country.
B) Tied aid is foreign aid that must be used to purchase goods and services in the country that is receiving the aid.
C) Tied aid is foreign aid that is delivered more slowly because of UN bureaucratic regulations.
D) Tied aid is foreign aid that is only available after certain reforms are successfully undertaken in the receiving country.
E) None of the above

Question 12

As of 2018, how many DAC countries met the goal of 0.7 per cent ODA?

A) Three
B) Four
C) Five
D) Six
E) Seven

Question 13

By what logic can ODA be considered an obligation?

A) International human rights law
B) Common law
C) Communitarian duty
D) National self-interest
E) International norms

Question 14

Tied aid is thought to increase costs to developing countries by how much?

A) Up to 15 per cent
B) 10 to 25 per cent
C) 15 to 30 per cent
D) 30 to 45 per cent
E) 50 to 75 per cent

Question 15

Which of the following countries has abolished tied aid?

A) The United Kingdom
B) France
C) Portugal
D) The United States
E) South Korea

Question 16

When was the Canadian International Development Agency founded?

A) 1948
B) 1958
C) 1968
D) 1978
E) 1988

Question 17

Which of the following criteria is NOT a condition for receiving aid via the United States' Millennium Challenge Corporation?

A) Democracy
B) Gender equality
C) Free market reforms
D) Good governance practices
E) All of the above are conditions.

Question 18

In relative terms, which of the following countries was the most generous aid donor in 2018?

A) Canada
B) Britain
C) Sweden
D) China
E) Turkey

Question 19

Countries that have "graduated" economically-and therefore have been removed from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's list of qualifying aid recipients-do NOT include which of the following?

A) Portugal
B) Greece
C) Singapore
D) China
E) Israel

Question 20

In 2016-17, which region received the most foreign aid?

A) Sub-Saharan Africa
B) Asia
C) Oceania
D) Latin America
E) Eastern Europe

Question 21

In 2017, which of the following was NOT one of the top five most ODA-dependent countries?

A) Ethiopia
B) Central African Republic
C) Marshall Islands
D) Micronesia
E) Tuvalu

Question 22

Which of the following is NOT a common criticism of aid harmonization?

A) It is unwise to enable only a few development plans given widespread past failures.
B) It assumes recipient countries have consulted their people to determine their interests.
C) It concentrates the power of donors over recipients.
D) It makes corruption and graft much more likely by reducing transparency.
E) All of the above are common criticisms.

Question 23

What are "donors"?

A) A group of developing countries aid agencies
B) Providers of development assistance
C) A group of Global South NGOs
D) Providers of military assistance
E) Providers of corporative consultants

Question 24

What are some multilateral organizations?

A) Donors' Clubs
B) DAC and ODA
C) World Bank and United Nations agencies
D) Countries like Libya and Nigeria
E) OECD

Question 25

How does military and diplomatic initiatives affect ODA?

A) ODA suffers from up and down cycles.
B) What constitutes ODA can no longer be easily determined.
C) What constitutes ODA can be easily determined.
D) ODA can no longer be delivered on a government-to-government bases.
E) ODA becomes multilateral.

Question 26

How do donors organize themselves?

A) In government-to-government mechanisms
B) In the Development Assistance Committee (DAC)
C) In agencies
D) In corporations
E) In state-to-state global institutions

Question 27

What trends has foreign aid followed in the last decades?

A) A constant increase
B) Economic cycles
C) Irregular cycles of increases and decreases
D) The path of the Chilean miracle
E) A negative growth

Question 28

How is relative generosity calculated?

A) By dividing ODA by gross national product (GNP)
B) By dividing ODA by gross national income (GNI)
C) By dividing ODA by gross domestic product (GDP)
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 29

Why did donors cut their foreign aid in the 1990s?

A) Because of terrorism
B) Because foreign aid was not needed
C) They could not find new ways to deliver their aid
D) The collapse of agencies worldwide
E) Because of budget deficits

Question 30

How has the fight against poverty reignited donors' interest in foreign aid?

A) Via a new consensus to fight poverty, mainly in African countries
B) Foreign aid has not actually been reignited
C) Through globalization
D) By applying new development theories
E) By helping countries in East Asia

Question 31

What is the effect of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the development of foreign aid policies?

A) There is a before and after SDGs in the allocation of foreign aid
B) Not very influential as aid levels stagnated after 2016
C) Highly analyzed through several studies
D) A tool for fighting poverty in African countries
E) It has become an excuse for developed countries to cut foreign aid

Question 32

Bilateral aid involves only two countries.

Question 33

Multilateral aid does not involve states.

Question 34

Official development assistance can come in the form of donations from private corporations.

Question 35

All countries that provide foreign aid belong to the OECD's Development Assistance Committee.

Question 36

The US is the most generous donor in absolute terms, but one of the least generous in relative terms.

Question 37

"Aid fatigue" occurred during the Cold War as superpowers' budgets were increasingly consumed with the nuclear arms race rather than foreign aid.

Question 38

Canada does not meet the 0.7 per cent ODA goal set by the UN in 1970.

Question 39

More foreign aid is multilateral than bilateral.

Question 40

In 2017, total ODA was equal to private flows of capital to developing countries.

Question 41

A "whole-of-government" approach to aid provision integrates foreign aid with a state's other foreign policy goals.

Question 42

"Tied aid" requires recipient countries to purchase goods and services from donor countries.

Question 43

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) channels American foreign aid to countries that meet certain criteria involving the presence of free markets, democracy, and good governance.

Question 44

The US government denies any self-interest in its aid donations.

Question 45

France and Britain focus the majority of their ODA on their former colonies.

Question 46

The major aid agency in the British government is the Department for International Development (DFID).

Question 47

The United States and Japan are at the top of the Center for Global Development's 2018 Commitment to Development Index.

Question 48

A state must be classified as "developing" to receive official development assistance.

Question 49

Results-based management is an approach to improving aid effectiveness that requires the results of aid to be measurable and verifiable.

Question 50

The Millennium Development Goals put poverty reduction back on the front-burner of aid and development.

Question 51

All scholars agree that foreign aid is an effective approach to bring about development.

Question 52

There is a general consensus that aid should be channelled through states rather than private or voluntary sector organizations in order to achieve maximum effectiveness.

Question 53

The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005) gave recipient countries the leading role in designing and implementing development strategies.

Question 54

Most of China's financial support to developing countries meets the definition of ODA.

Question 55

Foreign aid usually promotes social services, including education and health care.

Question 56

OECD prevents the information of donors from becoming publicly available.

Question 57

The prospect of aid harmonization strengthened in the 2010s with the rise of "emerging" donors such as Brazil, China, India, and South Africa.

Question 58

In 2017, DAC donors contributed more than US$147 billion ODA.

Question 59

Turkey is a traditional DAC donor.

Question 60

Russia is the world's most generous donor.

Question 61

Donors felt disappointed at the levels of corruption in recipient countries.

Question 62

Self-interested motives for ODA include assisting "friendly" countries, pursuing security objectives, and facilitating investment and trade relations.

Question 63

Aid programs can serve to raise the donor's profile internationally.

Question 64

Present at least two current controversies over how official development assistance should be counted.

Question 65

Provide at least five major purposes of foreign aid.

Question 66

Identify the major dynamics within cycles of foreign aid since 1970.

Question 67

Explain what many consider to be the most important motivation for foreign aid.

Question 68

Define and describe the concept of "tied aid."

Question 69

Discuss the US bilateral aid regime. How do the country's interests and position in the world influence its aid regime?

Question 70

Briefly discuss several features of donor countries.

Question 71

Why is it difficult to rate the overall performances of bilateral aid agencies?

Question 72

Identify the features of Britain's Department for International Development (DFID) that give it a reputation as one of the world's greatest bilateral development agencies.

Question 73

Briefly discuss several features of aid recipient countries.

Question 74

Why is the list of largest ODA recipient states potentially misleading?

Question 75

Discuss the debate over whether assistance should be aimed at fighting poverty or at promoting economic growth.

Question 76

What are the key points in the debate over whether funds should be given directly to states or channelled through NGOs?

Question 77

Explain why it can be both positive and negative for donor countries to harmonize their foreign aid.

Question 78

Discuss the debate between those who think that aid should be given to the poorest countries and those who argue that aid should go primarily to those countries with the capacity to make the most effective use of it.

Question 79

How is the contribution of ODA to development a contested topic?

Question 80

Why is argued that aid coordination is significant in achieving progress in development?