Woll, Bettina
(2006)
The ownership paradox: the politics of development cooperation with Bolivia and Ghana.
PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Abstract
Since 1999, multi- and bilateral donor agencies have based their development cooperation
with heavily indebted poor countries on the elaboration of poverty reduction strategy papers
that should be ‘country-owned’. This thesis explores this concept of ownership and analyses
the power relationships between aid donors and recipient governments involved in efforts to
promote ownership. It employs a political sociology perspective and draws on institutional
theories and theories of organisational change to argue that ownership is a normative, not an
analytical concept. Using the two ‘model recipient’ case studies of Bolivia and Ghana, it
analyses two different tools of development cooperation: direct budget support mechanisms
and the fostering of civil society participation in national policy-making. It places these two
cooperation tools in their socio-political context to investigate in how far informal political
processes represent factors that determine national politics, and ultimately the likelihood of
success of political reform. The empirical research is centred around 140 qualitative semi-structured interviews with donor agency, governments and civil society representatives in
both countries.
The dominance of ownership questions in current development debates are
explained with reference to the historical evolution of development cooperation, particularly
the structural adjustment programmes of the 1980s and the criticisms and revisions they
evoked. The author argues that two different types of ownership should be distinguished:
‘government’ and ‘national’ ownership. The thesis demonstrates that direct budget support
mechanisms are intended to foster government ownership, while the promotion of civil
society participation is aimed at fostering national ownership. Donors’ attempt to foster
ownership of formalised reform agendas is an almost impossible task because informal
political processes largely shape the realm of national politics at the state level and determine
the type and degree of societal participation in national policy-making. The thesis concludes
by suggesting that international donors, pursuing these policies, risk destabilising
representative democratic systems of recipient countries in undesirable ways.
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