[...]... have a share of the ownership, regardless of the level of the target group Finally, since the development agency is the source of the aid, it usually retains a great deal of control over the distribution of these resources Having clarified the meaning and foundations of these five key concepts, we now turn to the question of how these concepts are linked in ways that may or may not promote development. .. includes of cials of the agencies themselves What’s wrong with development aid? Almost every part or process of the aid system has been criticized, from the geopolitical agenda of donors to the distributive politics of recipient countries; from the ties that bind aid to procurement from private firms in the donor’s country to the constraints on aid bureaucrats’ decision-making power; from the type of aid. .. implementation (b) The de facto principal–agent relationship of implementation Octangle diagram of the Capacity Building Project Octangle diagram of the Chandrapur–Padghe Project The octangle of actors for the case of the Zambian Energy Regulation Board The actors of the octangle for the Kafue Gorge Power Station Rehabilitation Project The international development cooperation octangle for the case of the Conservation... that we know of examines the development assistance process systematically from the home of ces of the donor agency to the recipients in the field, employing both theory and evidence in its analysis We seek to do just that Rather than offer anecdotal evidence to advance a position within the aid debate, we examine the theoretical foundations for development aid s outcomes and apply our theory to study... interpretation of the distribution of ownership assignments, and the prerogatives and responsibilities that go along with them We will argue in later chapters that this lack of common understanding of the concept of ownership and the resulting lack of clear responsibility for long-term results lies at the heart of the incentive problem in development. 8 Development agencies recognize that the concept of ownership... advisor with the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy of the National Research Council, Washington, DC He is the author of The Constitution of Development: Crafting Capabilities for Self-Governance (2005) Christopher J Waller is the G Schaefer Chair of Economics in the Department of Economics and Econometrics at the University of Notre Dame He specializes in political economy of central... reading of cial documents or talking with of cials from either the donor or recipient sides It becomes even murkier when confronted with the reality of development ownership in the field As Bräutigam (2000: 32) notes, the question of what “ownership” means in What’s Wrong with Development Aid? 13 development assistance is not clearly answered in either the scholarly literature or by the donor agencies themselves... F Bentley Professor of Government at Indiana University and Co-director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis and the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change (CIPEC) She is the author of Understanding Institutional Diversity (2005) and Governing the Commons (1990), as well as the editor of several other books on institutional analysis, development, ... strategies in light of the structure of these situations and the consequent expectations that any one individual has of the likely behavior of others Strategies are designed based on the individual’s perceptions of the likely benefits or costs that they will receive in light of their own and others’ actions and the outcomes they jointly reach 1.3.2 Incentives Most definitions of incentives include two components:... determine whether such short-term changes are real, whether they are congruent with a donor’s goals, whether positive changes in behavior occur, and whether they are sustainable 1.3.3 Development, Development Aid, and Development Cooperation Individuals and groups working in the development field engage in heated discussions over the meaning of foundational concepts such as development and “development .