Objectives: This project is designed to simulate how development requests and funding are determined in practice. Our goal is to understand how aid-receiving countries determine assistance needs, and the ways in which bilateral, multilateral and non-governmental aid-giving organizations prioritize their distribution of assistance.

Please sign up to be in one of the following fourteen groups during the first day of class:

Aid-receiving countries: Each group will prepare a written report based on your investigation of what are the assistance needs of your country at this time. Naturally, there is no monolithic sense of what these needs are, so to determine these you must research a variety of sources: government documents, ethnographic accounts, scholarly assessments, and actual assistance proposals. You should be aware of the relationship which this country has historically had with each of the donor agencies. Ideally, there will be four members in each of these aid-receiving country groups:

    Bangladesh    Bolivia    Papua New Guinea    Tajikistan    Zambia

Donor Agencies: Each group will prepare a written profile report based on the way in which aid is distributed by your donor organization. What are your agency’s goals and what is its philosophy regarding aid? Where and how have they committed their resources historically, and why? (While you need not include this is your report, you should certainly be aware of what has been your organization's relationship/ commitment to each of the five aid-receiving countries in our consortium.) Ideally, there will be three members representing each of the multilateral and bilateral donor organizations, two in the NGOs:

Bilateral donors
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
Australian Government Overseas Aid (AusAID)
Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

Multilateral donors
The World Bank Group (WB)
EC External Cooperation Programmes (EuropeAid)
U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA)
U.N. Human Settlements Programme (UNHABITAT)

Non Government Organizations (INGOs)
CARE
Heifer International

Time-schedule:

May 20: Each group must submit their report on this date. Two hard copies should be submitted, as well as an electronic copy to: aweiss@uoregon.edu. The electronic copy should be submitted either in MSWord, WordPerfect or as a PDF. Alternatively, you can create your own website and then send the website address (copied exactly from your web server) to: aweiss@uoregon.edu for us to link to our course website. Group reports will be accessible via the course website on May 22nd.

May 27: Based on additional information they have garnered from the donor profiles, each country group will make a presentation based on their aid needs (maximum 15 minutes each). We recommend presenters “stay in character” as much as possible, review their most important priorities for assistance, and only go into detail on any additional or different assistance (based on the new information from the donor profiles) they are requesting. If a country’s development assistance request is changing considerably from its original written report, we suggest representatives consider using some sort of visual aids to facilitate donor agency representatives’ understanding of the new request. (P.S.: visual aids generally make a presentation more accessible, regardless!)

May 29:  We will hold our Aid Consortium simulation in all six Century rooms in the EMU. Our Aid Consortium will be an opportunity for donor organizations and countries to meet face-to-face, engage in policy dialogue, make bargains and reach some understandings.

June 3, 5 & 6: Donor organizations will report on the percentage of their total aid budget which will go to each of the five participating countries; what percentage will go to various sectors within each country (and why); and what percentage will be "tied" and project-specific (as opposed to open program support). It is important to articulate the reasons for these decisions as these evaluations should be determined on a realistic basis, consistent with the donor organization's philosophy, past activities and current goals. Presentations are to be approximately 18 minutes each; overheads or PowerPoint presentations (using large fonts so they are readable) or hand-outs may be helpful when considering time allocations.

June 6:   International development aid consortiums generally conclude with a final dinner party. We will hold a variation of this by having a pot-luck dinner (location to be held confidential to ward off protestors and dissidents who may seek to disrupt it). Please prepare to come with food typical of the country you represent or what you believe members of your donor agency would bring. The NGOs will make their final presentations at this concluding ceremony.

Important note for April 3rd: Tom Stave from the Knight Library will be visiting our class to get you started on your research for the aid consortium simulation. We hope to have all groups established by the end of the second class meeting. Please be considerate and inform Professor Weiss or Diana Daibes if you are dropping the course, so those adding the course in your place can be assigned to your former group.