The Incongruence Of Development Assistance: An overview of World Bank Policies

Author

Elizabeth Garcia-Polanco, CUNY City CollegeFollow

Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Department

International Relations

First Advisor

Nicholas Rush Smith

Second Advisor

Jeffrey Kucik

Abstract

In post-conflict countries were instability has intensified, it becomes apparent how inadequate development assistance can be and why even after large sum of investments development assistance has not been able to completely alleviate poverty. For agencies like the World Bank that provide first hand assistance, we question whether there are prerequisites needed in order for their policies to be effective and whether these policies are targeting the core reasons for the countries’ poverty dilemma. African countries continue to hold intricate predicaments that may at times be too complicated to be analyzed without sufficient resources provided by the international community. While looking at Cote d’Ivoire and Central African Republic we notice the difference in impact that the recommended policies have had on the countries. Cote d’Ivoire may be the success story to development assistance or may just be proof of the necessary components needed for successful policies, in contract to, Central African Republic being the mere example of how African countries that continue to hold convoluted conflicts affect and are result of poverty. Through process tracing I analyze the historical background of these post-conflict countries and draw out the similarities that they hold. This most similar design helps to distinguish the necessary stability within the country’s infrastructure needed in order to acquire policies recommended by the World Bank as well as the benefits that the international community has of the prosperity from certain countries more than others. By analyzing World Bank policies I was able to draw out the importance of institutional stability as well as shared fundamentals in governance, corruption, and economic policies in order to be suitable recipients to recommended policies to subsequently become active participants in the international market.

Recommended Citation

Garcia-Polanco, Elizabeth, "The Incongruence Of Development Assistance: An overview of World Bank Policies" (2016). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/597