The political economy of innovative development financing : a case study of donor funded risk capital financing in South Africa

This thesis sets out to evaluate whether innovative aid modalities have the ability provide more value for money than traditional aid modalities, and if so where? The aim of the research is to contribute to the literature on aid effectiveness and collective action which to date has largely ignored the emergence of innovative aid modalities. Making use of a case study evaluation the thesis demonstrates that innovative blending mechanisms have the ability to enhance the value for money of development assistance at various points, from initial mobilization to actual absorption. Here the thesis employed a reconstructed program theory to establish to what extent an innovative Risk Capital Facility funded by the European Union in South Africa provided more value than traditional aid delivery modalities. This involved testing both the process of channelling aid, as well as the results achieved. Although not a panacea to all problems of traditional aid, the results indicate that innovative aid modalities have the ability to translate into higher equilibrium allocations for the donor in terms of aid delivery. Hence from a political economy point of view, the ability of innovative blending to demonstrate value for money may help overcome some of the collective action problems with the traditional aid architecture. This primarily concerned insights into the ability of this innovative aid modality to address issues surrounding institutional turf fights, vested interests, and legitimacy concerns of aid.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

School of Economics

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Kühn Von Burgsdorff, Yanis Konstantin

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Black, Anthony
• Bhorat, Haroon

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/16689

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/16689