Aid targeting in post-conflict societies

Event Abstract:

International aid plays an important role in the reconstruction of war-torn societies after the end of civil war, but its effectiveness depends on whether aid reaches the most needy recipients. We study how power sharing in Nepal's post-conflict transition affected the political capture of aid.

We argue that despite the explicit inclusion of disadvantaged groups in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement from 2006 and the Interim Constitution, regions that neither aligned with the Maoist rebels nor the government during the civil war remained politically disadvantaged and received lower aid allocations. The causal mechanism that accounts for this is the low threat potential of non-combatant groups, which results in under-representation during peace negotiations and post-conflict institutions. To investigate our claims, we propose to conduct field interviews with key stakeholders from representative districts in Nepal, including NGO officials, donor representatives, as well as local and central government officials.

We also present preliminary statistical evidence that shows that districts that did not experience fighting received lower World Bank aid allocations, regardless of economic need. At the same time, regions that supported the Maoist rebellion received systematically higher aid allocations when the Maoists party (CPN(M)) held government office.

This talk will be given by Martin Steinwand (Senior Lecturer Department of Government) along with Dr. Mareike Schomerus  (Head of Programme Politics and Development, Overseas Development Institute) and Sanjaya Aryal (Department of Sociology) as discussants.