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"TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE"
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The delusion of knowledge transfer : the impact of foreign aid experts on policy-making in South Africa and Tanzania
With the rise of the ‘knowledge for development’ paradigm, expert advice has become a prime instrument of foreign aid. At the same time, it has been object of repeated criticism: the chronic failure of ‘technical assistance’ – a notion under which advice is commonly subsumed – has been documented in a host of studies. Nonetheless, international organisations continue to send advisors, promising to increase the ‘effectiveness’ of expert support if their technocratic recommendations are taken up. This book reveals fundamental problems of expert advice in the context of aid that concern issues of power and legitimacy rather than merely flaws of implementation. Based on empirical evidence from South Africa and Tanzania, the authors show that aid-related advisory processes are inevitably obstructed by colliding interests, political pressures and hierarchical relations that impede knowledge transfer and mutual learning. As a result, recipient governments find themselves caught in a perpetual cycle of dependency, continuously advised by experts who convey the shifting paradigms and agendas of their respective donor governments. For young democracies, the persistent presence of external actors is hazardous: ultimately, it poses a threat to the legitimacy of their governments if their policy-making becomes more responsive to foreign demands than to the preferences and needs of their citizens.
eBook
A scoping review of the evaluation and effectiveness of technical assistance
Background
Although the benefits of evidence-based practices (EBPs) for advancing community outcomes are well-recognized, challenges with the uptake of EBPs are considerable. Technical assistance (TA) is a core capacity building strategy that has been widely used to support EBP implementation and other community development and improvement efforts. Yet despite growing reliance on TA, no reviews have systematically examined the evaluation of TA across varying implementation contexts and capacity building aims. This study draws on two decades of peer-reviewed publications to summarize the evidence on the evaluation and effectiveness of TA.
Methods
Guided by Arksey and O’Malley’s six-stage methodological framework, we used a scoping review methodology to map research on TA evaluation. We included peer-reviewed articles published in English between 2000 and 2020. Our search involved five databases: Business Source Complete, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), PsycInfo, and PubMed.
Results
A total of 125 evaluation research studies met the study criteria. Findings indicate that publications have increased over the last two decades, signaling a growth in the recognition and reporting of TA. Technical assistance is being implemented across diverse settings, often serving socially vulnerable and under-resourced populations. Most evaluation research studies involved summative evaluations, with TA outcomes mostly reported at the organizational level. Only 5% of the studies examined sustainability of TA outcomes. This review also demonstrates that there is a lack of consistent standards regarding the definition of TA and the level of reporting across relevant TA evaluation categories (e.g., cadence of contact, and directionality).
Conclusions
Advances in the science and practice of TA hinge on understanding what aspects of TA are effective and when, how, and for whom these aspects of TA are effective. Addressing these core questions requires (i) a standard definition for TA; (ii) more robust and rigorous evaluation research designs that involve comparison groups and assessment of direct, indirect, and longitudinal outcomes; (iii) increased use of reliable and objective TA measures; and (iv) development of reporting standards. We view this scoping review as a foundation for improving the state of the science and practice of evaluating TA.
Journal Article
Cambodia Transport Sector Assessment, Strategy, and Road Map
Cambodia's transport sector plays a critical role in the country's economic development by supporting growth in key sectors such as agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, and construction. This publication examines Cambodia's transport sector performance, major development constraints, and the government's strategy and plans. It also reflects on lessons learned from past Asian Development Bank (ADB) assistance and identifies potential areas for future support, including knowledge initiatives and investments. The publication serves as a basis for further dialogue on how ADB and the government can collaborate to effectively develop the transport sector in the coming years.
eBook
Britain's international development policies : a history of DFID and overseas aid
\"Barrie Ireton tells the unique history of Britain's international development efforts from colonial times to the present day set in a global context. He brings together original research material as well as his personal knowledge over a 40 year career in government. He argues that the Department, led by successive Ministers, continued to pursue its basic mission of poverty reduction in the poorest countries. He also acknowledges important deviations from this trend, particularly during the 1980s when the Aid and Trade Provision became an aggressive use of aid to win export orders at the behest of the interventionist Department of Trade and Industry under an otherwise not interventionist conservative government\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Supporting organic farmers through information and technical assistance
In the US, technical assistance for farmers has historically been an important aspect of farm support, yet there are questions about whether such technical assistance is available for organic producers. Research examining technical assistance for organic farmers is scant, but the small body of literature suggests that organic farmers prefer getting support for their operations from other farmers. We examine organic farmer and technical assistance provider views to better understand the current state of agricultural outreach and extension for organic farmers and ranchers. The mixed methods study used surveys and farmer focus groups to gather data. Four key findings are (1) many, but not all, organic farmers believe that technical assistance providers may lack necessary organic expertise, (2) organic farmers prefer learning from other farmers, (3) non-land grant providers have a key role in supporting organic farmers, and (4) little support is available for nonproduction aspects such as marketing and access to farm programs. The findings of this study deepen the understanding of organic farmers needs for technical assistance, as well as understand the capacity of providers to meet their needs. We suggest that technical assistance would be improved if TA providers adopted a collaborative approach by working more closely with organic farmers. Furthermore, TA providers may be better able to serve organic farmers by organizing region or crop-specific organic centers that work with farmers around the nation.
Journal Article
Cannabis and international criminology: tolerance, aversion, and legal technical assistance
For decades, developing countries have faced international pressure to adopt the techniques and tactics consistent with the drug war. These have had profound and adverse consequences. While cannabis prohibition and drug control generally are topics that lend themselves to established comparative studies, engaging cannabis as a substantive topic engages numerous aspects of criminal justice systems. In this paper, we link cannabis to concepts related to recent formulations of international criminology. Next, we outline how the history of cannabis prohibition requires adopting a more critical global lens and consider the role of legal technical assistance to support countries renegotiating cannabis control in the twenty-first century. Beyond the formal tools and informal techniques commonly used within legal technical assistance, we argue expanding tolerance can disrupt the tendency for reform to expand social control. While embracing tolerance may serve as an antidote to some penal modalities, this must be combined with policies that regulate the aversion many feel toward cannabis and people who use it. Harm reduction provides a useful frame to combine these concepts and orient critical models of international criminology.
Journal Article