European Union development co-operation : an assessment of aid delivery in Ethiopia

Abstract

This research is in the area of the European Union (EU) development co-operation with a focus on aid delivery to Ethiopia. In the EU all the Member States (MSs) and many European institutions provide financial support for development co-operation, with the European Commission (COM) as one of the major actors managing the majority of all the resources employed. Given its role and array of functions in the management of multilateral and bilateral aid, the COM was chosen as the donor institution for the research to be undertaken in this dissertation. In fact, the research questions posed to be answered asses the type of ODA that is being delivered to Ethiopia by the COM, and to what extent the ODA delivered to Ethiopia is complying with the ownership principle to ensure aid effectiveness. A literature review is undertaken in order to explore the EU development cooperation policy, the emergence of a specific policy with regards to the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, which Ethiopia forms part of, as well as a description and the evolution of instruments and principles in EU Official Development Assistance (ODA). Further elements of this review include a specific and direct link to the EU's bilateral relations with Ethiopia, as well as a detailed and contextualised discussion of the instruments and principles utilised. Methodological approaches are also discussed, with the identification of two research methods employed to answer the research questions. The first method is thematic analysis used to assess which themes are deemed important by EU ODA in Ethiopia. The second method, descriptive statistics, is used to graphically display the results of the data gathering exercise as well as the analysis carried out by examining selected EU ODA projects in Ethiopia. The findings of the dissertation show a complex situation where EU ODA to Ethiopia seems to comply with the ownership principles, however with limitations in the use of the instruments and in the data made available for current and future assessments.