Czech International Development Policy in the Context of EU Enlargement

Abstract

Development policy of any state is to contribute to poverty reduction, the economic and industrial development, gradual integration of economies which are supported by the world economy to develop agriculture, development and consolidation of democracy and human rights, establishment of the rule of law and ultimately contribute to sustainable development along with improvement of environment and quality of life of a country. Sufficient support of the above is possible only trough sufficient financial resources, which are measured by their percentage representation on GNI in this case. Motivating factor for writing this article was to determine, based on the historical context, whether the financial support for development policy in the Czech Republic and in the EU is in accordance with the objectives. The first aim of this paper was than short historical overview of the Czech development policy before and after EU enlargement -main finding is the complete change of its orientation. The second aim was a comparison of EU-members development aid with focus on position of new EU member states (especially Czech Republic) where failing to meet the targets was detected in the majority of EU members and slow progression of development aid. The paper also evaluated the multilateral cooperation of the EU member states as a background of the progress of Official Development Assistance in whole European Union and finded the high share on the total aid. The methods of description, analysis and comparison are used in the paper.

Dispersion of Czechia’s Development Assistance Allocated to Priority Partner Countries with the Use of Bilateral Projects

“…Most recent studies dealing with ODA dispersion revealed that ODA dispersion at least persisted or even worsen when ODA of some OECD-DAC donors was assessed, see the findings of Steinwand and Reinsberg (2020) for the period of years 1990 -2013; Bickenbach et al (2019) for the period of years 1995 -2015; Fløgstad and Hagen (2017) for the period of years 1998-2013Carrcelli (2018) for the period of years 1990 -2010; Kilby (2011) for the period of years 1973-2008. Fløgstad and Hagen (2017 indicated that ODA dispersion grew globally as the number of donors and recipients grew, and ODA was delivered by many actors with quite similar shares.…”

“…Patterns of Czech foreign development cooperation have been reviewed and discussed in several research studies published in past ten years. Particular research attention was given to the volumes of ODA flows (Krylová et al, 2012;Majerová, 2013;Horký, 2011) or to their territorial allocation in the context of other external economic relations (Harmáček et al, 2017). Topic of ODA fragmentation was addressed partly by Syrovátka and Krylová (2012) who associated their recommendations with the decrease of ODA dispersion.…”

The allocation of Czech foreign aid in Sub-Saharan Africa: the influence of historical relationships

“…The subordination of Czechoslovak development aid to the interests of the Soviet Bloc and ideologically motivated support of states with a pro-Soviet political orientation were the defining characteristics of the pre-1989 period of Czechoslovak involvement in the Third World (Majerová, 2013). The ideological-political motivation behind aid is best documented in the categorisation of developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.…”

“…Humanitarian aid provided to neighbouring countries organised predominantly by national NGOs helped to overcome the wide-spread scepticism towards international solidarity. While the negative public attitudes (partly shared by new elites) were clearly a consequence of 'obligatory' solidarity with Third World countries officially propagated and promoted by the communist regime (Majerová, 2013), the relatively large numbers of students from developing countries and Czechoslovak experts involved in technical assistance prior to 1989 are regarded as a rather positive legacy.…”

“…Several studies focus specifically on the Visegrád Group composed of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary (Grimm and Harmer, 2005;Drążkiewicz, 2008;Szent-Iványi and Tétényi, 2008;Kopiński, 2012). Contemporary studies exclusively addressing Czech foreign aid include articles by Waisová (2011), Krylová et al (2012), Horký (2010Horký ( , 2011, Sládková (2011) and Majerová (2013). While these papers deal with various aspects of Czech foreign assistance, factors influencing the allocation of aid are not subject to statistical analysis.…”