Visegrad Countries' Development Aid to Africa: Beyond the Rhetoric*

Capacities of African-oriented Polish NGOs: a quantitative approach

“…In Poland, Catholic organisations have been playing a crucial role in development aid delivery in Africa. The presence in multiple locations of Polish missionaries who are relatively active in aid delivery and who could serve local entities for further engagement with the African region is a serious advantage over other Central and Eastern European countries (Kopiński, 2012). The results show that relationships between secular and religious hubs are intermittent.…”

“…Polish religious organisations involved in state-funded development aid are different from secular ones for two reasons. Firstly, contrary to the majority of secular organisations, many missionaries have had long-standing positions in recipient countries, which only reinforces the above-mentioned argument presented by Kopiński (2012). This experience significantly supported their overall capacity to realise social projects in a culturally and socially different environment.…”

“…The literature concerning Polish development assistance is rich, though it is not diversified in terms of the range of topics. Since the accession of Poland to the European Union, foreign institutions, non-governmental organisations and individual scientists have been analysing the Polish development cooperation system mainly from the perspective of the Visegrad Group countries (Drążkiewicz-Grodzicka, 2013;Horký-Hlucháň & Lightfoot, 2013;Kopiński, 2012;Kudzko, 2014;Lightfoot & Szent-Ivanyi, 2014;Lightfoot & Zubizaretta, 2008;Szent-Ivanyi & Lightfoot, 2015;Szent-Ivanyi & Tetenyi, 2008) or a separate case (Wasilewska, 2006;Hinz & Hofmokl, 2013;Drążkiewicz-Grodzicka, 2013;Kochanowicz, 2013;Kugiel, 2016;Szymoniczek, 2016;OECD, 2017). These publications present a complete picture of the institutional development cooperation system during the post-socialist transformation.…”

Development Cooperation of the ‘New’ EU Member States

“…In addition, all beneficiary countries of Lithuanian aid but one are post-Soviet countries, something which can be explained both by a common history and legacies (including the widespread use of the Russian language), and Lithuania's willingness to share its successful experience of transition. At the same time, as in other CEE countries (such as the Visegrad countries; Kopiński, 2012), path dependence theory is only partially relevant to analysing recent aid patterns. In particular, Lithuania's massive and multifaceted involvement in Afghanistan defies path dependence patterns.…”

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

“…For example, Lightfoot (2010) and Horký and Lightfoot (2012) address the history of development policy in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. 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).…”