Foreign aid, donor coordination and the pursuit of good governance

This dissertation examines the surprisingly strong cooperation among international aid donors to Kenya in support of good governance. From 1991 to 1993, Kenya experienced a suspension of programme aid as a result of concerns over good governance. Cooperation among donor representatives continued after the aid suspension ended and has become institutionalized in formal and informal donor groups. The suspension of aid has been explained by the increasing prioritization of governance by bilateral and multilateral aid donors in the post-Cold War era. While this prioritization of good governance is a necessary condition for cooperation among aid donors, it is not sufficient to explain continued donor pressure on the Kenyan regime. Furthermore, analyses of donor support for good governance and the international aid regime suggest that neither is sufficiently strong enough to provide an explanation for donor behavior. Donor coordination, often perceived as a technocratic problem, is a form of international cooperation among state actors, and involves the ability of donors to share common ideas concerning the ends and means of aid policy. The research shows that other factors supporting donor coordination in Kenya included the ability of the donors to take advantage of existing institutions, and to create informal groups that facilitated communication and the exchange of information. Finally, the large number of donors in Kenya created a complex environment, in which donor leverage could only be maximized through coordinated activity. The research examines two distinct periods of donor coordination in Kenya. The first, from 1989 to 1994 encompassed the programme aid suspension and donor support of the first multi-party elections in Kenya. The second period, from 1995 to 1998, examined the development of new formal and informal donor institutions to support good governance in Kenya in relation to the second multi-party elections, economic governance, and finally in relation to donor support of civil society organizations. Data was gathered from a number of sources, including interviews with donor representatives, newspaper accounts, and documents from international donor agencies.