Managing Aid Exit and Transformation: Lessons from Botswana, Eritrea, India, Malawi and South Africa

What happens when donors withdraw their aid to developing countries? The study, undertaken for Norway, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands by CMI and ECORYS is a joint evaluation of country level exit processes in development co-operation. In each of the cases under review it seeks to understand how partner country development activities and partner country development more broadly have been affected by the withdrawal of donor support. The evaluation assesses results in relation to the timing and management of exits and looks at the conduct of exit processes in relation to established models for development co-operation partnership. The evaluation is sponsored by four countries: Denmark (through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), the Netherlands (through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Norway (through Norad), and Sweden (through Sida). Based on case studies, it looks at country exits by these countries from bilateral development co-operation programmes with five countries in Africa and Asia - Botswana, Eritrea, India, Malawi, and South Africa. While some of the exits reviewed have been completed, others are ongoing. The evaluation was undertaken for the purpose of mutual learning on an important but largely unexplored set of development issues. The evaluation wasconducted under the guidance of the evaluation departments of the four sponsoring agencies. SIDA acted as lead agency in the management of the study.

CMI conducted the country studies of Botswana (Isaksen), Malawi (Arne Tostensen) and South Africa (Elling Tjønneland) and jointly with ECORYS prepared the Synthesis report (Alf Morten Jerve with Anneke Slob)