F35 - Foreign AidReturn

The article deals with the economic dimension of the Czech Republic's official development assistance. It discusses that aid and trade need not act contradictorily; in fact, they may work complementarily. In particular, the study focuses on the Czech Republic's bilateral official development assistance towards Serbia, which shows synergic effects of development assistance and business interests. The first part of the paper is concerned with the various forms of private sector involvement in the Czech Republic's official development assistance. The second part describes the Czech Republic's official development assistance on the example of Serbia. First, this section concentrates on the Czech Republic's relationship towards the Western Balkans and its bilateral relationship with Serbia. Afterwards, it regards the particular projects implemented by Czech actors operating in the framework of the official development assistance. Specifically, it deals with three Aid for Trade projects carried out by the Czech Chamber of Commerce and two projects implemented by Czech companies in the region of Pešter/Sandžak and the municipality of Kruščica.

In this study, we deal with both the development co-operation among the Czech Republic and nineteen post-socialist Asian countries and sending of remittances as an alternative to development co-operation. The share of mentioned beneficiaries (developing countries) in the total Official Development Assistance (ODA) provided by the Czech Republic was approximately one quarter. Afghanistan and Iraq receive substantial amounts of ODA from the Czech Republic; however, post-war reconstruction is the reason for this fact. Development projects in Mongolia as well as other countries (such as Vietnam, Georgia and Yemen) are successfully implemented in the long term and the amounts of ODA received have been steadily increasing. Among the countries of interest, Mongolia receives the highest ODA per capita from the Czech Republic.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse in depth the EU and international efforts in the field of increasing the ODA effectiveness with respect to the situation of poverty in the developing world, development assistance management, and the current initiatives on searching for potential solutions to this crucial issue.
In connection with poverty traps in developing countries, the EU has come up with many important initiatives in the field of international development policy and its effectiveness, which indicates a strong commitment of Member States towards poverty eradication. In any case, there is always a need to pay attention to the principles of effectiveness of ODA and improving its quality and impact. The international community together with the EU Member States should consider carefully the limits to the absorption capacity of developing countries and the relationship between ODA increases and ODA effectiveness.