Foreign Aid and the Symbolic Domination of Donors: The Case of Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

This thesis represents an exploratory study of development practices in Kyrgyzstan from the critical perspective of post-development theory. It has focused on how donors’ quest for symbolic domination shapes local implementation of aid. The analysis has been grounded on a number of semi-structured interviews with representatives of donor organizations and experts in Bishkek, policy documents and basic statistical data. The empirical findings of the study include the following insights: a) donors implement different and even competing concepts of development which cause fragmentation and low coordination of aid programs; b) aid allocation decisions are guided not by recipient needs but rather other calculations such as competition or herding behavior among donors, thus deprioritizing a better aid impact; c) evaluation policies of donors mostly prioritize assessment of performance, but not long-term impact of development aid, and thus they contribute to the resilience of ineffective practices. As this thesis argues, such development policies, institutions and discourses have evolved in Kyrgyzstan as a result of deeper underlying power relationships between donors and the recipient and between donors themselves.