The politics of tied aid: technology transfer and the maintenance and repair of water infrastructure

Lazarus Jambadu; Jochen Monstadt; Francesca Pilo

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106476

The politics of tied aid: technology transfer and the maintenance and repair of water infrastructure

Lazarus Jambadu^*, Jochen Monstadt, Francesca Pilo

^*Corresponding author for this work

Governance of Urban Dynamics and Transitions

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

In many African countries, international donor funding schemes contribute significantly to financing water infrastructures, especially for constructing new networks and water plants and upgrading existing ones. However, little is known about how these financial arrangements shape infrastructure maintenance and repair. This article explores the politics of tied water aid to show how international donors’ technology transfer schemes and their associated funding conditionalities shape water infrastructure maintenance and repair. Empirically, this study builds on a qualitative study of the cities of Accra (Ghana) and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), where the maintenance and repair of water infrastructures have been a persistent challenge. The article shows that the compulsory adoption of foreign technologies embedded in donors’ funding schemes limits local capacity to properly maintain and repair water infrastructure. As maintenance and repair increasingly depend on imported expert knowledge, spare parts, and engineering services, donors’ funding schemes undermine effective maintenance and repair in both cities. We argue that to make transferred water technologies work sustainably in recipient countries, funding schemes need to anticipate maintenance and repair by incorporating local capacity building and knowledge transfer to reduce import dependence.

Original language	English
Article number	106476
Number of pages	10
Journal	World Development
Volume	175
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2023.106476
Publication status	Published - Mar 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors

Funding

This research was supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) under funding number RF: 91688752 within the Research Training Group Critical Infrastructures: Construction, functional crises and Protection in Cities (KRITIS) at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany as well as by the Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning at Utrecht University. Therefore, we would like to express our gratitude to the three organizations. Also, we thank the numerous respondents, especially the donors, development partners and officials of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWLC, Accra) and at the Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority (DAWASA, Dar Es Salaam) for their collaboration and for providing helpful insights during the fieldwork. We are also grateful to Ton Markus (Utrecht University) for drawing the maps and to Joy Burrough for her language editing. Although they do not have explicit responsibilities in water supply in either country, international donors play a critical role in financing water infrastructure. For instance, in Ghana, donors contributed about GHS 174 million (about USD 14 million) out of the GHS 260 million (about USD 130 million) budget for the Ministry of Water and Sanitation Resources in 2019 alone ( Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources [MSWR], 2020 ). This figure translates to approximately 67 % of the ministry’s budget. Similarly, about 57 % of Tanzania’s water sector budget in 2019 came from donors, who also funded up to 84 % of the entire budget for WSDP-II ( URT, 2020 :103). Key donors for water supply in Ghana include the World Bank, China, the USA, and Canada (Ghana Ministry of Finance, 2020), while in Dar es Salaam they include India, the World Bank, and the African Development Bank ( URT, 2020 :104). Table 1 presents some major water projects funded by donors in Accra and Dar es Salaam. Table A2. .

Funders	Funder number
Accra and Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam Water and Sewerage Authority
Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning at Utrecht University
Technical University of Darmstadt
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst	91688752
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst

Keywords

Accra and Dar es Salaam
Africa
Maintenance and repair
Technology transfer
Tied aid
Urban infrastructure

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Cite this

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title = "The politics of tied aid: technology transfer and the maintenance and repair of water infrastructure",

abstract = "In many African countries, international donor funding schemes contribute significantly to financing water infrastructures, especially for constructing new networks and water plants and upgrading existing ones. However, little is known about how these financial arrangements shape infrastructure maintenance and repair. This article explores the politics of tied water aid to show how international donors{\textquoteright} technology transfer schemes and their associated funding conditionalities shape water infrastructure maintenance and repair. Empirically, this study builds on a qualitative study of the cities of Accra (Ghana) and Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), where the maintenance and repair of water infrastructures have been a persistent challenge. The article shows that the compulsory adoption of foreign technologies embedded in donors{\textquoteright} funding schemes limits local capacity to properly maintain and repair water infrastructure. As maintenance and repair increasingly depend on imported expert knowledge, spare parts, and engineering services, donors{\textquoteright} funding schemes undermine effective maintenance and repair in both cities. We argue that to make transferred water technologies work sustainably in recipient countries, funding schemes need to anticipate maintenance and repair by incorporating local capacity building and knowledge transfer to reduce import dependence.",

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The politics of tied aid: technology transfer and the maintenance and repair of water infrastructure

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

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