How Does Earmarked Foreign Aid Affect Recipient-Country Ownership?
This paper analyses how earmarked funding affects recipient country ownership, a key aspect of the Aid Effectiveness agenda. Despite formal commitments to ownership by donor governments and multilateral institutions represented in the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), earmarked funding may undermine ownership. By strengthening accountability of international organizations to donor governments, this funding weakens the ownership of recipient countries in formulating policy objectives, using country-led results frameworks, and implementing aid through country systems.