Abstract
The effectiveness of the aid enterprise is a matter of much debate, with some scholars arguing that even interventions that are successfully implemented, seldom last beyond the withdrawal of the donor. This failure is often attributed to a lack of ownership and studies of aid effectiveness often call for greater local ownership. But what does local ownership mean, how does it manifest on individual interventions and does greater ownership translate into greater sustainability in practice? This research investigates how donor rules affect local ownership and how local ownership in turn influences programme institutionalisation. The research uses two programmes as illustrative case studies: the Area Based Management Programme (ABM) within the eThekwini Municipal Authority (EMA) and the Gijima KZN LED Support Programme (Gijima) within the provincial Department of Economic Affairs and Tourism (DEDT). The research hypothesises that the ABM, which was funded through the sector based support (SBS) modality, would enjoy greater levels of local ownership that would lead to better institutionalisation outcomes than Gijima, which was funded through the project based support (PBS) modality...
D.Phil. (Anthropology and Development Studies)