Paper short abstract:

A comparison of donors’ role in the formulation and implementation of Afghanistan’s Provincial Budgeting Policy and the country’s Sub-National Governance Policy informs a theoretically and empirically driven derivation of thresholds for international legitimacy in indigenous policy processes.

Paper long abstract:

The paper examines the conditions under which foreign aid agencies can legitimately contribute to host country policy processes in the context of persistent fragility. Grounded in interdisciplinary theory borrowing from organizational sociology, political theory and management sciences, and driven by recent research in Afghanistan, the paper puts forward three hypotheses. First, alignment between foreign aid agencies' and host country political entities' priorities and preferred modalities is coincidental and does not indicate an alignment of underlying interests. Second, host country policy ownership arises only where policy agendas emanate from indigenous politics. Third, foreign aid agencies can be legitimate contributors to indigenous policy processes if both the organization of national policy deliberation and the content deliberated upon are reflective of the host country's de jure institutional framework. Structured by these propositions, the paper presents a comparative analysis of two components of an ongoing program implemented by a bilateral development agency. This program has served to capacitate sub-national governance by supporting the formulation and implementation of two policies: Afghanistan's Provincial Budgeting Policy and its Sub-National Governance Policy. Treating the political setting for this program as a least-likely case, the paper empirically establishes thresholds for international legitimacy in indigenous policy processes. For donors, the paper's findings delineate the conditions necessary for striking a workable balance between self-interested objectives and host country priorities. For host country governments, the paper provides guidance on how to manage relationships with external donors in ways that do not jeopardize the legitimacy of national governance processes and results over time.