Aid Relationships and Power Dynamics in the “Community Action for Health” Project

This chapter discusses the types of aid relationships formed between stakeholders involved in the “Community Action for Health” project. Building on the theoretical framework and empirical findings presented in the previous chapters of this book, it shows how power dynamics evolved in the project and how structural factors were conducive to supporting or changing these dynamics. This chapter also demonstrates how the actors’ changing roles throughout the project life cycle and the ways they created power (based on Haugaard, European Journal of Social Theory, 6(1), 87–113, 2003) and approached their resources were critical to the development of these dynamics. This discussion of power dynamics lays the foundation for identifying the specific types of relationships formed between aid providers (donor–donor), providers with recipients (donor–recipient state, donor–civil society organization), and aid recipients with each other (recipient state–civil society organization). Along with defining the specific types, this chapter expands on the stakeholders’ reasons for forming and maintaining the selected aid relationships.