Abstract
The motivational factors behind this thesis are based on the rhetoric of the international development community to induce an increased focus on aid effectiveness, which called for more integrated cohesive methods adhering to concepts of cooperation and consensus regarding a harmonization of agendas set forth by respective development governments and agencies. This approach ascended in accordance to the ideologies constituted by the Paris Declaration, an agenda presupposing an overall re-structuring of strategies and policies in coherence with recipient countries. This presumed novel worldview of closer cooperation and alignment towards inducing more efficient aid policies can initially be understood as a promising approach also in terms of strengthening and establishing trust-relationships. As Denmark is one of the most prominent and relatively consistent contributing countries of development aid, it is the task of this thesis to examine the contemporary development policies in order to interpret to what extent integrated aid strategies are adhering to potentially more effective methods of aid-giving that essentially will provide more promising conditions and circumstances for developing countries. The research inquiry is thus; ‘To what extent has Danish development policy ascended into a new paradigm? And why may the present policy prove more adequate than the former paradigm in the light of Complex Dynamical Systems perspective?’ A historical account of Danish development aid and the tendencies thereof are empirically introduced and interpreted as constituting a paradigm of linearity provided by orderly and predictive cause and effect solutions, which produced seemingly insufficient outcomes in relation to dealing with complex social phenomena as is the case of development aid. Thus a paradigm of complexity and non-linearity is a more promising interpretive approach that specifically deals with the dynamics and changes of interconnected systems over time and adheres to a greater degree to the systems involved in development aid cycles. The approach selected to answer and interpret the inquiry of the research question is conducted through two analyses, by which the respective theoretical foundations of Thomas Kuhn and Complex Dynamical Systems theory are applied to interpret the secondary empirical data. The concluding remarks and results pronounce that there has indeed been a transitional phase which has seemingly resulted in a paradigm shift towards complexity compared to the previous paradigm that adhered to a paradigm of linearity. The contention is hereby that development-policy must be executed to operate in a manner coherent with complex phenomena in order to produce sound outcomes on the terms of recipient countries. The current development policy displays much of the complexity rhetoric in terms of flexibility, adaptability, evolving, dynamics and adjustment as well as creating initiatives, such as the Civil Society Strategy, that are cohesive with assisting developing countries with capacity building in order for them to become self-organizing, self-preserving resilient evolving societies (systems). However, the Danish government continues to promote imposing frameworks adhering to linear procedures such as; economic globalization, democracy and security issues which may be deemed damaging rather than constructive for developing countries.