Research

Research Overview:

My research agenda examines how foreign aid and international development project design, implementation, and impacts are influenced by how projects are delivered – particularly by incorporating a new public management lens: the bureaucratic delivery system and government contracting. Incorporating not only a public management perspective, but also a focus on newer tools such as contracting and grant-making, into international development literature will focus the way we think about what is possible within government-funded development work. Notably, what sorts of constraints does the aid delivery system entail?, how do contracts limit or require certain types of development activities and practitioner behaviors?, how does the system of contract and grant-making change the key actors we consider in our study of international development?, how do these factors influence on-the-ground beneficiary experiences and impacts? 

Policy-Facing Research Reports:

Harris, Amy Beck. Bounded Participatory Development at the U.S. Agency for International Development: A Practitioner Report. (shared below)

Peer Reviewed Work:

Harris, Amy Beck & Benjamin Brunjes. (2021). Reducing Risk or Developing Capacity? An Analysis of Federal International Contracting. International Public Management Journal.

Harris, Amy Beck. (2020). Public Participation in Procurement. Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. 10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5, (1-6).

Harris, Amy Beck. (2023). Using Foreign Aid Contracts to Pursue Participatory Approaches to Development within Large Foreign Aid Agencies. Public Administration and Development. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pad.2024 

Under Review:

Harris, Amy Beck. A Framework for Equity of Outcomes for International Development Programming.

Harris, Amy Beck, Rene Rosas Escalona, Maria Alejandra Fuentes Diestra, Elina Morrison, Sarah DeStefano, and Sharon Ceron Espinosa. Engaging Foreign Aid Beneficiaries in Aid Project Decision-Making: A field study on how the aid delivery system conditions beneficiary participation and influence (shared below)