“The History of Foreign Aid Dependency: Challenges for Africa”
posted by Bangirana Albert
This article by Tinashe Nyatoro is adapted from the book, The Impact of Aid Dependence on Social Development: the case of Zimbabwe. It is a systematic and well articulated critique of aid to and in Africa. Crafted within the pro-aid theory/capital diffusion and the anti-aid paradigm/dependency theory this analysis reasons with the need, the want and the necessity debates of aid in Africa as well as the desire for and of ‘development partners’ to aid African economies. It informs and poses pertinent questions for critical reflection on future development partnerships targeting Africa.
In South Africa at the moment there is hightened debate on the economic prowess and the nationalisation of mineral resource beneficiation. This is hinged on the argument that the country is losing billions of rands through subsquent beneficiation that takes place in the countries where these resources are being exported. This has been further argued by some African presidents such Yoweri Museveni of Uganda as Africa’s historical and current role as the donor through resource and human capital outflows to the West. Africa in this sense resurfaces as the aider rather than the aidee. At the moment there is a dominant move from African economies towards the ‘development partnership’ framework as opposed to the traditional ‘developed vs third world’ economic framework.