Answer to Question #204873 in Political Science for Ephraim Ntreh

Question

Discuss the links between foreign aid and rural development in Africa

Answer 1

It has often been argued that poor nations remain poor because of the vicious circle of poverty. According to the Big Push Theory, foreign aid was needed to help poor countries escape from the poverty trap. The years that followed could easily be described as “glory years” for the development policies and foreign aid. By the end of the 1960s, many of the East Asian countries had started to grow rapidly and suspended shortly receiving foreign aid.

In the 1970s the idea of “aid for growth” became seriously questioned. The holistic focus on growth did not prove to be enough to improve living conditions of the poor.

Aid came attached with ever more “conditionalities” and policy advices, which today are often today criticized