Abstract
This chapter proposes another form of development assistance for Africa. It argues that the structure of the average African state is incapable of producing sustained and broad-based development for the benefits of the citizens. Continuing from its colonial roots, the African state has been predatory, and state officials have consistently exploited state resources for self-aggrandizement. The state is systematically detached from its citizens, and state institutions support the corruption and exploitation that have made the state an inhibitor, rather than a promoter of development. Because no society can achieve real development and shared prosperity without a responsible state supported by efficient and inclusive institutions, development assistance to Africa should focus on ways to restructure the African state to make the states developmental.
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Notes
- 1.
World Bank , World Development Indicators (Washington, DC: World Bank , 2015).
- 2.
OECD, Paris Declaration.
- 3.
Easterly , Reinventing Foreign Aid, 2–5.
- 4.
Speech of Patrick Lumumba, Kenya’s Anti-corruption at Anti-Corruption Workshop organized by Nigeria’s National Assembly, Thisday Newspaper, October 19, 2016.
- 5.
Chabal and Daloz, Africa Works, 5.
- 6.
Ibid.
- 7.
See Patrick Chabal, “The Quest for Good Governance and Development in Africa: Is NEPAD the Answer?,” International Affairs 78, no. 3 (2002); 447–62.
- 8.
Claude Ake , Democracy and Development in Africa (Washington, D.C: The Brookings Institutions, 1996).
- 9.
Kidane Mengisteab, “Globalization and State–Society Relations in Africa,” Africa Development 34, no. 2 (2008); 37–65.
- 10.
Lin, The Quest for Prosperity, 77.
- 11.
World Bank , The Growth Report: Strategies for Sustained Growth and Inclusive Development (Washington, DC: World Bank , 2008).
- 12.
Lin, “The Quest for Prosperity,” 83.
- 13.
Benjamin Mkapa, Leadership for Growth, Development and Poverty Reduction: An African Viewpoint and Experience,” Working Paper 8; Commission on Growth and Development, Washington, DC. Quoted in Yin The Quest for Prosperity, 84.
- 14.
Acemoglu and Robinson, “Why is Africa Poor”, 23.
- 15.
Ibid.
- 16.
Collier , Bottom Billion, 110.
- 17.
Pack and Pack, “Foreign Aid and the Question of Fungibility”; Collier , Bottom Billion.
- 18.
Johnson, MITI…; Lin, The Quest for Growth; Chang, Kicking Away the Ladder; Acemoglu and Robinson, Why Nations Fail; among others.
- 19.
Craig Burnside and David Dollar, “Aid, Policies and Growth,” American Economic Review 90, no. 4 (2000): 847–68.
- 20.
Adotey Bing-Pappoe, Africa Peer Review Mechanism: A Seven Country Survey (Ottawa, ON: Partnership Africa Canada, 2010).
- 21.
Council on Foreign Relations, “What are Economic Sanctions”. http://www.cfr.org/sanctions/economic-sanctions/p36259.
- 22.
For a detailed treatment of collective action problems, see Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965); Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
- 23.
Obijiofor Aginam, “International Law and Communicable Diseases,” Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 80, no. 12 (2002): 946–51.
- 24.
Boerefijn and Goldschmidt “Changing Perceptions of Sovereignty”.
- 25.
Kenneth Kalu, “State–Society Relations, Institutional Transformation and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Development Policy Review, 35 no. S2 (2017): O234–O245.
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Kalu, K. (2018). Development Assistance Redesigned. In: Foreign Aid and the Future of Africa. African Histories and Modernities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78987-3_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78987-3_7
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