Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Developing countries and the concept of development
- Chapter 2 Development of the international economic order, 1450–2000
- Chapter 3 Growth and stagnation: theories and experiences
- Chapter 4 Technology and development
- Chapter 5 Population and development
- Chapter 6 Health, health care and development
- Chapter 7 Education and development
- Chapter 8 Economic development, structural transformation and primary exports
- Chapter 9 Industrial development
- Chapter 10 Agricultural development and rural development
- Chapter 11 State formation and political aspects of development
- Chapter 12 Cultural dimensions of development
- Chapter 13 The international economic and political order since 1945
- Chapter 14 Foreign aid and development
- Bibliography
- Author index
- Subject index
Chapter 14 - Foreign aid and development
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Developing countries and the concept of development
- Chapter 2 Development of the international economic order, 1450–2000
- Chapter 3 Growth and stagnation: theories and experiences
- Chapter 4 Technology and development
- Chapter 5 Population and development
- Chapter 6 Health, health care and development
- Chapter 7 Education and development
- Chapter 8 Economic development, structural transformation and primary exports
- Chapter 9 Industrial development
- Chapter 10 Agricultural development and rural development
- Chapter 11 State formation and political aspects of development
- Chapter 12 Cultural dimensions of development
- Chapter 13 The international economic and political order since 1945
- Chapter 14 Foreign aid and development
- Bibliography
- Author index
- Subject index
Summary
In this concluding chapter, we discuss the role of foreign aid in development. The central question is whether aid works. To what extent and under which conditions does aid make a positive contribution to socio-economic development?
The decision to discuss foreign aid at the end of this book is a deliberate one. After all, socio-economic development is determined by a complex of factors, including proximate sources of growth, historical experiences, natural circumstances, demographic factors, power structures and processes of state formation, institutions, attitudes and aptitudes, international economic relations and economic policies. Foreign aid is just one of many factors. At best, its contribution can be only modest. The original theories of economic aid formulated in the 1950s and the 1960s by authors such as Chenery and Strout, Rostow and Rosenstein-Rodan, recognise this explicitly. They state that under certain conditions foreign aid may contribute to an acceleration of growth and development, but it cannot transform processes of stagnation into dynamic processes of development. In the debates between the supporters and opponents of foreign aid this tends to be forgotten.
Until the 1990s, the desirability of development aid was not questioned in the political debate. In the 1980s, all donors together granted approximately 60 billion dollars per year in official development assistance. Despite the substantial resources involved, the budgets for foreign aid were exempted from expenditure cuts in most countries until the late 1980s.
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- The Dynamics of Socio-Economic DevelopmentAn Introduction, pp. 580 - 632Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005