UNDERSTANDING FOREIGN AID IN AFRICA: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES AND REAL-WORLD OUTCOMES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53273/vg3n0q58Abstract
Foreign aid is aimed at promoting development, but what is (under) development? Is it GDP growth rates or does it involve a visible change in the lives of a substantial portion of the population of a country? For this purpose, ‘development’ is mainly progress, be it economic, social or cultural, that serves the basic needs of both today and tomorrow. These needs include five interconnected freedoms; namely, economic opportunities, political freedoms, social freedoms, transparency and protective security. Under development occurs when these basic needs and freedoms are denied or not equally accessible to all members of the populace. Development is not the absence of development. It results from the uneven nature of human social, political and economic to us means much more than economic growth as measured by improvement in GDP per capita. In like manner, a decline in GDP growth rate does not necessarily mean there is underdevelopment.
Keywords:
Aid and Development, Foreign Investment, Infrastructure Development, African Countries Development, Rural and Urban DevelopmentReferences
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