Evolving Aid Diplomacy in Africa

Abstract

So far we have discussed how Africa has gained in importance and the ways in which the Chinese are among a number of rapidly industrializing nations that see the continent in strategic economic and political terms (Carmody 2011). With this seems to have come a renewed interest in the role of aid in enabling development marked by a raft of publications dealing with Africa and/or the failure of aid (e.g. Calderisi 2007; Easterly 2007; Riddell 2007; Bolton 2008; Collier 2008; Easterly 2008; Warah 2008; Amin et al. 2009; Moyo 2009; de Haan 2009; Sorensen 2010). Those dealing with aid in general (Easterly 2008; Riddell 2007) focus on Western donors and those of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC). The Chinese are not members of DAC and, as we will see, Chinese aid levels are still relatively low, but given the entwining of aid with other financial flows and market dynamics it is having a significant impact on the development fortunes of Africa.