Africa Beyond Aid
This programme – comprising a series of commissioned papers and run
in collaboration with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and the Danish Foreign
Ministry – considers a new strategic paradigm employing aid for African
development.
Instead of focusing on increasing aid as a key development strategy -
the conventional wisdom - this programme will examine both what it would take
to end aid to Africa and what an Africa beyond aid would look like in policy
terms. Fundamentally, in the light of the July 2005 G8 commitment to double aid
to Africa to US$50 billion by 2010, how can aid be better used, with an
eventual focus on decreasing aid for at least some countries?
Key questions under focus in this study include:
- How might (and, indeed, can) external assistance best promote African
development? And business in Africa?
- How is it possible to best promote governance? And
democratization?
- Why has Africa's share of global foreign investment remained
small?
- Why is it that domestic investment in Africa remains low?
- What, from the record, will it take for states to become
rich(er)?
- Foreign investment in Africa is mainly limited to the oil sector.
This is likely to increase rapidly over the next decade. What measures might be
put in place to promote FDI?
- What sort of business might Africa be involved in over the next ten
years? Is this likely to be what is being carried out in the US, Europe and
Asia today? If so, which areas of business are most likely in Africa? If not,
which areas might be prevalent in Africa and why?
- What will it require for Africa to absorb the new technological tools
underpinning modern economies?
- Is there an 'alternative' formula without aid for African growth?
Indeed, is this not the only sustainable formula for growth?
- How might business and government combine efforts in the aid business
in Africa?
The first workshop, which took place in Potsdam, Germany, on 3rd and 4th
April, 2006 focused a spotlight on many of the issues surrounding Africa Beyond
Aid. You can download the papers below:
It is envisaged that a final Africa Beyond Aid report will be published
in the second half of 2006.
