Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Münster (Westfalen), 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 247-[256]).

At face value, foreign aid is generally extended either to contain crises situations or promote development. In Africa, it appears that foreign aid has failed on both counts. One crucial question being asked by experts is, why has there been so little development in sub-Saharan Africa despite so much aid? Indeed, even the World Bank has admitted grudgingly that assistance programs have been either ineffectual or had very small development impact on recipient countries. This study seeks to examine foreign aid effectiveness and management. Focusing on the nature of the relationships between donors and recipients, the study argues that to foster economic development in Africa, a need exists for a transformation in aid relations away from fragmented donor-driven projects and programs to a predictable long-term support to African owned programs. The work addresses these challenges by reviewing current debates and analysis of new forms, instruments, promises, and direction of development cooperation. Donor discourses, which are on ownership, partnership, less conditionalities, and more empowerment, are not always followed in practice. In fact, the objective reality is that foreign aid donors usually target an assortment of aid instruments at diverse objectives. That notwithstanding, foreign aid (generally) can only be effective in achieving the objectives set by donors when it is planned, structured, and implemented in partnership with aid recipients. Clearly, the nature of the relationships between donors and recipients has a critical influence on the effectiveness of development aid. So far, the current aid experience is that the relationship between African governments and their aid donors is characterized by a vast inequality. As such, this study takes the position that there is no viable alternative to Africans taking effective charge of their destiny and deliberately creating conditions that are essential for effecting desirable change in the region's fortunes. It also takes the position that Africa's development partners such as the international financial institutions should actively seek to create and nurture the space needed by Africans for the realization of their developmental goals / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

At face value, foreign aid is generally extended either to contain crises situations or promote development. In Africa, it appears that foreign aid has failed on both counts. One crucial question being asked by experts is, why has there been so little development in sub-Saharan Africa despite so much aid? Indeed, even the World Bank has admitted grudgingly that assistance programs have been either ineffectual or had very small development impact on recipient countries. This study seeks to examine foreign aid effectiveness and management. Focusing on the nature of the relationships between donors and recipients, the study argues that to foster economic development in Africa, a need exists for a transformation in aid relations away from fragmented donor-driven projects and programs to a predictable long-term support to African owned programs. The work addresses these challenges by reviewing current debates and analysis of new forms, instruments, promises, and direction of development cooperation. Donor discourses, which are on ownership, partnership, less conditionalities, and more empowerment, are not always followed in practice. In fact, the objective reality is that foreign aid donors usually target an assortment of aid instruments at diverse objectives. That notwithstanding, foreign aid (generally) can only be effective in achieving the objectives set by donors when it is planned, structured, and implemented in partnership with aid recipients. Clearly, the nature of the relationships between donors and recipients has a critical influence on the effectiveness of development aid. So far, the current aid experience is that the relationship between African governments and their aid donors is characterized by a vast inequality. As such, this study takes the position that there is no viable alternative to Africans taking effective charge of their destiny and deliberately creating conditions that are essential for effecting desirable change in the region's fortunes. It also takes the position that Africa's development partners such as the international financial institutions should actively seek to create and nurture the space needed by Africans for the realization of their developmental goals. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2003.

This thesis focuses on the effects of development assistance (ODA), private foreign commercial capital (PFX), domestic savings (SAV), the openness of the economy and producer prices on agricultural output, and on export and domestic shares of agricultural output in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This study uses panel data spanning 27 countries and the period 1970 to 1993. / The production function is a Cobb-Douglas type. Static export and domestic share equations are derived from a specification of the agricultural gross domestic product function. Transformed auto-regressive distributed-lag versions of the static share models are used to investigate long-run dynamics, persistence and implementation lags in the share response model. / Agricultural output is affected as follows. ODA, PFX and SAV have small positive or negative impact depending on agricultural region or economic policy environment. The impact of openness of the economy is negative in all agricultural regions, however, there is evidence of positive effect of openness within improved policy environment. None of these effects are statistically significant. / Export share is affected as follows. ODA, PFX and SAV have small positive impact in some agricultural regions and policy environments, both in the short-run and in the long-run. PFX is not significant anywhere. ODA is significant only when countries are grouped by policy environment in the short-run. SAV is significant in the short-run only in some regions, and significant in the long-run only in others. Openness has positive impact in the short-run. This is significant in many regions. Its long-run impact is mostly positive but not significant anywhere. The impact of producer price is mostly positive but not significant. / Efforts to encourage economic activities in rural communities such as improvements in domestic terms of trade in favor of agriculture, together with the provision of infrastructure are likely to stimulate output. Strategies to diversify and process agricultural exports in the face of falling agricultural commodity prices should be pursued.

Pour la constitution de ce sujet, je suis partie du contexte de l'etude plutot que de son objet. L'Afrique m'est apparue comme un choix logique pour deux raisons principales. La premiere, d'ordre personnel, est que les personnes qui me sont les plus cheres sont, chacunes a leur maniere, proches du continent africain. Sous leur influence, j'ai developpe un interet certain pour les cultures et les problemes de l'Afrique noire. Ce penchant s'est transforme en conviction lorsque, dans les aleas de leur carriere professionnelle, mes parents ont ete mute au Mali il y a deux ans. Ce demenagement m'a permis de constater la situation de l'Afrique par quelques voyages sur le continent. Ces experiences me permettent aujourd'hui affirmer que l'Afrique occupe une part importante de ma vie et de mes centres d'interet. / La seconde raison a l'origine de ce devoir: Je pense qu'en adoptant une demarche critique vis-a-vis des rapports socioculturels, je pourrais construire un environnement intellectuel stimulant qui contribuerait a remettre en question nombre de presupposes que l'on tient trop souvent pour vrais et definitifs. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 23, 2010). Thesis advisor: Dr. Stephen Quackenbush. Includes bibliographical references.

Utilising the Grounded Theory Research Method, this study identified a range of open, axial and selective codes, through a literature review, which resulted in the formulation of a proposed theory of how war economies are formed and maintained. Based on the theoretical proposition of the proposed theory, a policy framework for dismantling such war economies was also developed and presented. The proposed theory of war economies essentially argues that war economies are formed in post-colonial sub-Saharan Africa because of the existence of an artificial state. The existence of an artificial state is ascribed to the emerging legacies of colonial state formation processes, which created failed state entities which are unable to produce public goods for all its citizens because of its inability to maintain a monopoly of violence whilst maintain full administrative control over its territory. This inability results in an increase in the vulnerability of state and non-state actors. In response to these vulnerabilities, both state and non-state actors established a range of parallel political, economic and military structures. These structures in turn made use of both network and resource capacities to create an environment where politics are economised and conflict is commercialised, in order to mitigate the impacts of state failure and the inability to produce public goods. The result of the creation of an environment where politics are economised and conflict is commercialised, is the creation of incentives, structures and processes to ensure that conflict and associated conditions of instability are sustained in order to ensure primitive accumulation of wealth and resources. Based on the core theoretical proposition of the proposed theory, the study also presents a broad policy framework for dismantling war economies. In broad terms the framework proposes an integrated state-building process, based on a range of policy mechanisms aimed at maintaining a monopoly over violence, increasing administrative control, dismantling conflict networks and ensuring effective and efficient resource management.

This research deals with achieving and maintaining price stability in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) through the practice of monetary-policy transparency (MPT). On the one hand, MPT refers to a monetary strategy whereby the central bank is insulated from political influence and made accountable to society through disclosure of its policies, procedures, economic models, data and forecasts, operations and political practices (such as objectives, personnel independence, and the like). On the other hand, price stability refers to achieving and maintaining low and stable levels of inflation conducive for long-term planning and poverty alleviation. The primary objective of this research was to investigate MPT in SSA as it represents a powerful means whereby economic agents’ expectations may be coordinated and managed by the central bank to achieve its societal, objective function of low inflation. The empirical evidence shows that, first, a dependent central bank is more likely to slip into hyperinflation. Second, a SADC (2008) model central bank law is not independent enough to be used as a benchmark for any central bank or as a charter for a regional central bank. Third, the degree of central bank independence in SSA is relatively lower than that in industrialised economies. Fourth, the determinants of MPT in SSA are trade openness, and financial depth that are important factors influencing policy-makers to adopt monetary-policy transparency. Fifth, MPT is associated with a decline in the inflation rate. Sixth, MPT had no significant effect on economic output, whilst trade openness was positively associated with real GDP.

Continued debates on economic development, poverty eradication and the growing skeptism concerning the paradigms proposed through many decades, has led to a continued search for a paradigm that would, finally, resolve the issue of pervasive poverty in the Sub-Saharan Africa. Having implemented decentralization within government entities without any significant contribution to poverty eradication, the focus has now turned to the development agencies themselves. What are the inefficiencies in these agencies which if addressed might enable them deliver development aid more efficiently thus, providing more resources for development from being lost in the attrition of overheads? It is, therefore, argued that decentralization of development agencies will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of IFIs in delivering development aid. At the same time, decentralization reforms have been proposed as a response to the failures of highly centralized states (or organizations in this case). Empirical evidence, strongly, suggests that physical proximity and more "face-time", promotes better results-on-the-ground, delivered by staff who are better attuned to local conditions and have a better understanding of the client and their development agenda. But, will decentralization alone solve the issue of pervasive poverty? This research recognises that the factors affecting poverty are diverse and intricate and isolating just one part of the puzzle is not enough. Nevertheless, it is argues that decentralization, has a positive impact on poverty reduction thus, this study presents both practical and theoretical considerations from which policy measures can be derived. This thesis focused on establishing how the World Bank, changed its strategies through the implementation of decentralization of its operations as proposed in the ‗Strategic Compact‘, renewed the way it worked in order to maintain its relevance in the development world. The World Bank President, James Wolfensohn, proposed the Compact as a solution to the organization‘s self diagnosis that it was in distress, in a state of possible decline and was not fulfilling its mission of poverty eradication. This research, using Uganda Country Office as a case study, undertook, mainly, a qualitative review of the overall strategy of decentralization and its implementation organization wide and specifically, in Uganda. The research examined how the implementation of the strategy impacted on poverty trends in Uganda. This research found that the decentralization strategy was, fundamentally, the right one to deliver better results of the Bank‘s mission of ‗fighting poverty for lasting results‘ and its vision of ‗A World Free of Poverty‘. Contrary to the popular notion that the World Bank has been, largely ineffective in the delivery of its mission and its decentralization strategy just another one of its 'shams‘, this research established that the implementation of the strategy, although not having a direct or causal relationship, did have positive impact on poverty alleviation in Uganda. This study, therefore, makes a case for decentralization of donor organizations as a means of better delivery of the poverty eradication agenda in the developing world. The benefits though hard to measure in monetary terms are, nevertheless, real in terms of faster and better quality engagement with the clients which in turn, result into better delivery of services and programmes.

No description available.