Managing Aid Dependence: How African governments lost ownership and how they can regain it

Authors: Lindsay Whitfield and Gervase Maipose

Abstract

In the last decade there has been a significant shift in the paradigm for giving foreign aid, encompassed in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness in 2005. At the centre of the new paradigm is the idea of country ownership. Recipient governments are urged to take ownership of development policies and aid activities in their country, to establish their own systems for coordinating donors, and only to accept aid that suits their needs. By contrast, in many aid dependent African countries donors dominate decision-making over which policies are adopted, how aid is spent, and what conditions are attached to its release. This briefing assesses whether ‘ownership’ is likely to be an effective solution. It draws on research into how most African countries lost their ownership in the first place, and how others managed to retain it.