Considerations of foreign development assistance

Abstract

The objectives and interests of donor countries with respect to providing development assistance vary considerably from one country to another (Wood 1994). Regardless, the role of official development assistance (ODA) in the in the overall advancement process has been recognized widely and most developed nations have committed to allocating development assistance to developing countries, especially to least developed countries (LDC). For some recipient countries, foreign development assistance represents a significant percentage of the government budget. For some developing countries, a high degree of dependence on foreign aid exacerbates macroeconomic vulnerabilities and also contributes to their ability in ensuring sustainability (United Nations 2010). The politics of international assistance have achieved new prominence in recent decades as a result of rising nationalist sentiments in some recipient countries. Specifically, “in countries with long histories of foreign interference, [nationalist] political forces have played to that sentiment, proudly refusing international aid, even while their economies suffer” (Shaikh and Hamid 2012). At the same time, many receiving countries have usurped foreign aid personalizing large sums and failing to achieve the intended development results. This has stemmed growing concern about corruption by donor countries, which has ensued some sort of acknowledgment for the need to attach conditionalities to foreign aid and monitoring progress as a way of ensuring that their political agendas and specific requirements are adhered to by the receiving state.