Improving Aid to Africa (Overseas Development Council, 1994)
Summary: The Executive Summary portion of the Improving Aid to Africa policy essay outlines the sections that the rest of the essay covers in more detail, including the impact of aid in Africa, the four key weaknesses of the current aid system, the reasoning behind the actions of the donor and recipient countries, and the best ways to reform the foreign aid policy.
Topic: Should the state department of the Obama administration double foreign aid for Africa?
Category: Academic Research
What is it? Policy analysis results essay
Title: Improving Aid to Africa (Policy Essay No. 21)
Publication Information: The Overseas Development Council series of policy essays, 1996, Washington DC
Author: Nicolas van de Walle and Timothy A. Johnston, Director and Assistant Director of the Project on Aid Effectiveness in Africa
Location: Book (Call #: Knight HC 800.V36 1996)
Accessed: February 23, 2009
Support:
• The Project on Aid Effectiveness in Africa
• Improving Aid to Africa
Since this is just the Executive Summary portion of the essay, it references both what the rest of the essay is based on (The Project on Aid Effectiveness in Africa) and the essay itself (Improving Aid to Africa). The reference to The Project on Aid Effectiveness in Africa sets the scene and lets the reader know that this essay is a synthesis of the results of that project.
Audience and Agenda: Given that this is a policy essay, it has a fairly narrow audience of people who are either already involved in the foreign aid reform movement or those who are interested in the movement. The Overseas Development Council (ODC) is an international policy research institute that seeks to research and reform current international policies. They are a private, non-profit organization that is funded by foundations, corporations, governments and private individuals.
Usefulness: This is the synthesis of The Project on Aid Effectiveness in Africa written by the director and assistant director of that program. They did very detailed case studies of seven different African countries that were receiving aid in an attempt to find out why foreign aid wasn’t (and still isn’t) hitting the mark. This was the most ambitious policy analysis ever undertaken at the time. The directors of the Project took the results of their case studies and wrote this essay to highlight the problems with the current policy and suggest ways on how to fix those problems. This is an incredibly credible source and the directors have first-hand knowledge of the aid policy and what does and doesn’t work about it. It’s a little bit dated, but the problems seem to still exist in the policy today. With regards to whether the state department should double foreign aid, this source would be used to argue that they should as long as the four key weaknesses of the current system are addressed first.
Works Cited:
Improving Aid to Africa About pages (p 132-133)
