Growth of foreign assistance and its impact on agriculture; Commentaries on foreign assistance
Lele, U.; Mensah, M.C.; Lattre, A. de; Johnston, B.F.
Accelerating food production in sub Saharan Africa: 321-342; 343-349
1987
Document Number: 574650
The impact of foreign assistance on African agricultural production strategies in the past is reviewed and the potential for useful future contributions assessed. In the early 1980s, total annual foreign assistance to sub-Saharan Africa was approximately $10 000 million, of which perhaps a third went to agriculture. There were around 80 000 external technical assistants residing in 40 countries. Nevertheless, the donor impact on food production growth over the past 20 years was probably small and possibly counterproductive. The important issue raised is the desirability of donors focusing on final growth or equity objectives in the short run, as distinct from creating the capacity in the nations to achieve these objectives in the long run through the establishment of institutions, trained manpower, procedures, policy analysis, and information capacity. The example is given of Asia at its earlier stage of development, in which fewer and larger donors were able to help develop such indigenous capacity. In contrast, in Africa the proliferation of donors, their conflicting views about development goals and means, and competition among them has failed to create such capacity. For the donors to be successful in Africa, the conditions existing in Asia would have to be simulated through aid coordination. This requires a more cohesive donors' view as to the most effective agricultural strategies to achieve the long-term goal. Because of the political nature of food policies, the first comment (Mensah) suggests that donors cannot have much of a direct role in setting them. However, they do have an important role in increasing host-country capacity to improve their planning, budgeting, and monitoring public investment in agriculture. The second comment (De Lattre) corroborates the chapter's contention that much of the resource flows to agriculture in the 1970s did not attack the key problems. The third comment (Johnston) also stresses the importance of distinguishing between the facilitation of policy formulation and the provision of services in foreign assistance.