WHAT IS DEVELOPMENT AID ?

I think what is required in the first instance is to define Development Aid and identify its proponents and sources. Aid is a broad area as a strategy in tackling sustainability in both developed (DCs’) and developing countries.(LDC’s)


For DCs, it may be a strategy to create an enabling enviroment to meet projected shortalls in the sustainabilty needs and mitigation measures for containment of epidedemics. Hence Aid is tied to conditions and obligations to implement and monitor project implementation. For example, the development of the lower Zambezi Valley was linked to seisimic studies that seemed to suggest that they may be oil and Uranium deposits in the Valley. This has been uninhabited over 1000s of years with known existence of elephants, buffalo herd ,tigers and giraffes among other natural habitats. Although it was linked to creation for land for resettlement, this is flood plain which may not have sustainability to effects of global warming.


A substantial amount of development aid is committed to provision of technical expertise and equipment, hence the notion that it is tied. This is always a precondition because it also becomes a vehicle to provide employment , research and a stimulus package for the DCs. This is ultimately linked to the GDP and becomes the fundamental underlying principles of Development Aid. Hence, Thomas Mapumo’s song with lines such as “Something for something and Nothing for nothing,” quickly resonates with the people.


For LDCs, the scope for initiating development to satisfy local needs is clear, but is constantly frustrated due to lack of technical expertise, equipment and of course resources.There has been a lot done to develop capacity and the effect brain drain has derailled continuity and unstable governance issues have been retrogrogrressive.This has contributed to high dependence on DCs hence the anathema high debt and declining ability to service debt aid.