An Analysis of European Union (EU) Aid to Zimbabwe from 1980 to 2000

Gara, Herbert (2009) An Analysis of European Union (EU) Aid to Zimbabwe from 1980 to 2000. Masters thesis, University of Zimbabwe.

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Abstract

Foreign aid has taken centre stage in international relations after the Second World War. To some analysts such as Milton Friedman, Peter Bauer and William Easterly, “foreign aid is seen as enlarging government bureaucracies, perpetuating bad governments, enriching the elite in poor countries and just plain wasteful.”On the other hand, supporters of foreign aid such as Jeffrey Sachs, Joseph Stiglitz, Nicholas Stern among others argue that although aid has sometimes failed, it has supported poverty reduction and economic growth in some countries and prevented worse performance in others. These analysts believe that many of the weaknesses of aid “have more to do with donors themselves than the recipients and point to a range of conditionalities which militate against success.” Moreover they invoke the moral argument that it is imperative for the „haves‟ to share their wealth with the „have nots.‟ In the case of Zimbabwe there is a compelling argument in favour of aid especially if one takes into account our colonial past which is riddled with pillaging of national resources at the expense of the indigenous people. According to Kwasi Anyemedu, “aid consists of concessional loans and grants to developing countries to promote development. For him, loans can only qualify as aid if there is a great element of concession built into them of more than twenty five percent.”2 Steven Radelet in his article, A Primer on Foreign Aid, points out that the standard definition of foreign aid comes from the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). DAC defines foreign as „financial flows, technical assistance and commodities that are designed to promote economic development and welfare as their main objective and are provided either as grants or subsidized loans.”3 William Easterly views aid as the “transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.” The assumption is that the working class in rich countries underwrites aid programmes in developing countries but the tragedy is that aid has not been able to achieve the intended goals. It is in this context that this study intends to establish whether aid fosters economic development or it creates a centre periphery relationship between the rich countries and the Third World. Zimbabwe‟s relationship with the European Union (EU) since its independence in 1980 will thus become the focus of this study with a view to ascertain whether there are mutual benefits for both or it is just a panacea for further exploitation of Third World countries.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
Divisions:	Africana
Depositing User:	JHI Africa
Date Deposited:	10 Aug 2015 06:09
Last Modified:	10 Aug 2015 06:09
URI:	http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/285

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