Balancing the act in foreign development assistance: A radical approach

Over the past decade the debate on aid effectiveness following the Paris Declaration has taken a new dimension with many commentators seeking answers, not about where development aid goes, but how effective it is in reducing poverty. In Africa, the debate has been polarising with one camp calling for increased aid, while the other extreme view calls for an end to aid to African governments, arguing that aid has created dependency, hence a colonising machinery. Despite these polarising views, there is less reflection on how the two views can be balanced in order to "enhance aid dependency". This paper aims to contribute to this on-going debate by arguing that there exists a possibility in which developing countries can 'graduate' from aid dependency. First, this requires an understanding of the politics of aid. Second, it needs a radical approach that emanates from the local contexts (country-led) by progressively introducing measures that weans countries from aid dependency. This may include measures such as a "zero deficit" approach. Third, there is also a need to de-centre the management of foreign development assistance (FDA) by allowing local government structures the ultimate authority to oversee the planning, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development initiatives. To achieve this, the paper argues that developing countries need to engage in mass radical development education; that is, education that unpacks the subtleties of the colonizing and patronising nature of FDA, the legacies of colonisation and the neo-colonial agenda of donor countries and agencies and, finally, deconstructing various development discourses by exposing the "hidden" agendas behind such development discourses. Keywords: Foreign development assistance; colonisation; aid dependency; education; Africa