Africa and the donor community: from conditionality to partnership

Abstract

The last decade has seen an increasing disillusionment with aid to Africa. Whilst some have laid the blame for this failure at the door of African governments and their lack of commitment, there is growing recognition that the multiple conditionalities imposed by donors have been part of the problem. The concept of partnership propounded in the White Paper, and in a new Swedish policy document, potentially offers a vision of aid relationships on a more equal footing, with scope for genuine recipient participation. But potential pitfalls lay ahead: problems for recipients in managing multiple partnerships, for donors in finding governments with sufficient capacity and commitment to the shared goals of democracy and poverty eradication to act as genuine partners, and to manage an equal partnership based on the inherently one-sided process of aid budgeting. Time and effort are also required to bring the whole international community into line with the notion of partnership as the basis for aid relations. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.