Right to Development and the Role of DAC OECD Foreign Aid to Development in Africa

Abstract

When the concept of the human right to development was articulated in Africa in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the idea was not to ask for development aid but to assert the right to self-determination, or even the right to genuine liberation from continued external domination, in order to assume sovereign control and determine the continent’s own developmental destiny. However, in the course of evolution, the idea of the right to development has been distorted to some extent and has been thwarted in order to imply recourse for its realization. Developed countries were required to provide 0.7% of their annual gross domestic product as foreign aid to assist developing countries, including African countries, in their efforts to achieve comprehensive development. Over more than six decades, from 1960 to 2022, the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (DAC OECD) donor countries provided a total of USD 1.23 trillion in development assistance to 48 recipient countries in Africa. This paper examines the extent to which the foreign aid allocations have contributed to development of recipient countries in Africa. The findings illustrate that despite the continued shipment of foreign aid to Africa, impoverishment and underdevelopment have worsened across the continent, raising the question of why Africa should remain trapped in the DAC OECD “dead aid” conundrum when alternative, mutually beneficial development cooperation mechanisms could be explored.