Sino-African Relations and ODA in the Twenty-First Century: Chinese Aid and Public Expenditure in Education and Health Sectors of Sub-Saharan African Nations

Abstract

This paper explores the indirect relationship between Chinese aid and public expenditure in human development sectors in African nations. This is achieved through analyzing the change of public expenditure in the education and health sectors of the top two African recipients of Chinese ODA—Ethiopia and Cote d’Ivoire, with an extended analysis to an additional five African nations. Through a comparative analysis, this paper investigates if a direct connection between public expenditure in the health and education and Chinese aid can be established, and explores its implications in the larger international aid system. The study discovers an overall pattern of increased public health and education expenditure in African nations after the influx of Chinese ODA; however, a connection between the two cannot be established. The study discovered that public health and education expenditure increased by larger percentages in nations with previously established ambitions and goals of poverty reduction and human development, indicating that the surge of Chinese aid may have contributed to increased fiscal autonomy in the African aid recipients, providing more freedom to increase expenditure in already prioritized sectors. The result of this analysis, hence, contravenes the narrative of Chinese aid hindering African human development.