The Relevance of Foreign Assistance on Self-Development in Post-Colonial Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

For this dissertation, the researcher studies the relevance of foreign development assistance (F.D.A.) in relationship with self-development in post-colonial Sub-Saharan Africa, dating from 1960 through 2010. This relationship is analyzed using alternative theories and models of development to the Westernized definitions of development – to define development as self-actualization, self-discovery, self-reliance and self-sustainability. The research considers specific paradigms related to Africa (Westernized, Afrocentric and Pan African) in its analysis. The researcher uses Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R.C.), Seychelles and Tanzania as the sample countries to illustrate the relationship. The research analyzes F.D.A. (O.D.A., economic structural adjustments and N.G.O. activity) in Sub-Saharan Africa in order to test the modernization theory’s insistence that F.D.A. is necessary to bring self-development. From quantitative research, results (with 14.7% certainty overall and various certainty levels when broken into separate stages of post-colonial self-development) revealed mixed correlations between F.D.A. and self-development. From the results, interested parties in international relations, public administration, public policy, and African development can conclude that F.D.A. is somewhat irrelevant to Sub-Saharan African self-development. Therefore, self-development advocates would continue to challenge whether foreign aid is needed for self-development, or whether it will continue to ruin Sub-Saharan Africa and continue to keep the sub-continent in total dependency on the outside world through foreign aid.