ODA and Human Development in sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Panel Data

Abstract

The relevance of Technical Cooperation (TC)—one important and significant component of ODA flows — for state and institutional developmental capacities in Africa has been a subject of intense debate in the past few decades, given its assumed potency in the drive towards desirable growth trajectories and attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as well as the other international targets. However, impact of the flows, both of ODA as a whole and TC in particular have been mixed over the years—growth rates in Africa as well as in the respective countries remain far below desired levels, extreme poverty continue to be endemic and majority of African states are still classified as low human development countries by the UNDP. Hence partner countries and even the international development partners (DPs) themselves have voiced concerns about the development-credibility problem of the current aid architecture in general, and the delivery of technical cooperation in particular. Apart from dwindling technical cooperation flows in recent times, a large proportion of this fund is found to be used to service “consultants and experts ” working in Africa. This has consequently cast doubts on the relevance of TC in sub-Saharan Africa and led to increased attention on how to make technical assistance and aggregate aid more effective. Using panel data on selected sub-Saharan African countries, sourced mainly from World Development Indicators

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