Does foreign aid works? a sub-sahara african experience

The role of foreign aid in the developing world and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), in particular has attracted a great deal of global discuss in recent decades. Without doubt, there has been growing disillusionment with the performance of foreign aid across SSA. Fighting poverty by supporting economic growth and development in the developing world has been and continues to be a major objective of developing countries. However, in many countries it has been difficult to see any positive correlation between aid and economic growth and development. Africa is a particularly sad case in this respect (Stigltz 2002) as the region has fallen behind the rest of the developing world by virtually any measure. The gap between Africa and the rest of the developed world continues to grow. Is aid a major cause of this dismal development? The study has shown that aid has contributed to getting infrastructure available in some SSA countries, improve poverty reduction objectives and boost economic growth while in others retarded growth, increased dependence on aid support, poverty and overall decline in welfare. Aid has become a considerable force in the national economy, making most countries completely dependent on it with its consequences. The study suggests developing countries are required to build the necessary capabilities to trade with the rest of the world based on mutual benefits to boost growth and development for their people.