Across the African continent many want to do away with decades of aid dependency striving instead for a more assertive Africa on the international scene. This course encourages informed debate and a varied assessment of what overseas development assistance has evolved into over the years and how can it be complemented and replaced by more effective and relevant resources. It will offer a variety of case studies from individual African countries as well as identifying regional trends and characteristics.

The course aims to locate the topical ‘Beyond Aid’ debate in a theoretical, historical and regional perspective. It offers an introduction to main tenets of development theory and provides an overview of how international norms guiding development policy have evolved from the first development decade of the 1960s to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the UN in 2015.

Furthermore, the course assesses the changing role of development assistance in the context of African economic and social development and will compare contemporary data on the role of aid relative to trade, remittances and foreign direct investments. It will look at challenges confronting African countries aiming to offer a more diverse and varied understanding of development options and constraints relative to the often-stereotyped perceptions of ‘one size fits all’ presumably meant to apply across 54 very different nations on the continent. And it will look at how access to financial resources influence the position of African governments in shaping current geopolitical alliances.