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Aid

and

Development
in

Sub-Saharan Africa
By: Jimmy Graham
Terms and Definitions
ODA: Official Development Assistance. This is another term for foreign aid, but it
encompasses very specific sources of development financing. Notably, private donations
are not included in ODA, but money from major bilateral and multilateral donors like the
US and the World Bank (respectively) is. In this portfolio, the terms aid and ODA are
used interchangeably.

SSA: Sub-Saharan Africa.


Fragility: Fragility is difficult to define, but it is generally has to do with the degree of
conflict and political instability in a country.

Budget Support: ODA that is given directly to recipient governments to use as


they see fit. Most other forms of ODA are given to third-party contractors to carry out proj-
ects.

Freedom Level: a ranking given by Freedom House that is based on the level of
civil liberties and political rights in a country.

Magnitude of Violence: a score given by the Center for Systemic Peace that is
based on all major incidences of political violence in a country in a given year. Political
violence includes everything from riots to civil war.
Life Expectancy Has Been Increasing in Sub-Saharan African for Decades
Distributions of yearly life expectancies across Sub-Saharan African countries, from 1967-2014

Improvements leveled off


following the outbreak of the
HIV epidemic

70

Maximum value

60
Life Expectancy

75% percentile

50
Median

25% percentile

40

Sierra Leone - Minimum value


leading up to, and
during, the 91 to 02
civil war
Rwanda - leading up
to, including, and
following the 94
genocide
30

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Year

Some Countries Have Made Incredible Improvements


Distributions of yearly life expectancies across Sub-Saharan African countries, from 1967-2014

70

60
Life Expectancy

Mali

50
Rwanda

40

30

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Year

Progress for AIDS-Stricken Southern Africa Has Been Derailed


Distributions of yearly life expectancies across Sub-Saharan African countries, from 1967-2014

70

60

Countries in Southern Africa:


Life Expectancy

Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Lesotho,


Zambia, Mozambique, Swaziland, Angola, and Malawi

50

40

30

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Year

Sources:
Data on life expectancy are from the World Development Indicators: http://databank.worldbank.org/-
data/reports.aspx?source=world-development-indicators
Donors Give Preference to Their Former Colonies
ODA Flows from Donors to Groupings of Former SSA Colonies Show That,
Relative to Other Donors, Governments Assign a Larger Portion of Their Aid Budget to Their Former Colonies*

Donor Former Colony Group

Other, or Uncolonized

United Kingdom
$1,
516
,00
0,0
00

United Kingdom
Portugal

$47
1,0
00,
000

Portugal
France

$1,8
76,0
00,0
00

France

Belgium

$337,0
00,000
Belgium

Sources and Notes:


ODA amounts are based on the OECD statistics: http://stats.oecd.org
*Former colony status is determined by the last country for which they were a colony
Donors Give to All, Democratic or Not
Amounts of ODA from the US to SSA countries in 2014, grouped by freedom level of the recipient country

Amount of ODA, in Millions of US$

50
200

600

Recipients Freedom Level

Not Free
Partly Free
Free

Sources and Notes:


ODA amounts are based on the OECD statistics: http://stats.oecd.org
Freedom levels are based on Freedom House Scores: https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2014
Less Corrupt Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa Are Not More Likely to Receive Aid.
Governments in Less Corrupt Countries Are.

Amount of ODA in Millions of US$ received per country in 2014,


grouped by level of corruption

S.
Malawi
Kenya Tanzania Leone
Ethiopia

Least corrupt countries


Liberia Niger (top third)
Middle third
Average = 508 Average = 433
Mozambique Mali B. Faso Madagascar
Mauritania

Benin
Benin S. Africa Senegal
Togo
Gabon
The Gambia Comoros

Somalia Sudan
Nigeria Zambia Ghana
S. Sudan

Most corrupt countries Zimbabwe C.A.R. Burundi


(bottom third) I. Coast Namibia C. Verde

Average = 533
Uganda Guinea Angola Botswana
D.R.C. Mauritius

Cameroon Rwanda The Gambia


Djibouti
Chad
G. Bissau S.T.P.
Lesotho
Congo E. Guinea
Brazz.

> 1800
1200 - 1799
600 - 1199
< 600

Amount of budget support in millions of US$ received per country in 2014,


grouped by level of corruption

Least corrupt countries


Mozambique (top third)
Average = 40
Ethiopia Senegal

Middle third Mali


Average = 33 Tanzania

Most corrupt countries S. Leone Niger Zambia Mauritius


(bottom third) Djibouti
B. Faso
Average = 3
Malawi
Comoros Rwanda Ghana

Uganda C.A.R.

C. Verde
Burundi

> 300
200 - 299
100 - 199
< 100

Sources:
Corruption levels are based on the World Governance Indicators: http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/index.aspx#home
ODA amounts are based on the OECD statistics: http://stats.oecd.org
Aid Flows Are Unpredictable
Highlights of Standout Countries by Category Reveal that
There Are No Strong Predictors for Which Countries Will Receive the Most ODA Per Capita

ODA Per Capita

5
185

365

5 least populated
5 most fragile
5 poorest per capita
5 least corrupt

Sources:
Corruption levels are based on the World Governance Indicators: http://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/index.aspx#home
ODA amounts are based on the OECD statistics: http://stats.oecd.org
Income levels and population are from the World Development Indicators: http://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?source=world-development-indicators
Fragility measures are from the Fund for Peace: http://fsi.fundforpeace.org
Debt Relief Once Accounted for Over Half of All Aid in SSA. Now It Accounts for Almost None of It.
Percentage of total ODA spent per year on the largest sectors, from 2002 to 2014

1.00

Humanitarian
Debt Relief

0.75
Agriculture

Education
Proportion of Total

Governance
0.50

Infrastructure

Health and WASH


0.25

Population

0.00

2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014

Year
Source:
ODA amounts are based on the OECD statistics: http://stats.oecd.org
The Largest Aid Disbursements Come in the Form of Budget Relief
The Heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative and Similar Subsequent Programs Have Led to Huge Money Transfers in the Form of Debt Relief

Total Amount of ODA Received by Countries Over Time, with the Five Largest Disbursements of Debt Relief Circled and Enumerated

14000

Nigeria
$12,690 million in debt
relief in 2006
12000
Total ODA, in Millions of US$

10000

8000 D.R.C.
$6,461 million

$6,525 million
6000 $4,794 million

4000

Cote DIvoire
$1,673 million

2000

2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014

Year

Source:
ODA amounts are based on the OECD statistics: http://stats.oecd.org
Violence Begets Violence
Major Incidences of Violence are Typically Followed by Decades of Conflict

Yearly levels of violence for 4 of the 6 Countries that have experienced the most intense conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa, from 1960-2015

10 Nigerian Civil
The Rwandan Genocide appears to be an excep-
tion to patterns of longevity: 800,000 were
War: 2 million killed in 3 months, and the conflict abated
killed. Violence quickly. But the conflict really just spread
related to the to the DRC.
same underlying
8 problems contin- The Congolese Wars: the worlds deadliest since WWII.
ues today Over 5 million killed.

Angola
6 Angolan Civil War:
800,000 killed Rwanda
over 27 years
D.R. Congo

4 Nigeria

1960 1980 2000


Sources:
Magnitudes of violence are based on the Center For Systemic Peaces Major Episodes of Political Violence dataset: http://www.systemicpeace.org/inscrdata.html
Information on wars and battle deaths are from wikipedia.

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