It isn’t so much a claim as my opinion based on general reading rather than a specific reference. There are actually many potential differences and problems about development in African nations, I was pointing out that anyone making the claim that aid has any beneficial effect has to explain the apparent retrogression. For a good introduction to the problems of development, William Easterly’s books, The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists’ Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics and The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good, are a good and fairly readable start.
You could also make the claim that colonization was in reality a massive aid campaign to the colonized lands, and that the problem has been caused by the effective reduction in aid since de-colonization. There have been several good studies that, contra the general belief, colonies were a net drain on the colonizers, and the colonized peoples gained more economic value than was extracted. The primary beneficiaries being a few large special interests.
It isn’t so much a claim as my opinion based on general reading rather than a specific reference. There are actually many potential differences and problems about development in African nations, I was pointing out that anyone making the claim that aid has any beneficial effect has to explain the apparent retrogression. For a good introduction to the problems of development, William Easterly’s books, The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists’ Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics and The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good, are a good and fairly readable start.
You could also make the claim that colonization was in reality a massive aid campaign to the colonized lands, and that the problem has been caused by the effective reduction in aid since de-colonization. There have been several good studies that, contra the general belief, colonies were a net drain on the colonizers, and the colonized peoples gained more economic value than was extracted. The primary beneficiaries being a few large special interests.