Impact of Aid on Sovereignty of the Recipient Country
According to McNeill (1982:20) sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that tests on a political fact for which no pure legal definition can be provided. In political theory, the ultimate authority in the decision making process of the state and in the maintenance of order. According to Anderson (2001:78) foreign aid is the transfer of resources from developed countries to under developing countries, either through bilateral donors or multilateral donors. Many countries in the world accept foreign assistance and get different benefits along with a few adverse results. It is the debt that is given by a country to another country on the concessional rates. Mazrui (1986:69) stated that aid often comes with conditions on its allocation. This is called aid conditionality. The two types of conditionality are outcomes and process based conditionality. Outcome conditionality ties aid to a certain goal while process conditionality is often seen together. The problem with aid conditionality is that it not only restricts the local legislature in how they shape their own country, but often removes local populations from the goal setting and decision making process entirely.
An evaluation of possible consequences of foreign aid may reflect direct as either economic, financial and at most times the mixture of the two. This superficial view of these quencequances is mostly limited to the economic facet of public policy by governments. What remains unchecked is the trickle down impact of the economic policy implementations on the socio-political facet of an independent government. When a government has definite objectives concurrent with and reflecting a vision of perhaps the ruling party or the nation itself and the economic policy changes, impact on the socio-political facet of the country is not in accordance with the country’s vision, then sovereignty of such
An evaluation of possible consequences of foreign aid may reflect direct as either economic, financial and at most times the mixture of the two. This superficial view of these quencequances is mostly limited to the economic facet of public policy by governments. What remains unchecked is the trickle down impact of the economic policy implementations on the socio-political facet of an independent government. When a government has definite objectives concurrent with and reflecting a vision of perhaps the ruling party or the nation itself and the economic policy changes, impact on the socio-political facet of the country is not in accordance with the country’s vision, then sovereignty of such