Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Aid Conditionality in Africa: Impact of Chinese Aid

The Chinese Political Science Review published online on 3 February 2017 a study titled "Does Conditionality Still Work? China's Development Assistance and Democracy in Africa" by Xiaojun Li, The University of British Columbia.

The author asks whether aid conditionality still works with China's rise as a major donor since the early 2000s. The results show that the democratizing effects of the OECD's development aid in Sub-Saharan African have diminished. The findings support the thesis that the democratizing effect of aid conditionality works only during a period when recipient countries do not have other alternative sources of aid, allowing donors to more credibly commit to enforcing conditionality.