State strength and foreign aid to Africa

The purpose of this study was to investigate under what conditions foreign aid can have\ud the most success in reaching the Millennium Development Goals of increasing social\ud welfare and poverty reduction in Africa. This study examined what implications a\ud country???s internal state strength and political context can have for the success of foreign\ud aid. The thesis utilized both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore what state\ud strength variables most strongly influence the ability of foreign aid to reach its goals of\ud poverty reduction and social welfare improvement. Quantitative methods entailed the use\ud of multivariate regression analysis, while the qualitative method was conducted through\ud comparative case studies that provided a range of state strength. The results revealed\ud linkages between state strength and effective foreign aid utilization. The principal\ud conclusions were that the political environment in which foreign aid development efforts\ud occur has a powerful impact on their likelihood of success in reaching the goals of\ud foreign aid. Second, aid is much less likely to be successful in a context of weak state\ud strength or in states that have failed. Third, recipient countries with higher state strength\ud can be predicted to simultaneously have the capacity and commitment to utilize aid\ud resources effectively for pro-poor development aims. Ultimately, the presence of higher\ud capacity and commitment to development aims allows for a stronger sense of ownership\ud over the programs and projects