THE END OF FOREIGN AID TO AFRICA? CONCERNS ABOUT DONOR POLICIES

For more than three decades, a key feature of Africa, and Africanrelations with the outside world, has been the aid relationship.In recent years, donors have given high priority to using aidresources to help solve Africa's poverty problems. In this article,contemporary policies and their likely impact on African povertyare put under the microscope. Six challenges to conventionaldonor views are presented. Firstly, the amounts of aid providedto Africa are not based on Africa's poverty needs and the gapbetween aid needs and aid provided is widening. Secondly, donorcommitments to poverty reduction in Africa are not new; theyare severely weakened by divisions among donors and large gapsremain between the rhetoric of support for poverty alleviationand the reality of sectoral aid allocations. Thirdly, thereare serious doubts about whether the devel opment model withinwhich aid funds are located will be able in practice to ‘deliver’the growth and employment generation required. Fourthly, thoughdonors have given increasing prominence to aid which reachesthe poor directly, there are doubts about the scale and effectivenessof such aid. Fifthly, the growing emphasis which donors areplacing on the results and effectiveness of aid risks shiftingaid towards the less poor. Sixthly, aid donors have tended inrecent years to place less emphasis on politics, the power ofself-interested elites and asset distribution in helping tosolve Africa's poverty problems—though these were dominantthemes when donors last focused so vigorously on aid for povertyreduction, in the mid-1970s. The article ends with some briefproposals for addressing these problems.     

THE END OF POLITICS BY THEYOUTH? HIGHER EDUCATION,YOUTH IDENTITY AND RECESSION OFPOLITICAL PARTICIPATION BY SOUTH AFRICA'S ‘BORN-FREES’:1 THE CASE OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS AT A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY

ABSTRACT

The aim of the study is to examine the effects of political socialisation by the family and significant others on the political participation by South Africa's born-frees using a sample of undergraduate students at a public university in a metropolitan area. Overall, political participation is relatively low among the born-frees even though political awareness is very high. Political socialisation in the form of discussion of politics with parents, other relatives and peers is found to be an important predictor of youth participation in political activities. The youth of mothers with school leaving certificates or undergraduate education are more likely to be politically engaged compared to those of mothers with either no education or postgraduate education. Finally, older youth are more likely than younger ones to be politically engaged.