Donors, Democracy and Sovereignty: the Politicisation of Aid and its Impact on African-EU Relations

The chapter looks at the changes in aid priorities that have taken place in recent years towards an emphasis on democratisation and good governance. It asks how democratisation and good political governance can be supported and furthered through aid. Is this an effective and efficient way of spending aid money? What are the economic and political problems with this approach? Are there better ways of supporting democratisation than through aid? While efforts to promote democracy are laudable, political conditionalities have made the provision of aid more politically intrusive and controversial, and it has made recipient states of aid acutely aware of the sovereignty loss the acceptance of aid may incur. This is an important factor if we are to understand the current strain in African-European relations.