2.3.2 The Politics of Official Development Assistance on
Rwanda
The OECD?s general definition of official development
assistance (ODA) applies here: aid as grants and loans with at least a 25%
grant element, provided by OECD and OPEC member countries and multilateral
agencies, and which are administered with the aim of supporting development and
welfare in the recipient country. It is important to stress that the OECD
definition of ODA does not include military assistance although Donors view aid
as having a positive effect on both economic development and the political
level. Economically, in particular the Bretton Woods Institutions argue that a
structural adjustment programme, including a slimming of the public
administration, privatization of public companies and a reduction in military
spending, will benefit the economy as a whole and thereby also the poor people
in Rwanda. Politically, donors argue that the economic reforms are an essential
element to stabilize the socio-political environment in Rwanda and the Great
Lakes Region. (OECD, 2000).
In other words, aid is seen as a means to bring lasting peace
to the region. The EU has followed the line set out by the Bretton Woods
institutions and is a major donor of development aid, despite official protests
against the continued war in the Congo. For instance, the European Commission
in June 1999 issued a communication to the EU Council of Ministers and the EU
Parliament reviewing the EU's economic cooperation with countries at war in the
Congo. The report was intended to avoid the misuse of development funds
provided by the EU for military purposes. (André, Catherine, and
Tierens, Michel, 1999).
Rwanda is generally highly dependent on aid in virtually all
sectors. For instance, the country received US$ 372.9 million in Official
Development Assistance (ODA) during 1999, most of which (287.4 mil US$)
comprised grants provided by bilateral donors. However, net foreign assistance
has been declining and is unlikely to exceed US$ 180 million in 2001 and US$
170 million in 2002 (Economist Intelligence Unit, 2001). Donors appear to have
decided to refrain from investigating whether conditions are being respected,
instead quietly ?believing? in the good intentions of the Rwandan
government? all because the local leaders pander to the whims of the
unofficial agenda of the West. This explains why the Bretton Woods institutions
have steadfastly backed questionable statistics put forward by the
Government of Rwanda? and even continued to publish manipulated and
incompatible figures by the Government of Rwanda?.
2.3.3 The World Bank and UNDP Poverty
Indicators-Indices
According to the World Bank (2006), since 1990 extreme poverty
in developing countries has
fallen from 28% to 21%. However, over the same
period the population grew by 15% to 5
billion, leaving 1.1 billion people
in extreme poverty. The World Bank also estimates that if
economic growth rates are sustained, global poverty will fall
to 10%, but millions of people will still be trapped in poverty especially
Sub-Saharan Africa due to: lack of employment, depletion of environmental
resources, corruption, conflict and mis-governance (waste of public
resources).
The UNDP on its hand has characterized poverty in a similar
way but measures the various dimensions of deprivation using a series of
composite measures. It has produced the Human Development Index (HDI) and a
number of variants. The basic HDI is an average of indices of what the UNDP
considers to be uppermost aspects of human development: health as measured by
life expectancy at birth and maternal mortality, educational attainment as
measured by adult literacy, material standard of living measured by GDP per
capita (in dollars), unemployment, crime (to some extent), and freedom and
human rights. WB Poverty Reduction Handbook (1983), notes that «poverty is
conventionally measured by the income or expenditure level that can sustain a
bare minimum standard of living. Poverty can be measured in relative or
absolute terms. However, poverty is not just measured by income and consumption
above: Health, life expectancy, access to clean water, and education are
central dimensions of welfare».
On the other dimension, the World Bank Report of 1991 focuses
on income and social indicators. The World Bank indicators are identified from
a general analysis of country characteristics combined with the poverty
profiles. One may suggest that they show incomes and living standards of the
poor. They are based on the income-earning opportunities of the poor as
producers and employees and the availability and prices of pertinent
consumption goods. Smallholder farmers are the major targeted poverty group.
Their main source of income is the sale of agricultural produce. Their incomes
depend on the prices of the crops compared with the
prices of the goods they consume. Social sector expenditures,
broken down to show expenditures on services used by the poor are deemed
important poverty indicators. The assumption is that «there is an overall
positive relationship between levels of social indicators and social
expenditure shares». However, the problem with this analysis is that it is
teleological - expenditure in developing countries particularly in Rwanda is
not necessarily an objective response to an objectively observed need to
alleviate poverty. For this reason to assume that government expenditure on
social amenities is in relation or response to an objectively assessed need for
poverty alleviation is to be naïve. In reality government expenditure has
more to do with its own affordability rather than a reaction to a
well-researched poverty need.
The World Bank values children?s health and
nutritional status as a key indicator. It uses three leading indicators:
the under-five mortality, immunization, and malnutrition. The under-five
mortality rate is seen as the best indicator of «changes in health
status»; more so because it is not susceptible to cultural biases.
However, there is a problem of the availability of such data. Some communities
hardly visit hospitals due to religious beliefs and others do not have any
community health officers who would record such deaths. Lastly, the World Bank
focuses on the critical role women play in the survival strategies of the poor.
Their status and access to services are important indicators of family well-
being. Priority indicators include: female/male life expectancy at birth,
totality fertility rate, and maternal mortality rate. The first category is
based on the assumption that «normally women outlive men» (Ibid
p.26). The second category represents the number of children a woman would bear
if she were to reach the end of her child bearing years. The assumption here is
that there is «a correlation between fertility and poverty».
This assumption requires more scientific evidence to prove.
The last category, though, seems quite obvious - that maternal mortality is an
indication of poor women?s access to basic health services. In patriarchal
societies female literacy could also be a measure for it is directly linked
with welfare benefits. One may say that the World Bank indicators of poverty
can therefore be summarized as follows: income and consumption, employment,
health and nutrition, life expectancy, mortality rate and literacy. All these
can be further collapsed into income, health and social indicators. In the
final analysis Mkandawire (1999) defines poverty in more embracing terms than
Chambers and Kurien, and his definition can thus be used as a standard
definition for this research. For his perspective, poverty is «a condition
characterized by serious deprivation of basic needs in terms of food, water,
health, shelter, education; and a lack of means and opportunities to fulfil
these basic needs.
In his study of rural poverty in Malawi in 1993, he identified
the following as the indicators of poverty: low income levels, unequal
distribution of incomes, high unemployment rate, household food insecurity,
high mortality rate, poor water and sanitary facilities, low literacy rate and
environmental degradation Mkandawire?s study is a basic needs approach to the
understanding of poverty which clearly combines the UNDP and World Bank
indicators of poverty.
These Organizations? list of indicators serves as a convenient
point of entry into the discussion of foreign aid and impact on poverty
alleviation in Sub-Saharan Africa; but before such a detailed discussion there
is need first to analyze various theories attempting to explain the motivations
and nature of foreign.
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