Introduction

The beginning of the twenty-first century particularly appeared to offer sub-Saharan African countries a favorable context in terms of foreign aid. Actually, we seem to be witnessing a renewal of the commitment of donors in favor of an increase of assistance to Africa. We have never witnessed a situation of such optimism in the economic history of Africa. The level of generosity expressed by rich countries in favor of Africa seemed to be stronger than ever. In this chapter I will examine some of the major initiatives on aid, but particularly, I will prove that what mostly characterizes aid is the gap between pronouncements by donor countries and effective delivery.

New Initiatives Seem to Indicate a New Level of Solidarity of Rich Countries

Initiatives of the United Nations System

In September 2000, world leaders met in the United Nations Millennium Summit in New York. Here they adopted the Millennium Declaration to try to put the fight against poverty at the center of the development agenda of the international community, as well as aid to developing countries to assist them in this fight. This declaration set a total of eight goals to be attained before 2015 to speed up poverty reduction in the world. These goals, better known today under the appellation Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), target substantial progress in developing countries in fields as varied as the proportion of the population living with less than a dollar per day, hunger, primary education, maternal and child health, the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic, gender equality, access to drinking water and the environment (Box 11.1 below describes these goals).