| dc.description.abstract | State Sovereignty is a concept formulated in the latter part of the 16th Century. The concept depicts the ability of a nation-state through its government, to have control over its domestic and foreign affairs. This study therefore seeks generally to examine the impact of foreign aid on the sovereignty of states. The study also sets out two
other objectives namely: to find out what interests the donors seek to fulfil through the extension of foreign aid to the developing nations and to re-examine the relevance of the concept of state sovereignty in the contemporary international system.
The study utilizes the dependency theoretical framework as the analytical tools. Based on this theory, the study arrives at a number of conclusions: first, that due to the low level of economic development of the developing countries, which has resulted in
their over dependency on foreign aid from both bilateral and multilateral donors, the sovereignty of the developing states has been interfered with. The interference has been associated with the stringent conditionalities imposed on the recipient developing countries. The said conditions must be met before foreign aid is either
partially disbursed or fully disbursed. It w~ foend that, although foreign aid benefits
.. ..
the recipient countries in some ways, the donors benefIhrrore from the extension of
foreign aid. The study also reveals that due to the economic status of the donor countries as compared to the dependency nature of the developing countries, the concept of state sovereignty is fast losing its relevance.
In the final analysis, the study concludes that through foreign aid, state sovereignty of developing countries is constantly interfered with. This can be attributed to African
governments' record of bad governance due to unaccountability and lack of transparency in the management of public affairs and Africa's dependency syndrome. (Habel Nyamu, Daily Nation, November 1999.) | en |
