Assessment of A.I.D. (Agency for International Development) Activities to Promote Agricultural and Rural Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

摘要

A.I.D.'s assistance to sub-Saharan Africa for agricultural and rural development is assessed. Overall conclusions are that the impact of A.I.D. assistance in sub-Saharan Africa has been severely limited by: distinctive conditions in the region (the physical extensiveness and harshness of the countries, the absence of infrastructure, the rise of central planning after independence); Africa's low priority in A.I.D.'s scheme of things; the absence of a clear political constituency for long-term foreign assistance, which has left A.I.D. vulnerable to faddish policy shifts and pressures from special interest groups; and the lack of an Agency-level consensus on the critical elements of agricultural development strategy, together with persistent overoptimism concerning technology transfer.