Tinashe Nyatoro

The Impact of Aid Dependence on Social Development: the Case of Zimbabwe Tinashe Nyatoro

The purpose of this study was to look at how a foreign aid dependent economy is vulnerable to external manipulations. This study came up with the conclusion that foreign capital dependence is detrimental to long-term social, economic, and sustainable development of developing countries. The study also noted how foreign aid is used as a foreign policy instrument by western countries to influence the behaviour of the developing countries. The study noted that Zimbabwe is an aid dependent country hence its vulnerability to external manipulation. This has been demonstrated by capital flight from Zimbabwe since 1997. Multilateral Financial Institutions, the European Union, United States of America and other bilateral donors withdrew their financial support to the country due to policy disagreements with the Zimbabwean government. This incidence of donors withdrawing their financial support to Zimbabwe raises fundamental questions as to whether the African state is autonomous or is it possible for the African state to delink itself from the current global international market and at what costs?..