Searching for Opportunities for Sub-Saharan Africa's Renewal in the Era of Globalisation

Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries rely heavily on donor assistance and international borrowing. The Official Development Assistance (ODA)/GNP ratio in SSA is expected to rise well into the next century. Increases or decreases of ODA, which is known to be the main source of SSA's investment, may depend on the type of global settlement expected to emerge in the post-cold war world. SSA has therefore a stake on the type of globalisation which may frame world economic policy and financial aid to it. Neo-liberal globalisation has no enthusiasm for massive financial transfers. The incipient globalising ideas which emerged from the Rio Summit in 1992 have suggested to increase ODAs in real terms and debt relief to control crushing debt service payments. Agenda 21 has created new and additional facilities formally for increasing donor assistance in the form of financial and investment transfers. The question is whether this new mechanism will make any difference to stem the SSA decline and can "incentivise" the region's renewal or renaissance. This article will focus on how globalisation may be related to increase or decrease of financial transfer to SSA. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.