Overseas development : the work in hand.

  • Great Britain. Ministry of Overseas Development
Date:
1967
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Overseas development : the work in hand. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the Universities, often form the basis of discussions preliminary to the negotiation of a long-term aid commitment to the country in question. In Africa in 1965 one such Mission visited Basutoland and Bechuanaland, as they then were, and Swaziland and made recommendations for five-year programmes of development in each country: the reports on Basutoland and Bechuanaland have formed the background to British forward aid planning for these countries for the period 1967-70. Another smaller mission visited the Gambia in December 1965 and the report will be considered when future aid is discussed with that Government. Further missions went to Malawi and to Tanzania. After consideration of the report on Malawi, British budgetary and development aid was committed for the period 1966-68. Another mission which examined land transfer problems in Kenya is referred to in para. 354 below. Financial Aid for Development Projects 349. Commitments of financial aid over the past 12 months have as far as possible taken the form of loans tied to the purchase of British goods and services. But in the poorer countries this is not always possible. Their develop- ment plans are largely concerned with agriculture, education, and public health, in which the direct import content of projects is relatively small. They lack the taxable capacity and the financial institutions necessary to raise the local funds themselves. To insist therefore on all aid being tied to British goods and services would distort development plans towards less essential and less economic projects with a high import content at the expense of the more urgent and more economic projects. 350. For these reasons, an exceptionally high proportion of British aid to Africa has been untied. Thus, of the £3 million interest-free loan made to Kenya in 1965/66, 58 per cent. was applied to local costs. In Uganda the proportion is 34 per cent. and in Malawi there is no fixed limit on the amount of British development aid which is used for local costs. Where Britain’s share of the developing country’s normal imports is relatively large, a larger part of the sterling provided “‘untied’”—for local costs of development projects—may return to this country in the form of increased purchases of general imports. Where we are providing significant amounts of local cost aid, it is the practice to reach an understanding with the recipient governments that their normal government purchases on recurrent account shall be made from this country. The Ministry also agrees with the recipient government the exact purposes for which the aid is to be used and, where appropriate, requires the works to be supervised by British firms of consultants. Budgetary Aid 351. Aid policies towards independent countries in Africa have had to take account of the need in some cases for budgetary aid. Some former Colonies have attained independence without being able to raise from their own resources sufficient revenue to meet their essential recurrent expenditure, let alone provide any margin for development. Malawi, which became independent in 1964, was the first country in Africa to present this problem and for the three years 1966-68 Britain has undertaken to provide, in addition to development aid, budgetary aid within a maximum of £5-3 million a year, the actual amount being negotiated annually (up to £4-6 million will be provided in 1967).