Exploring donor-driven skills development as a channel of continued aid dependency

Abstract

This article examines donor-driven skills training programmes and projects at the technical and vocational level in post-war Sierra Leone, using dependency theory as an analytical framework. Based on qualitative data collected from fieldwork in 2017, it emerges that such programmes and projects are driven by donor strategies and largely detached from local market demands, are oftentimes based on convenience and historical relationships in regions/sectors rather than evolving needs of the country, promise employment but instead deliver informal self-employment and focus heavily on outputs rather than outcomes. From these empirical observations, it can be argued that donor-driven skills development, as it has manifested in Sierra Leone, is unlikely to create skills that can meaningfully contribute to national growth and development. Instead, these interventions may drive outcomes that lead to continued aid dependency. The article thus presents a renewed argument for skills for self-reliant development.