Africa and technology exchange: Is financial aid effective for the development of the continent?

Abstract

Africa, despite continued and substantial financial assistance from more developed countries, has not yet achieved significant economic growth. It can be concluded that the assistance format requires adjustment. As a new information society is being formed, it can be supposed that the transfer of many technologies to African countries can significantly improve their situation. Thus, the authors put forward the hypothesis that in order to boost the development of African countries, the transfer of basic industrial technologies is needed. The major challenge of the article was to create a model, incorporating both economic indicators of growth and the volume of aid to the African countries, as the second parameter is hard to estimate. Within the developed hypothesis, proposals are put forward for the formation of technological convergence specific mechanisms through supranational institutions. The main aim of the article is to confirm the hypothesis, and put forward four schemes for the formation of the technological exchange infrastructure on the continent. In addition to that, the article provides basic directions for the institutional cooperation between the international development institutions. The key contribution of the article is the proof that the international development institutions' activity and their aid don't correlate with the economic development of the African countries, thus they don't have a significant economic influence.