Contexts Controversies and Commonalities

This chapter presents arguments as to why understanding the role of Western aid in the preservation of authoritarian regimes in Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda is important. It presents the broader context of Western development assistance to Sub-Saharan Africa and demonstrates the historical importance of such flows to African countries and their governments, especially when compared to other regions of the developing world. It situates Western aid disbursements to these three specific countries against the backdrop of ongoing debates on aid and development, and more specifically aid and its impact on democracy in recipient countries. The case is made for adopting a comparative and multi-disciplinary approach to the analysis of relations between Western donor countries and the three African regimes, as well as the utility of an historical approach for identifying aspects of change, rupture and continuity. These approaches, buttressed by comprehensive analysis of extant and extended data sets to generate additional evidence, have together been used to identify the key features of these complex interactions. The approach enabled conclusions to be drawn around the importance of democracy versus development and security considerations in the changing Western donor-aid recipient relationship specifically in these three countries. The chapter introduces some key cross-cutting themes, namely the development of hybrid systems of political and economic governance, the problems they presented to donors and those factors working in favour of policy continuity. It concludes with an update of the relations between the West and the three African countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing global tensions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.