The Effectiveness of Official Development Assistance in the Health Sector in Africa

Over recent decades, developing nations have been the beneficiaries of Official Development Assistance (ODA) from European and North American countries. ODA remains the central mechanism in sustaining and financing actions and processes related to international development. Despite these investments, experts continue to raise concerns about Africa’s poor performance on several development indicators.

This book discusses the main challenges to aid effectiveness in Africa, with a specific focus on the health sector. It provides policymakers, scholars, and development experts with innovative strategies and policy recommendations for refining aid management. The book also provides critical analysis of several global developmental frameworks and related international action plans and commitments, ranging from the 2030 Global Development Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals to the Paris Climate Agreement. Lastly, the book also analyzes several theoretical frameworks on development, including modernization, world systems, international dependency, neoclassical growth, the concept of gross national happiness, and human development.

"Dr Sobtafo brings a wealth of experience and broad practice to bear in what is an important reflective analysis on aid effectiveness and the nexus with development performance. There are lessons and insights that reach beyond Africa."
—Michael Upton, New Zealand Ambassador to Ethiopia and the African Union

"The book does first of all place people at the centre of the analysis, hence the pertinence of health and development as a focus. It further questions the common certainties on ODA and economic development and expands the discussion to include key drivers of human development and the necessity of partnership in an interdependent world. A pragmatic approach to deepen our understanding of complex issues that require more than simple solutions. Great ideas and questions for scholars, policy makers, and health and development practitioners."

— Elhadj As Sy, Chairman, Koffi Annan Foundation; Former Secretary General, The International Federation of Red Cross Crescent Societies (IFRC); and Former UNICEF Regional Director, Eastern and Southern Africa