Essay Instructions: Dear Author,
I kindly ask you to prepare the sample for two chapters of my MA thesis.
In order to provide you with as much information as possible, I will send you the last version of my MA thesis prospectus. I will also provide you with the Table of contents, so that you can see what is the general idea of the paper.
It would be great if you could find the following books and use some quotations from them to back up the point:
1. The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for our Time by Jeffrey D. Sachs
2. The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done so Much Ill and So Little Good by William Easterly
3. Why Foreign Aid is Not Working: THE TROUBLE WITH AFRICA by Robert Calderisi.
The two chapters that I expect you to research are:
(They have to be structured in the same order as they are placed in the table of contents.
Do strategic partnerships with the European Union and China benefit the political and economic development in Ghana?
• 1. Main agenda of the international development strategy for Ghana since the 1970’s.
1.1. Short history of the foreign aid programs launched by the economically developed donor countries;
1.2. Analysis of the effectiveness of the previously introduced developmental programs on the basis of the HDI data;
1.3. The explicit and implicit motives of the donor countries to launch the strategic partnership programs for Ghana in the last four decades.
(This chapter will be dealing with the strategic goals of donor countries from the 1970’s as well as analyze the impact of the implemented programs in the past. Some historic background will be given to the reader in order to demonstrate the way in which the impact of these initiatives reflected the fluctuations of the HDI*). It would be good if you could find some information on the development programs for Ghana, which failed to reach the goal of sustainable development (in political and economic spheres).
* HDI- human Development Index United Nations Development Programme's 2010 Human Development Index has to be used as a tool to evaluate the effectiveness of the development programs. The UN represents in this sense one of the most accredited and useful resource for research largely because in its status as an international organization and development agent, it has provided extensive knowledge and experience in development aid and assistance. For the purpose of the research the latest HDI has to be used extensively to offer a starting point for the analysis on the situation in Ghana. The Human Development Index is crucial because it represents a composite index taking into account several aspects of life, from infant mortality to the level of literacy among adults.
2. Analysis of the political situation in Ghana: political corruption and lack of economic transparency.
2.1. Short introduction into the political system of Ghana;
2.2. Corruption on the political level: lack of economic transparency; (in the end of this subchapter, please shortly write about the improper resource allocation, as the consequence of the lack of economic transparency (please measure the inequality of a distribution by Gini coefficient)*
2.3. The consequences of the improper resources allocation. (Explain the general trends as the further throughout analysis of the European and Chinese funds allocation figures will be given in the following chapters).
This chapter will explain why only a limited amount of finances from the foreign assistance programs reaches the people of Ghana, as well as analyze the problems in the political mechanism of resource allocation.
* The Gini coefficient is a measure of the inequality of a distribution, a value of 0 expressing total equality and a value of 1 maximal inequality. It has found application in the study of inequalities in disciplines as diverse as sociology, economics, health science, ecology, chemistry and engineering.
I hope that you will be able to find the following books to analyze the political situation in Ghana:
1. What Foreign Aid Can and Can’t do in Africa: Understanding the Context of Aid and Socio-Economic Development in Ghana by Nathan Andrews.
2. Population, Health and Development in Ghana: Attaining the Millennium Development Goals edited by Chuks J. Mba and Stephen O. Kwankye.
Below, you will find the MA thesis proposal. As later I will convert it into the introduction chapter, the chapters that I expect you to research DON'T HAVE TO INCLUDE THE GENERAL INTRODUCTION (only the short introduction to the subchapters)
Introduction
Today, given the Millennium Development Goals and the overall general movement on development, there is a constant tendency of the developed countries to provide increased attention and assistance to the African continent. In this sense, the US launched its Africa Development Foundation, China, in its turn established its China-Africa Development Fund, whereas the European Commission established a large part of its strategic partnerships with African states (Mohan 2010). However, these initiatives are not without criticism. Thus, it is considered by analysts that the new development programs established by the developed countries sometimes seem to be more beneficial for the donors, rather than for the direct beneficiaries, the African continent (Boafo- Arthur & Essuman-Johnson 2004). The majority of African countries may benefit from oil and mineral resources that have the potential of transforming economies. But, the general opinion among scholars is that these resources represent more a curse than a blessing. The opponents of the foreign development programs in Africa believe that the world’s developed countries are more concerned with the potential economic benefit from African oil, copper and cobalt sources rather than with the sound end sustainable development of the African countries, in all of their economic, political, and most importantly social perspectives.
Given the nature of the debate raised by this constant discussion over foreign aid to Africa, its benefits and shortcomings, my thesis will analyse the way in which the development programs (strategic partnerships) underway in Africa benefited sustainable development. More precisely, the analysis will point out whether the new development programs encourage the transformation of the potential of natural resources into resources for human development, economic and political construction or, on the contrary, only foster the political and economic instability within some African states.
* As today the term ‘development program’ has acquired a somewhat negative shade, the majority of the donors try to replace it by the more donor-friendly term “ strategic partnership”. For that reason, the term ‘strategic partnership’ is more widely used in the development sphere nowadays than the term ‘development program’. The initial name of the topic was “ Do Even though the name was changed, the essence of the topic is the same and the hypothesis was left unchanged.
Given the wide variety of characteristics inside the African continent, the thesis will focus on the example of Ghana and its relation with two of its important donors, the EU and China. More precisely, the focus is on the strategic partnerships undergone by the two donors and there impact on the political and economic development of Ghana. Ghana is a peaceful and stable democracy, which makes good progress toward its goal of becoming a middle-income country by 2020. In 2008 it was revealed that Ghana has substantial oil reserves which will become available in 2010.Ghana's government anticipates that oil and gas will generate about $500 million in revenues in 2011. With economic growth rates even as high as 6 per cent over recent years, Ghana is “an emerging African economic success story” (CIDA 2010). However, even though this country is moving fast towards its economic development, Ghana ranks 130 out of 169 countries on the United Nations Development Programme's 2010 human development index (UNDP 2010). Therefore, there is no doubt that Ghana still needs some innovative development programs (strategic partnerships), which will let its Development indicators increase in the nearest future. Both the EU and China promise to do that with the help of their development aid programs.
Even though Ghana is known for its stability and democratic government, the country has a poor record of managing finances transparently. Therefore, there are not only doubts concerning the hidden motives of the economic powers which are conducting their strategic partnerships in Ghana, but there are also some doubts about who in Ghana will benefit from such programs (Hope 2000). In this sense, my thesis also aims to identify whether the funds from the Chinese and European strategic partnerships benefits the Ghanaian power holders, or the people of Ghana. Thus, both of the above mentioned issues, of Ghana’s ‘external’ and ‘internal’ benefit from the EU and Chinese strategic partnerships will be discussed.
Methodology
As the thesis aims to demonstrate the real-life data on the current development of the country, the United Nations Development Programme's 2010 human development index will be used as a tool to evaluate the effectiveness of one or another development program. The UN represents in this sense one of the most accredited and useful resource for research largely because in its status as an international organization and development agent, it has provided extensive knowledge and experience in development aid and assistance. For the purpose of the research the latest HDR is used extensively to offer a starting point for the analysis on the situation in Ghana. Currently, according to the 2010 HDR, Ghana is on the 130th position, in the category of low human development index (UNDP 2010). More precisely, it is considered that Ghana is still an underdeveloped country. Even so, the UN Report on Least Developed Countries does not make reference to Ghana, a fact that is encouraging for the African state (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 2010).
The Human Development Index is crucial because it represents a composite index taking into account several aspects of life, from infant mortality to the level of literacy among adults. The shortcomings of the HDR consist mainly, as presented in the preface of the document, in the complete reliance on national statistics. In this sense, the facts and classifications are established according to national information sources that may be out-dated or may lack credibility.
HDR statistics will be used to process information from previous years and decades, which in turn enables a comparative analysis for economic and political development. In this sense for instance, given the fact that the international development strategy for Africa is known since the late 1970s, it is important to assess the way in which the impact of this initiative is reflected in the fluctuation of the HDI (Human Development Index). As an example, the index has slowly improved since the 80s, from 0.363 to 0.431 in 2000 to 0.467 in 2010. This improvement, by applying the cause-effect analysis method, can be viewed as a direct effect of international aid, including aid from China and the EU, or, on the other hand, as a natural development of the economic cycle. By providing input from research, scholars, and primary sources (development reports), this development will be (or will be not) demonstrated to have been a natural consequence of international assistance for development.
The Gini Coefficient (Wikipedia 2010) will be used to assess the sustainability of the development process and its inequality( 2nd chapter). In this sense, by comparison, the research points out that there is indeed a gap between the economic growth that is statistically visible and the social impact it has on the population. Better said, “despite favorable economic conditions job creation has not matched economic growth, particularly in rural areas” (UNDP Ghana 2010). Similar analysis will be made for other areas of the social and economic development with precise attention provided to sectors where Ghana has benefited from Chinese and European assistance such as constructions in industrial areas.
FULL TABLE OF CONTENTS
• Introduction
• 1. Main agenda of the international development strategy for Ghana since the 1970’s.
1.1. Short history of the foreign aid programs launched by the economiclly developed donor countries;
1.2. Analysis of the effectiveness of the previously introduced developmental programs on the basis of the HDI data;
1.3. The explicit and implicit motives of the donor countries to launch the strategic partnership programs for Ghana in the last four decades.
( This chapter will be dealing with the strategic goals of donor countries from the 1970’s as well as analyze the impact of the implemented programs in the past. Some historic background will be given to the reader in order to demonstrate the way in which the impact of these initiatives reflected the fluctuations of the HDI). It would be great if you could find the examples of the development programs that were not sustainable and ??' harmed, but not benefited the economic and political development in Ghana in the past.
2. Analysis of the political situation in Ghana: political corruption and lack of economic transparency.
2.1. Short introduction into the political system of Ghana;
2.2. Corruption on the political level: lack of economic transparency;( measured by Gini coefficient)*
2.3. The consequences of the improper resources allocation. (Explain the general trends and state that the further throughout analysis of the European and Chinese funds allocation figures will be given in the following chapters).
This chapter will explain why only a limited amount of finances from the foreign assistance programs reaches the people of Ghana, as well as analyze the problems in the political mechanism of resource allocation .
• 3. Analysis of the EU-Ghana strategic partnership.
3.1. An overview of the EU-Ghana strategic Partnership;
3.2. The EU strategic benefit from the implementation of the program;
3.3. The allocation of the EU funds in Ghana;
3.4. The impact of the allocated funds on the political and economic development of Ghana, in terms of HDI.
In this chapter, a brief overview of the EU-Ghana relations will be given. More to this, it will be explained, why the EU decided to establish the partnership between the parties, but not to position itself as a donor for Ghana. The impact of the strategic partnership on the economic and political development of Ghana will be measured. The results will be compared to those of China, in order to analyze, which foreign aid model (a donor or a partner) is more effective in terms of positive impact on the political and economic development in Ghana. (HDI)
4. Analysis of the Chinese strategic partnership, launched by the China-Africa Development Fund.
3.1. An overview of the Chinese program for Ghana development, launched by the China-Africa Development Fund;
3.2. Chinese potential benefit from the introduction of the program in Ghana;
3.3. The allocation of the Chinese funds in Ghana;
3.4. The impact of the allocated funds on the political and economic development of the state.
In this chapter I will describe current relations between Ghana and one of its major donors, China. In this chapter, it will be explained what are the potential political and economic motives that drive China to become a donor for Ghana. The results will be measured.(HDI)
Each subchapter should contribute to answering the research question in one, or another way. MAIN RESEARCH QUESTION is the name of the topic. Second, less important research question is Who benefits more from the strategic partnerships: the EU/China, or Ghana?
If you will have any further questions, please, don't hesitate to contact me
Regards
Julia
There are faxes for this order.
Customer is requesting that (Serban) completes this order.
