• Analyse the interplay of aid rhetoric, policy, management, practice and impact in relation to development aid interventions.
• Outline and assess the relevance, design, effectiveness and sustainability of various types of private sector development programmes.
• Apply and assess analytical tools of development aid management, including planning, implementation and evaluation.

The course aims to provide students with a conceptual and theoretical overview of the discourse in development  aid and policies. It will introduce students to a range of more practical analytical tools and experiences with development assistance intervention in general and in SSA in particular. Within the contemporary context of international development policies the course emphasizes in particular market and business sector driven development including aid interventions in support of local business development and poverty alleviation. The course covers international aid strategies, experiences and analytical tools and draws upon practical and theoretical experiences of course faculty.

The course covers four overall and interrelated topics: The first topic consists of an introduction to the trends in international development assistance with particular emphasis on the evolution of policy aims, themes and strategies of donor countries in relation to African countries. It will examine the overall context of aid including trends in Africa, the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While the focus will mainly be on OECD country-based donors, we will also look at the role of non-traditional donors that are increasingly important in Africa, namely China. The second topic drawing on examples from Africa is concerned with methodologies and tools for planning, implementing, evaluating and communicating development interventions). We focus on management tools such as the Logical Framework Analysis (LFA), Theory of change and evaluation methodology. The third topic is business sector or Private Sector Development (PSD) programmes. We will discuss and assess the relevance, design, effectiveness and long-term sustainability of the various types of PSD programmes and related analytical tools. The fourth and final topicwill address the cross cutting questions of impact of aid including on poverty alleviation and  pro-poor aid interventions emphasising the potential impacts of aid on poverty reduction and recent initiatives to combat world poverty, i.e. the overriding objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals.