The last fifty years of economic and political development in Africa have resulted in only limited success. Projects lacking essential components, local institutions unable to sustain the activities once the external input disappears, and local actors responding to external stimuli and strategies rather than becoming agents of their own development are some of the reasons for this limited success. This pattern in Africa contrasts with the successful development in Europe that took place after 1945, and later in countries like Israel, Taiwan, Malaysia and the like. Recently this contrast has inspired a new interest in rights-based development and a search for new paradigms and new opportunities to redefine the relationship that exists between "subjects of development" and the external institutions that seek to help them.
Rights-based development; Africa; Social engineering; Poverty alleviation; Foreign aid