Foreign Aid as a Tool for Sustainable Development?: An Assessment of UK's Foreign Aid for the Promotion of Sustainable Development in Ethiopia

This thesis examines United Kingdom foreign aid to Ethiopia between 2015 and 2020 and the extent to which it promotes environmentally sustainable development. Ethiopia is a country sensitive to environmental degradation. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation are amongst the top three environmental threats to Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Government has been able to achieve substantial economic growth, making Ethiopia the fastest growing economy in Africa. Nonetheless, the country remains economically poor and lacks the financial resources to achieve sustainable growth. Over the last decades, Ethiopia has been amongst the top-three recipient countries of UK foreign aid. Aid towards the climate is done through three departments – FCDO, BEIS, and DEFRA – who together fund the International Climate Finance (ICF). This research is qualitative and analyses projects financed through UK official development assistance (ODA) that concern climate change, biodiversity loss and land...Show moreThis thesis examines United Kingdom foreign aid to Ethiopia between 2015 and 2020 and the extent to which it promotes environmentally sustainable development. Ethiopia is a country sensitive to environmental degradation. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation are amongst the top three environmental threats to Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Government has been able to achieve substantial economic growth, making Ethiopia the fastest growing economy in Africa. Nonetheless, the country remains economically poor and lacks the financial resources to achieve sustainable growth. Over the last decades, Ethiopia has been amongst the top-three recipient countries of UK foreign aid. Aid towards the climate is done through three departments – FCDO, BEIS, and DEFRA – who together fund the International Climate Finance (ICF). This research is qualitative and analyses projects financed through UK official development assistance (ODA) that concern climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation. It finds that UK ODA has made significant contributions towards climate change adaptation measures in Ethiopia, such as cooperating with smallholder farmers to increase crop productivity and building resilience to climate change. Moreover, UK ODA has been successful in addressing underlying, indirect causes of biodiversity loss and land degradation (deforestation). In this sense, UK ODA has been partially successful in promoting environmentally sustainable development in Ethiopia, but more can be done to increase its impact – on a more systemic level as well as more long-term impact.Show less

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Foreign Aid as a Tool for Sustainable Development? An Assessment of UK's Foreign Aid for the Promotion of Sustainable Development in Ethiopia