Foreign Aid Dependency in Central Asia (Cases of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan)

Abstract

For many years donor aid served as a key strategy utilized by wealthier nations to address the global disparities in developing world. Foreign aid was a source of financial resources for economic growth, infrastructure development and, social programs. However, in recent years, the nature of aid has shifted notably becoming an instrument with its far-reaching conditionality. Donor aid shapes policies in receiving states reflecting a more interventionist approach. Many scholars argue that donor aid paradoxically hinders recipient country´s development causing dependency and this dependency is not only economic or financial but also political. The article draws parallels between the dependency theory and donor aid. The dependency theory emerging as opposed to modernity theory in the 1950th goaled to explain underdevelopment in Latin America has maintained its relevance nowadays and re-emerged in academic discourse. In the modern era, donor aid symbolizes the dependency of Global South on Global North. While aimed at poverty reduction and promotion of economic development in recipient nations, donor aid exacerbates issues such corruption, bad governance, mismanagement of natural resources, environmental degradation and constrains their sovereignty benefiting more donor countries rather than recipient ones. Through the cases of two poorest states in Central Asia – Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, the article enlightens the relationship between the dependency theory and donor aid with the special attention paid to Chinese enormous grants and loans. The research demonstrates how these two nations, due to limited resources and economic challenges, have heavily become reliant on foreign aid which in some cases hinder their sovereignty, political and economic independence.