Lessons to be drawn from five years of planning in French speaking African countries South of the Sahara

Abstract

With regard to the second pointy the numerous difficulties encountered in implementing the operations envisaged have shown that there are severe limitations on the absorption of foreign capital by an economy. Foreign government- aid passes through a country and leaves pt in various forms without taking, full effect, unless there is local, initiative to make it bear fruit. 0nce roads have been constructed, or hospitals built, the funds, devoted to such work are transformed into income of workers or enterprises. If such income is not used locally, it leaves the country in the form of imports of consumer goods or transfers of savings, and it will later be necessary to levy the necessary resources for the maintenance of the roads or the operation of the hospitals from a population that has not become any wealthier in the meantime. Admittedly, foreign government or private financing also makes it possible to carry out operations that are directly productive but these are of genuine benefit to the country concerned only to the extent that they induce participation by the national transactors - suppliers or employees - which precisely Supposes a linkage 'between domestic efforts and external contributions.