Yesterday, a host of nations and organizations pledged 1.2 billion dollars for Africa as part of an infrastructure and trade facilitation program. The donors include the World Bank, the European Commission, the U.K. and the African Development Bank.

The money will go mostly for the upgrade of railways, roads and energy infrastructure in southern and central Africa.

The so-called “North-South corridor project” is a pilot initiative under the WTO’s “Aid-for-Trade” program. Created during the Doha Trade Round, Aid-for-Trade is a vehicle to reverse the detrimental effects of trade reforms, and to enhance the trading capacity of developing countries.

Since the time that most African nations gained independent some 50 years ago, the continent has been deluged with billions upon billions of dollars in foreign aid, but in the last few years, debate has heated up over whether western foreign aid has done Africa more harm than good. 

Richard Joseph is Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University and Nonresident Senior Fellow of Global Economy and Development at the Brookings Institution; He’s co-author of the edited volume Smart Aid For African Development.

The “Aid to Africa” debate seems to fall into two camps; one says that massive foreign aid from the west hasn’t worked and if it ceased, Africa would be better off or at least no worse off than it is now. The other side says the real problem is that Africa hasn’t received enough aid and that flooding the country with more aid would bring good results.

And Jerome asked Richard Joseph what he and his colleagues say to these arguments…