Africa, like the phoenix, will rise from aid’s ashes
A new article by Anika Altaf and Victoria Manya, titled Africa, like the phoenix, will rise from aid’s ashes, has been published on Medium. The piece explores the potential consequences that the reduction in foreign aid may cause on the African continent. Is this shift a crisis, a challenge to development, or a wake-up call?
For decades, Africa has been receiving structural adjustment packages, climate change subsidies, and various other forms of foreign aid. However, the outcomes of such interventions are subject of controversy. The authors examine the dilemma of dependency and how aid has often served the geopolitical, post-colonial, and strategic interests of the donor countries. Has it genuinely fostered progress in African countries, or has it deepened their reliance on the West?
In addition to addressing these questions, Altaf and Manya discuss other themes, including the economic disruptions caused by foreign aid, Africa’s potential trajectory, and the importance of domestic revenue generation. The article concludes with a letter of advice to both African leaders and citizens. Ending on a hopeful note, the authors reaffirm their central message that Africa, like the phoenix, will rise from the ashes of aid and shine ever more brightly.
Read the full article here.
About the author(s) / editor(s)
Anika Altaf is the Executive Director of INCLUDE, the Knowledge Platform on Inclusive Development Policies in Africa. The platform supports research, shares relevant knowledge with policy makers and practitioners and organises international policy dialogues on inclusive development themes both in the Netherlands and in African countries. Altaf has over a decade of experience in the field of International Development with a strong focus on sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. She is trained as a Human Geographer and holds a PhD in International Development Studies from the University of Amsterdam.
Victoria Ojoagefu Manya is a Knowledge Manager at INCLUDE and a PhD candidate at the African Studies Centre Leiden. Her research project is entitled ‘The African Start-up Ecosystem: funding, informality, gender inclusivity and the trajectories of maturity’. In addition, Victoria works as a researcher at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) and The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) in the field of inclusive pedagogy. She also serves as the research team lead for an African-focused policy intelligence platform that provides real-time and resourced information on policy formulation and development to aid stakeholders to engage meaningfully in ensuring that policy and regulatory risks are substantially mitigated for players within Africa’s digital economy.
Posted on 16 September 2025, last modified on 16 September 2025