A qualitative study of foreign aid and China’s role in economic and human development in Zambia

Abstract: The precedent of unrivaled lending in Zambia, to a great degree, and courtesy to the World Bank, has generated a normative and financial frame that puts forward economic prosperity as only being made manifest through lending in perpetuality. Zambia has in recent decades found itself in between both West and East spheres of power in terms of foreign aid and this has had an impact on its development. This study is based on a qualitative thematic analysis approach exploring the dynamic interlinkages between foreign aid on the one hand and economic and human development in Zambia on the other hand during the period of 2010-2020. More specifically I answer the following research questions: How has foreign aid towards Zambia changed in the last decade? What is the role of China within foreign assistance to Zambia? And what are the interlinkages between Chinese loans and economic and human development in Zambia? This study connects to the theoretical perspective of the dependency theory which is used to help interpret the data and propose explanations of the underlying causes and impacts related to that of foreign aid and economic development in Zambia. The results of this indicate that the impact foreign aid has had on economic and human development in Zambia is mostly undesirable, due to it not being distributed across all tiers of society, in particular the half of the populace living in poverty.