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Following the end of apartheid, South Africa became one of the major recipients of foreign aid in Sub-Saharan Africa. International assistance, particularly from European donor countries, was primarily directed towards supporting the democratic transition, combating the legacy of apartheid, and fostering the development of a stable, inclusive, and non-racial society. This paper examines the impact of foreign aid on poverty in South Africa between 2015 and 2020, with particular attention to its contribution to economic growth, poverty reduction, and domestic policy. Drawing on a qualitative research approach based on secondary data and thematic content analysis, the study reviews existing empirical literature and policy documents to assess the effectiveness of foreign aid in addressing poverty. The findings indicate that foreign aid can contribute to poverty reduction by supporting economic growth, improving access to public services, and supplementing domestic investment. However, its effectiveness depends largely on the presence of sound institutions, effective governance, and appropriate public policies. The study further finds that South Africa's commitment to national ownership and policy autonomy has limited the influence of external donors on domestic policy formulation and implementation. Although foreign aid has supported developmental initiatives, its relatively small contribution to the national budget constrains its overall impact on poverty reduction. The paper concludes that foreign aid can complement domestic development efforts but cannot substitute for strong institutions, inclusive economic policies, and sustained national investment in addressing poverty.

South Africa’s G20 Presidency in 2025 occurs at a time when global inequality, sovereign debt distress, and development financing gaps continue to restrict progress in the Global South, especially in Africa. This study examines how South Africa seeks to take advantage of its middle-power status and presidential agenda to advance African developmental priorities within the G20 framework. Using qualitative analysis of desk-based content and discourse of the G20 Leaders’ Declarations, Sherpa track documents, DIRCO policy statements, and related official communications, the document assesses both the formulation and acceptance of South Africa’s key policy positions. The findings indicate that South Africa has been effective in agenda-setting particularly in securing recognition of the need for fairer restructuring of sovereign debt, climate finance, and reforms of Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs). However, its efforts face structural resistance from advanced economies, limiting the extent to which these priorities translate into substantive changes in global financial governance or binding commitments on development financing. The study argues that to overcome these constraints, future Global South presidencies should adopt coordinated coalition-building strategies with the African Union (AU), BRICS+ and MDBs. Such alliances can strengthen negotiating power, ensure continuity across summits, and help move the G20 from rhetorical acknowledgement toward tangible systemic reforms that better serve vulnerable African economies.

There are various challenges to foreign policy execution in South Africa. Disagreements over policy direction among political parties, factions, and interest groups may be the most significant of them. As a result, South Africa is at a loss about which partners to choose between traditional Western allies or eastern partners like China and other BRICS partners. This chapter explores how the discord in policy positions and consequent geopolitical implications affect South Africa's international development cooperation agenda. The study adopts a qualitative literature review to draw its conclusion. Theoretically, the chapter leans on Group Theory to guide its research and conclusion. The study shows significant disparities in foreign policy adoption, leading to significant geopolitical and domestic problems. Political parties, foreign actors and elements like NGOs and other interest groups all have disagreements. The chapter makes the argument that these disagreements and consequent delays cause major challenges for South Africa’s development cooperation agenda. In this regard, the chapter makes various recommendations on how South Africa can navigate this conundrum while balancing relations between both Eastern and Western partners for a sustainable development path. Furthermore, it is also recommended that South Africa set a foreign policy agenda that surpasses partisan and party-political interests to minimise these effects. This chapter seeks to contribute to wider discussions on international development cooperation in the changing geopolitical and North-South relations.

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires not only national budgetary revenues but also the private sector and other funding sources. A significant number of development actors consider the private sector to be an essential partner and advocate for development cooperation. International development places a special emphasis on formalised private philanthropic organizations. This study examines how the Sustainable Development Goals affect the flow of private philanthropic aid to developing countries. The study also wants to know if private development funding is utilised for development alone or other purposes. Secondary sources of information from credible books, journals, and official reports from various development organizations were used in the study. Thus, a desktop qualitative analysis was used to examine the data. The paper bases its argument on the dual interest model, which contends that recipient needs and donor interests influence private-sector giving. The study finds that corporate philanthropists have made SDG targets a major theme in their programmatic and financial work. The results show that corporate philanthropists' involvement in SDG initiatives is often driven by a variety of factors, including both the business and development aspects of the SDGs. The study also shows that although private philanthropy is crucial to achieving the SDGs, it struggles to maintain its transparency and impact. To achieve the SDG targets, the study suggests that the private sector increase its involvement and improve cooperation with other stakeholders. The study also concludes that to improve policymaking and create a more effective development finance spectrum, more research on the relationship between business and development financing is needed.  This paper contributes to the larger conversation concerning the function and effects of private sector support for the SDGs in developing nations.

There is a scarcity of research on the analysis of thresholds of official development assistance (ODA), foreign direct investment (FDI), and economic growth in Africa. Most of the studies focused on analysing the correlation between official development assistance (ODA) or foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic growth. This study stands out from others by adopting a comprehensive approach to analyse the threshold analysis of ODA, FDI, and economic growth in many countries on a continental scale. We examine the threshold for ODA, FDI, and economic growth by analysing annual data from 1980 to 2018 in 30 African countries. The primary method used for the estimation was the panel threshold regression approach. The threshold analysis test assessed the impact of ODA, FDI, and economic growth. The current study utilised threshold analysis and found a positive coefficient of 0.0620, indicating a favourable correlation between FDI and economic growth. On the contrary, the negative coefficient of 0.0683 shows a detrimental correlation between ODA and economic growth. Therefore, officials must enforce the level of ODA that is necessary to stimulate FDI and foster economic growth in Africa. Furthermore, it is crucial for authorities to implement a monitoring system to closely monitor these thresholds and adjust the policy accordingly in response to changing economic situations. The findings of this study will not only contribute to academic discourse, but will also provide vital perspectives for politicians, practitioners, enterprises, and foreign investors on how to effectively implement policies that stimulate economic growth and attract foreign investment in Africa. Furthermore, this study offers recommendations for further research in the domain of international capital flows.

The study sought to investigate the effect of foreign aid and capital flow on real economic growth for the SADC region. Eleven member states of the SADC region are selected for analysis based on data availability. In the study, foreign aid is represented by official development assistance (ODA), external debt (EXTD), and debt service cost (DSC) while the inflow of foreign direct investment represents capital flow (FDI). Annual percentage growth of per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDPpc) is used as a proxy of real economic growth. Trade balance (TRO) is included in the model regression as a control variable. The study employed panel econometric models.  The results of panel ARDL indicate that ODA and FDI were found to have a negligible effect on real growth in the short run but contribute positively and significantly in the long run. This revelation supports the view that ODA and FDI are essential determinants of growth. On the other hand, EXTD together with its associated costs was found to have a detrimental effect both in the short run and long run. Based on the results of the study, the authors put forward the following policy recommendations for the SADC region: most importantly, there ought to be effective management of external debt by SADC countries to reduce their overdependency on external debt for their domestic needs. Given the positive effect of FDI in the region, the SADC region needs to intensify its efforts in devising measures that will attract foreign investors to the region which among others include pursuing inclusive and sustainable economic growth. Lastly, there is a need for effective management and official development aid to ensure sustainable growth.

Foreign aid comprises of a provision of financial resources or commodities such as food parcels or technical advice and training. The most prevalent type of foreign aid, particularly in developing countries, is Official Development Assistance (ODA) that strives to promote development and combat poverty. In Sub-Saharan Africa, there is a significant dependency on foreign aid which prompts the question; Is foreign aid completely necessary in developing African countries? With a high reliance on foreign aid the focus tends to shift from developing into self-sufficient economies and combating poverty to being dependent states. The paper explores the impact of foreign aid on the development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Because low-income countries are significantly reliant on aid, the study took a qualitative approach using the case study method featuring case studies from Kenya, Togo, and Zimbabwe. From the literature of the study, it is evident that the three countries had become dependent on foreign Aid. Conclusions drawn from the study show that foreign has become a recipe for dependency syndrome. Based on the findings from the literature, there is a need for private investments.