There is no small number of aid givers who often mirror colonial hierarchies while recipients are left navigating the scars of dependency and diminished agency.
According to him, there is “an unspoken assumption that the global north holds the solutions while the south remains a passive recipient of knowledge, capital and expertise.” As a result, he claimed, development often reinforces dependency rather than fostering self-reliance.
Kimani sees various “echoes of a colonial logic that values control over collaboration”, including:
- aid that requires compliance with foreign priorities,
- technical assistance that is detached from local realities and
- policies shaped by foreign experts.