ABSTRACT

Under the British aid programme, technical assistance (TA) covers the provision of training for recipient country personnel, of expatriate personnel in executive or advisory capacities, of consultancies, and of equipment for training, demonstration, pilot schemes or surveys in the recipient country. Unlike financial aid, it is usually wholly tied to British goods and services and is often provided in kind, although most of the technical assistance to Malawi has been in cash. But the distinction between the two is blurred. Some technical assistance, for instance the supply of equipment and finance towards the upkeep of Idc-based research institutions, might equally be termed financial aid, while some projects supported by financial aid are similar to those supported via the technical assistance programme, for instance pilot schemes. Further, there is often an element of technical assistance in both the procedures for providing financial aid and the projects thereby financed.