Over the last 50 years Western governments have paid out more than £400bn of tax payers' money in aid to Africa, but according to figures released by the World Bank this year, half of sub-Saharan Africans still live in extreme poverty, a figure which has not changed since 1981.
And though foreign aid has helped lift millions of Africans out of poverty by helping developing economies to grow, for the poorest Africans little has changed.
In fact, the World Bank figures showed that Africa has been the least successful region of the world in reducing poverty, with the number of poor people in Africa doubling between 1981 and 2005 from 200 million to 380 million.
[BBC Panorama]
