A New Era of Aid
Complain about how someone is doing something long enough and you’re likely to get a version of this classic response: “If you’re so unhappy with it, then do it yourself!” The rising importance of emerging donors proves that developing countries have decided to do just that in an effort to correct the ills of development work and foreign aid. Traditional donors have proven to be either unwilling or unable to shift practices in response to critiques – so nations who still receive assistance also now give assistance to others to show us how it’s done. One of the most common critiques developing countries offer of traditional aid is the limited role recipients play in decision-making and implementation. Right away, emerging donors made it clear that their development assistance would be different from traditional donors by referring to it as “international cooperation” rather than “foreign aid.” Cooperation puts both parties on an equal level; foreign aid is a hierarchical arrangement in which the donor controls the process while the recipient may have little say in the final form of funding. This idea of equality in decision-making dominates most of the practices of emerging donors. The Organization for Economic Cooperation’s Task Team on South-South Cooperation points out that developing nations emphasize communication between parties and full participation of both donor and partner throughout the entire process. International cooperation arrangements are also...
Read More