The Rise of Asian Aid Donors: Recipient-to-Donor Transition and Implications for International Aid Regime

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-80
Author(s):  
David Dole ◽  
Steven Lewis-Workman ◽  
Dennis D. Trinidad ◽  
Xianbin Yao
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Economic Cooperation ◽  
Aid Effectiveness ◽  
Development Cooperation ◽  
New Approaches ◽  
Emerging Donors ◽  
Aid Programs ◽  
Over Time

The aims of this article are twofold. First, from a historical perspective, it examines the recipient-to-donor transition of five Asian aid donors, namely Japan, Korea, China, India, and Thailand. Specifically, it examines the evolution of their foreign aid programs and practices. Second, it analyzes the effects of Asian aid donors on the international aid regime. We argue that the mix of economic and security goals, which motivated Asian donors to develop their initial economic cooperation programs, have persisted over time. This explains why Asian aid donors have allotted a disproportionate share of their assistance to neighboring countries and their use of foreign aid as a key tool of their commercial and diplomatic policies. Moreover, we contend that the rise and experience of Asian aid donors have created a new dynamic to donor–recipient partnerships and development cooperation like new approaches and modalities. Key findings of this study add to the growing literature on emerging donors and aid effectiveness debate.

scholarly journals On becoming a development cooperation partner: Kazakhstan’s foreign policy, identity, and international norms

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-173
Author(s):  
Insebayeva Nafissa
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Aid ◽  
International Development ◽  
Development Aid ◽  
Development Cooperation ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mutual Benefit ◽  
Hybrid Identity ◽  
Emerging Donors ◽  
Cooperation Partner ◽  
Core Features

This article joins the discussion on foreign aid triggered by the rise of multiplicity of emerging donors in international development. Informed by the constructivist framework of analysis, this article evaluates the philosophy and core features of Kazakhstan’s chosen development aid model and explains the factors that account for the construction of distinct aid patterns of Kazakh donorship. This article asserts that Kazakhstan embraces a hybrid identity as a foreign aid provider through combining features and characteristics pertaining to both—emerging and traditional donors. On one hand, it discursively constructed its identity as a “development cooperation partner,” adopting the relevant discourse of mutual benefit, respect for sovereignty, and non-interference, which places it among those providers that actively associate themselves with the community of “emerging donors.” On the other hand, it selectively complies with policies and practices advocated by traditional donors. This study suggests that a combination of domestic and international factors played an important role in shaping Kazakhstan’s understanding of the aid-giving practices, and subsequently determined its constructed aid modality.

Motivations for Bilateral Aid Allocation in Korea: Humanitarian, Commercial, or Diplomatic?

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 180-197
Author(s):  
Bokyeong Park ◽  
Hongshik Lee
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Aid Effectiveness ◽  
Allocation Rule ◽  
National Interests ◽  
Aid Allocation ◽  
Bilateral Aid ◽  
External Pressures ◽  
Overseas Investment ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Resource Security

This study investigates Korea's motivations for foreign aid allocation, analyzing panel data from over 180 countries for the last 20 years. The results show that Korea's aid allocation reflects both recipient needs and Korea's own national interests but does not consistently consider aid effectiveness. Korean aid is also characterized by its use as an instrument of both summit diplomacy and resource security. In addition, its commercial motivations appear to have shifted over time, from export promotion to overseas investment support. Despite internal and external pressures, there is no obvious evidence that Korea's allocation rule converges with international guidelines that recommend greater consideration of recipient needs and aid effectiveness and less consideration of donor interests.

Foreign Aid and the State

Give and Take ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 213-228
Author(s):  
Nitsan Chorev
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Direct Investment ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Direct Investment ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
Aid Effectiveness ◽  
The State ◽  
Local Institutions ◽  
Industrial Sectors ◽  
Provision Of Services ◽  
Aid Programs

This concluding chapter summarizes the book’s main arguments regarding developmental foreign aid in the pharmaceutical field and suggests that similar conclusions apply to other industrial sectors, as well as to other (nonindustrial) sectors of interest to foreign aid, including the provision of services and the distribution of essential commodities. It also identifies a number of contradictions and tensions inherent to developmental foreign aid, including in regard to its effects on the state. First, given that the cases examined in the book confirm the importance of state capacity for foreign aid effectiveness, the chapter takes on the highly contested question of whether foreign aid could contribute to state capacity-building. Second, given the difficulties in increasing state capacity, maybe aid programs could simply bypass the state? The chapter then explains why even developmental foreign aid should not—but also cannot—replace the state. The type of foreign aid that is likely to be effective is not parachuting aid that evades local institutions and actors but, rather, foreign aid that relies on the institutions and actors in place. Finally, the chapter considers the recent wave of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the pharmaceutical sector in East Africa.

scholarly journals Incentives for Conditional Aid Effectiveness

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Candel-Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Donor Country ◽  
Aid Effectiveness ◽  
Time Inconsistency ◽  
Structural Reforms ◽  
Aid Programs ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Recipient Government ◽  
Privately Owned

AbstractCan sanctions against foreign aid donors enhance the credibility of conditional aid policies? If such policies suffer from time inconsistency, the answer is positive. This paper proposes a mechanism to overcome the lack of credibility of conditional aid donations to developing countries. A scheme of policy-dependent transfers to the donor country is shown to achieve an optimal commitment outcome by improving the credibility of conditional aid programs. The scheme is devised to cover situations in which the cost of structural reforms is information privately owned by the recipient government.

scholarly journals Germany’s Government-Civil Society Development Cooperation Strategy: the dangers of the middle of the road

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-59
Author(s):  
Susan Engel
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Economic Cooperation ◽  
Aid Effectiveness ◽  
State Funding ◽  
Development Cooperation ◽  
The Road ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Cooperation Strategy ◽  
Civil Society Development ◽  
The Way

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has been busy since the late 2000s studying the way aid donors manage their relations with development civil society organisations (CSOs). More than studying these relations, they have made some very detailed, managerialist suggestions about how CSOs should be organised and how donor governments should fund and otherwise relate to them. This came out of the debate about aid effectiveness, which was formally aimed at improving both donor and recipient processes. Donors have quietly dropped many of the aspects related to improving their own performance and yet a number have created new interventionist governance frameworks for CSOs. This is the case in Germany, which has a large, vibrant development CSO sector that has traditionally been quite autonomous, even where its received state funding thanks to Germany’s commitment to ‘subsidiarity.’ Yet Germany is otherwise a middle of the road donor and in many ways, these ‘reforms’ are moving its relations with civil society more towards a somewhat more managerialist approach, one that is in fact the norms amongst OECD donors.

scholarly journals Trilateral Cooperation: China’s and the EU’s Foreign Assistance in Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Kaze Armel
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Aid Effectiveness ◽  
Foreign Assistance ◽  
Equal Treatment ◽  
Economic Assistance ◽  
The European Union ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Development Capacity ◽  
Belt And Road ◽  
Aid Programs

Over the years, China has forged and mastered its own distinctive foreign aid practices as an emerging aid donor. China’s approach to foreign assistance has become highly appreciated as the country’s stature as a provider of economic assistance has matured. In 2013, under President Xi Jinping, Beijing introduced the Belt and Road Initiative, which has become a leading component of China’s foreign policy and triggered a new round of policy reform in its foreign aid agenda. In Africa, China’s foreign assistance has kept in line with the policy of equal treatment. It has shared its development experience, helped many African countries to transition from “poor” to “developing”, from “aid recipients” to “wealth creators,” and many African countries are thus turning their interests from the West to the East. Certainly, the European Union as a traditional aid donor, remains the largest aid distributor in the world, especially in Africa. In other words, the EU’s foreign assistance has become an indispensable source of funding for many African countries. However, foreign aid effectiveness remains low on the African continent because of the absence of native African policymakers in aid programs designed and implemented by Beijing and Brussels. Some critics argue that Chinese and European assistance to Africa is not bringing about the best results as expected. This article argues that a new international architecture of foreign assistance through trilateral cooperation is needed to increase Chinese and European aid effectiveness in Africa. Trilateral cooperation will not only increase foreign assistance efficiency in Africa, but also give a chance to African countries to strengthen their own development capacity through assistance and guidance, reduce Africa’s aid dependence, and hopefully guarantee a smooth “graduation” of African countries from official development assistance.

scholarly journals Development Cooperation in Africa: Creating New Momentum for China-U.S. Relations

2018 ◽  
Vol 04 (04) ◽  
pp. 577-594
Author(s):  
Song Wei
Keyword(s):  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Development Aid ◽  
Aid Effectiveness ◽  
Development Cooperation ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
African Countries ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Aid Programs

As China projects itself as an emerging donor of development aid, its development cooperation with Africa has garnered unprecedented attention from the world. While China is faced with many challenges in aid practices in Africa despite its remarkable achievements over the past decades, both developed countries and African countries set high expectations for China’s potential contribution. Against this backdrop, it is crucial for China to enhance trilateral cooperation with developed donors and share experience with them on how to manage aid programs. Based on successful cooperation in the past, China-U.S.-Africa trilateral cooperation will not only strengthen China-U.S. bilateral ties, but also improve China’s overall aid effectiveness to Africa. In the future, China should initiate more development cooperation programs and work to create a coordinating mechanism with the United States in areas of their common understanding and interests; it should also go beyond traditional means of assistance and try to get involved in the U.S.-led public-private partnership (PPP) projects.

scholarly journals Mutual Learning in Development Cooperation: China and the West

IDS Bulletin ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiantuo Yu ◽  
Evan Due
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Aid ◽  
International Development ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Development Cooperation ◽  
Belt And Road Initiative ◽  
The West ◽  
Mutual Learning ◽  
Belt And Road ◽  
The Belt And Road ◽  
International Development Cooperation

This article looks at some of the characteristics of China’s foreign aid system and its development over the years. It discusses China’s foreign aid based on its own development experiences and its view of South–South development cooperation. Both the modalities and narratives of China’s international development cooperation need to be considered in order to better understand the complexities, strengths, and weaknesses of its aid system. As China’s international aid continues to grow and become more prominent, particularly in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative, the article calls for a deeper understanding of China’s aid institutions and the need for greater cooperation and capacity building.

International Economic Assistance in the 1970's — A Critique of Partners in Development (Review Article)

1970 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 469-490
Author(s):  
Nurul Islam
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Economic Assistance ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Service Charge ◽  
The Developed Countries ◽  
Defence Expenditure

Foreign economic aid is at the cross-roads. There is an atmosphere of gloom and disenchantment surrounding international aid in both the developed and developing countries — more so in the former than in the latter. Doubts have grown in the developed countries, especially among the conservatives in these countries, as to the effectiveness of aid in promoting economic development, the wastes and inefficiency involved in the use of aid, the adequacy of self-help on the part of the recipient countries in husbanding and mobilising their own resources for development and the dangers of getting involved, through ex¬tensive foreign-aid operations, in military or diplomatic conflicts. The waning of confidence on the part of the donors in the rationale of foreign aid has been accentuated by an increasing concern with their domestic problems as well as by the occurrence of armed conflicts among the poor, aid-recipient countries strengthened by substantial defence expenditure that diverts resources away from development. The disenchantment on the part of the recipient countries is, on the other hand, associated with the inadequacy of aid, the stop-go nature of its flow in many cases, and the intrusion of noneconomic considerations governing the allocation of aid amongst the recipient countries. There is a reaction in the developing countries against the dependence, political and eco¬nomic, which heavy reliance on foreign aid generates. The threat of the in¬creasing burden of debt-service charge haunts the developing world and brings them back to the donors for renewed assistance and/or debt rescheduling.

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