South-South Cooperation, North-South Aid and the Prospect of International Aid Architecture

South-South Cooperation (SSC) and North-South Aid (NSA) arise from different historical conditions and there are great differences between their philosophies, principles and paradigms. Against the background of a changing global environment, developed countries realized that the original development aid architecture must be reformed on one hand, and that developing countries are increasingly important in the aid architecture on the other. Hence, Western donors began to rethink their aid principles and methods, and accepted the concept of development effectiveness gradually, an attempt to establish global development forum and global partnership including emerging donors, beneficiary countries, civil society and the private sector. Nevertheless, being developing countries themselves, emerging donors are faced with unsolved domestic poverty issues and imperfect aid management institutions, which means that the emerging donors are unable to take a dominant position in the current aid architecture. Hence, the future dialogue and cooperation between traditional and emerging donors should feature the principle that the responsibilities taken by each party are collective but not identical, with developing countries bearing the main responsibilities in promoting poverty reduction and economic development in developing countries. They should be mutually tolerant about the different philosophies and share useful experiences. Moreover, emerging donors should promote development capacity building in recipient countries through win-win cooperation and solve their domestic development issues at the same time

L’aide étrangère de la Chine dans l’architecture de l’aide internationale

Bien que la Chine ait une longue tradition d’aide au développement, la récente et remarquable poussée de l’aide étrangère de la Chine a des répercussions importantes sur l’architecture mondiale de l’aide. Elle repose sur des principes qui divergent sous plusieurs aspects de ceux des pays donateurs traditionnels du Comité d’aide au développement (CAD) de l’OCDE, notamment en ce qui concerne la non-ingérence, les avantages mutuels et l’inconditionnalité. L’aide étrangère de la Chine repose aussi sur un mélange de coopération économique, de commerce et d’accords d’investissement. Alors que plusieurs scientifiques occidentaux ont étudié le système chinois de coopération au développement, peu de voix chinoises se sont fait entendre dans les journaux et les médias européens et nord-américains. C’est pourquoi cet article vise à présenter une perspective chinoise sur l’évolution de l’aide étrangère de la Chine. Il se focalise sur les principes d’aide qui ont largement marqué l’aide chinoise au développement et souligne les succès obtenus jusqu’à ce jour en Afrique et en Asie du Sud-Est. L’article aborde également les principales lacunes de l’approche chinoise et recommande l’amélioration de la transparence institutionnelle et le renforcement du dialogue avec les donateurs du CAD, le tout dans le but de tirer des leçons des expériences passées et d’échanger les meilleures pratiques

A study on the employment effect of Chinese investment in South Africa

The original publication is available at http://www.sun.ac.za/ccsThe employment effect of Chinese investment in Africa has always been questioned by the international observers. Therefore, in order to investigate the suspicions from international observers, this paper uses a survey of the investment of 16 Chinese enterprises in Johannesburg, South Africa (South Africa) to analyse their possible employment effect in South Africa. From the survey, we found these Chinese investments brought about job increment to the local people, alleviating employment pressure, including many local low-skilled or unskilled labour. On the other hand, we argue, South Africa’s strict labour laws, its powerful labour unions, as well as the international orientation of Chinese enterprises in South Africa ensure the employment quality of Chinese enterprises will meet the host country’s legal requirements. As a result, the assumptions of international observers concerning the employment effect of China's investment in Africa are untenable as far as South Africa is concerned. Finally, the paper argues that the improvement of investment environment in South Africa is a prerequisite for further expanding the employment effect of Chinese firms.Publishers' versio

China’s Foreign Aid and Its Role in the International Architecture

Published by Palgrave MacmillanThough China has long been an aid provider, the recent and remarkable surge in China’s foreign aid has important implications for the global aid architecture. It relies on aid principles that diverge in many ways from those of traditional Development Assistance Committee (DAC) donor countries, particularly in relation to non-interference, mutual benefit and non-conditionality. China’s foreign aid also relies on a mixing of economic cooperation, trade and investment deals. While several Western scholars have examined the Chinese development cooperation system, few voices from China have been heard in European and North American journals and media. This chapter aims to offer a Chinese perspective on the evolution of China’s foreign aid. It focuses on the aid principles that have thus far informed Chinese development assistance, highlighting the successful outcomes achieved so far in Africa and South-East Asia. The chapter also addresses the main shortcomings of the Chinese approach, by recommending the improvement of institutional transparency, and strengthening of dialogue with DAC donors, all with a view towards learning from past experiences and exchanging best practices

Aid, Emerging Economies and Global Policies

International development cooperation is undergoing a revolution in order to cope with global challenges that cut across the rich/poor and North/South divides. Beyond the fight against poverty, development aid is called upon to address global public goods. While intergovernmental negotiations stall, bilateral and multilateral aid agencies boast to tackle climate change, food insecurity, water and energy scarcity, pandemics, armed conflicts and disasters in weak states, migrations, etc. The emergence of new aid actors radically alters the traditional aid architecture and approaches. The increasing number of poor living in middle-income countries makes poverty alleviation more of a political than a technical endeavour. The book examines how this profoundly affects international development cooperation. It questions how far bilateral and multilateral aid agencies succeed in mainstreaming global issues in their operations. It assesses how emerging and traditional donors address competing objectives, often with diverging rationales. Sixteen authors examine these challenges and the responses of traditional and emerging donors, including Brazil, China and South Africa. A full colour 30-page section illustrates this with graphics and diagrams. Buy the English issue published by Palgrave Macmillan. La coopération internationale au développement est bousculée, tant par la perte de ses repères traditionnels Nord/Sud ou riches/pauvres que par la multiplication des problèmes globaux qu’elle est appelée à traiter. Aujourd’hui, la majorité des pauvres vivent dans des pays à revenu intermédiaire. La lutte contre la pauvreté devient alors plus politique que technique. Il s’agit de (re)penser la répartition des richesses au niveau national, bien au-delà des cadres d’intervention des agences d’aide. En même temps, le système de gouvernance mondiale piétine et les agences se voient confier des missions de plus en plus vastes : préserver les biens publics mondiaux et combattre le changement climatique, l’insécurité alimentaire, les pandémies, les conflits armés, etc. Les agences bilatérales et multilatérales sauront-elles intégrer ces enjeux globaux dans leurs cadres opérationnels ? Comment les acteurs émergents de l’aide - tels l’Afrique du Sud, le Brésil et la Chine - s’inscrivent-ilsdans une coopération internationale aux prises avec des objectifs multiples et des logiques souvent contradictoires ? Le dossier thématique l'"Aide bousculée" est suivi d'une revue annuelle des principales évolutions des politiques commerciale, financière et de coopération au développement et d'un cahier infographique éclairant les thèmes abordés. Achetez le livre papier (256 pages, infographies en couleur). Achetez le livre numérique (EPub et .Pdf sur immateriel), aussi disponible sur Apple Store