November 2012
NOREF Book R evi ew
From Recipients to Donors: Emerging Powers
and the Changing Development Landscape
By Emma Mawdsley (London: Zed Books, 2012)
Reviewed by Patricia Magalhães Ferreira
Executive summary
This book is not only an overarching and
well-grounded analysis of the history,
institutional aspects, discourse, modalities and
practices of the so-called “new” providers of
development co-operation, but it also extends
the subject by providing us with a fundamental
contextualisation of these “emerging” donors
in the global geographies of power and wealth.
One of the main criticisms presented in the
book is that most issues involving aid and
official development assistance are still treated
by traditional development actors as technical
and operational problems, when they are in
fact political and strategic matters that relate to
interests and power.
The author demonstrates how the rising
powers are increasingly important drivers of
development theory and practice, leading to
alternative conceptualisations of development
co-operation or, as some experts describe it, to
a “post-aid world”. This means that dichotomies
like North/South or donor/recipient are becoming
outdated and being questioned by diverse actors
and processes that go well beyond aid. In this
context of complex dynamics, the diversity of
non-DAC donors is often underestimated (with
China in the spotlight) and the DAC/non-DAC
divide falls short in explaining most of the current
changes under way.
The reviewer
Patrícia Magalhães Ferreira is currently a researcher at the Valle Flor Institute in Lisbon and has collaborated for
more than a decade with the Institute for Strategic and International Studies. She has published on fragile states
and development co-operation, EU-Africa issues and aid effectiveness. She has also worked as a consultant on
development co-operation and evaluation in Africa.
Book review: From Recipients to Donors: Emerging Powers and the Changing Development Landscape
Much has been written in the last few years about
the rise of “new actors” in the development aid
landscape, presenting opportunities and risks
for partner countries (particularly in Africa),
while impacting and challenging the traditional
global aid architecture, which thus far has mainly
been framed by Western perceptions, strategies
and practices. One should take into account,
however, that this is still a very recent subject of
analysis in both the academic and political arenas
and that, compared to the enormous amount of
research into various elements of foreign aid
from the industrialised economies, there is still
much to learn about the presence, activities and
importance of development co-operation policies
not included in the framework of the Development
Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development.
In the introduction to From Recipients to
Donors: Emerging Powers and the Changing
Development Landscape, the author, Emma
Mawdsley, states that the book is about the
emergence or re-emergence of a large number
of states that are active as partners and donors in
international development. In fact, the book is not
only an overarching and well-grounded analysis
of the history, institutional aspects, discourse,
modalities and practices of these “new” providers
of development co-operation, but also takes the
research further, providing us with a fundamental
contextualisation of these actors in the global
geographies of power and wealth. It points out
how aid is a relatively small element interlinked
with wider trends in political and economic power,
but simultaneously illustrates how development
co-operation patterns (approached in a broader
sense than just foreign aid) are playing a role in the
redefinition of institutional settings, in the overall
relationship between developing countries and in
boosting a stronger voice for recipient countries
within this new configuration. As Mawdsley
rightly points out, however, this does not mean
that the inclusion of large emerging economies
in multilateral forums and new decision-making
frameworks such as the G-20 ensures that the
interests of the majority of poorer countries are
somehow assured.
The book contributes to the deconstruction
of several concepts that still frame most of the
discourse and debates on the rise of new providers
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of development co-operation in the global aid
architecture. In effect, the terminology of “new” or
“emerging” actors sometimes refers to countries
that have a long history of engagement in Africa
and other developing countries. The book’s title is
itself questioned through the text, since most of
these countries have not made a clear transition
from recipients to donors, but rather have
become simultaneously donors and recipients
of development aid. In addition, middle-income
countries also host the majority of the world’s poor,
with implications for how poverty is understood
and addressed. Conceptual dichotomies like
North/South, developed/underdeveloped, or
donor/recipient are therefore becoming outdated
and being questioned by diverse types of actors
and by processes that go well beyond aid.
Being marked by the rising presence of China
in Africa and critical though China’s role is and
will be, many existing studies (produced mainly
with a Western focus, in terms of both theory and
analysis) tend to standardise a complex, diverse
and highly differentiated set of actors into a unified
strategy or approach conducted by emerging
economies and led by China. Mawdsley offers
instead a clear reminder that the so-called group of
emerging players includes global giants, regional
powers, rapidly industrialised economies and
former socialist states from diverse geographic
and historical backgrounds that are neither a
homogeneous group in terms of their interests
and capacities nor share a unique agenda.
Going beyond China is, therefore, fundamental
to understanding the tensions and shifts taking
place within aid and development co-operation
worldwide, pointing to plural and heterogeneous
impacts for different sectors and social groups
within and across different countries and contexts.
The DAC/non-DAC divide falls short in
explaining most of the current changes and
often oversimplifies more complex dynamics.
For instance, China shares many practices and
approaches with other Asian donors, such as
India and Korea, that are fundamentally different
from the approaches, agendas and experiences of
other “new donors” such as the Gulf States, or Latin
American donors such as Brazil. The differences
among non-DAC donors are critically portrayed
throughout the various chapters, combining the
analysis with an historical perspective that allows
Book review: From Recipients to Donors: Emerging Powers and the Changing Development Landscape
for a broader view when trying to understand
the motivations and objectives underlying the
discursive claims, policies, strategies, institutional
settings and practices of (re-)emerging donors.
Rhetoric and symbolic discourse are indeed
powerful tools, which re-emerging Southern
development partners are pushing strongly to
fulfil their objectives as rising powers, including in
the field of development co-operation.
South-South co-operation, including concepts
such as “non-interference in domestic affairs”,
“win-win relationships” or “mutual benefits”, entail a
set of new language, concepts and developmental
principles. And although the definitions, volumes
and institutions of development co-operation are
highly varied among these (re-)emerging donors,
Mawdsley points out some common features of
these actors, including a sense of dynamism, of
change and opportunity, of flexibility and speed
in decision-making and the implementation of
projects, and a general tendency to focus on
the more productive sectors of the economy and
on infrastructure, which tends to generate more
direct and immediate benefits for both partners
and donors.
The author makes no judgements about the
quality or effectiveness of the aid provided,
but rather argues for an equally critical stance
towards the re-emerging donors and development
patterns as that towards traditional donors,
asking whose interests (class based, sectoral or
others) are being served within both donor and
recipient countries. Just as with DAC donors, the
geopolitical and commercial interests driving nonDAC assistance may cause concern or conflict
among interest groups within recipient countries,
which is a subject that would require further
research.
Non-DAC donors are engaged in an enormous
range of activities, many of which are very
similar to those of the “traditional” DAC donors.
However, Mawdsley stresses two distinctive
aspects in this regard. One is the rejection of
political conditionalities among some non-DAC
donors, although this does not mean an absence
of negotiations or a lack of concern with polity or
governance issues. The other is the conceptual
and practical overlaps among aid (as defined
by DAC criteria), trade and investment, blurring
these distinctions either by using tied aid or by
blending multiple instruments (e.g. presenting
development-oriented
and
commercial
instruments as a package to support a project or
bilateral agreement, or offering loans as part of a
“foreign aid” portfolio, but not conforming to DAC
definitions and norms). These issues are more
complex than the division between DAC and nonDAC donors suggests: some of the latter do not
traditionally use tied aid (e.g. Arab states) and in
practice many of the former do not separate official
development assistance from other official flows
and other investment and business interests. In
fact, this increased openness to several flows
and instruments of development financing is
becoming more attractive and interesting to
traditional donors, as their national aid budgets
come under increasing pressure following the
global financial crisis.
These complex dynamics have clear implications
for how the flows, institutional relations and
governance of aid are perceived and organised
in the global context, since development cooperation is in a rapidly evolving “state of change”,
both in theoretical and practical terms. Mawdsley
identifies several global factors that have a
powerful bearing on future trends and debates,
such as changes in the international landscape in
the new millennium, including changing neoliberal
orthodoxies, the new aid paradigm or the global
financial crisis. But the book focuses mainly on
an element that is often omitted in analysis, i.e.
how the rising powers are increasingly important
drivers of development theory and practice,
leading to alternative conceptualisations of
development co-operation or – as some experts
describe it – to a “post-aid world”.
One of the main critiques made in this book is
that most issues involving aid are still treated
by traditional development actors as technical
and operational problems rather than political
and strategic matters that relate to interests
and power. Mawdsley argues that, regardless
of the international relations theory in terms of
which we analyse foreign aid (realism, liberal
internationalism, constructivist, world system
theory, etc.), all of these theoretical approaches
share the recognition that aid is inherently political
in its nature, dynamics and practices. This means
that, regardless of its main objectives – poverty
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Book review: From Recipients to Donors: Emerging Powers and the Changing Development Landscape
reduction, economic growth and sustainable
development – aid is subject to the same strategic
calculations that are made in other policy areas.
The Paris commitments on aid effectiveness and
the pursuit of policy coherence for development
touch sensitive issues regarding donors’
visibility, conflicting interests, ideological hurdles,
willingness to give up leadership to partner
countries, etc. They therefore require political
rather than technical solutions, and can only have
mixed results when treated as bureaucratic and
depoliticised issues.
The global partnership focusing on development
(rather than aid) effectiveness signed at Busan
seems to go a step further in recognising the
power and political issues involved, as well as
reflecting the need to review and restructure the
so-called “North-South dialogue”.
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This new development agenda refocuses
attention on economic growth as an essential
condition for poverty reduction, elevates the
potential role of the private sector and shows a
new openness to development financing, with
aid being conceptualised more as a catalyst of
development outcomes (among other flows) than
as a direct or isolated instrument of development in
itself. While this new “development effectiveness”
agenda may ultimately descend into a commercial
and geopolitical race or be absorbed by the
economic growth model, the fact is that all these
new dynamics seem to reflect the emergence
of a new global development governance
regime, with increased multipolarity, diversity
and inclusiveness (in terms of networks, norms
and approaches). How international regimes
and institutions will adapt to the current power
transitions is still to be seen, but transformation is
inevitable and is already under way.