The Potential Role of Non-Traditional Donors' Aid in Africa

The fast growth of big economies like China and India has resulted in a new-found interest in the economic and political consequences for the developed economies. However, the global rise of emerging economies also affects the potentials of South-South collaboration. Emerging economies invest and trade with partners in the South, and they use development assistance to facilitate these economic flows.

This paper examines the consequences for Africa as well as for the traditional donors of the reemergence of the following four important non-traditional donors to Africa: China, India, Brazil and South Africa. Although the total size of the development assistance from these donors is still small in comparison to the traditional donors’ aid, its role is growing rapidly.

So far, the ‘Western’, in particular the American, perception of these donors has been that of rogue donors supporting African dictators, providing aid with ‘no strings attached’ thereby undermining the development efforts of the traditional donors. This paper questions this dichotomous view and instead argues that the re-emergence of non-traditional donors may affect African development efforts positively as well as negatively. Moreover, it is important to bear in mind that for most African countries, Chinese, Indian, Brazilian and South African development assistance is not an

alternative to traditional aid but rather complements it.

It is therefore of utmost importance that traditional donors continue their efforts to build capacity in African countries in order to increase the positive developmental effects of the additional flows of development assistance. Moreover, there are some opportunities for collaboration among the two groups of donors provided that ownership of the interventions is on African hands. This could enhance mutual understanding among the developing partners and potentially pave the way for a dialogue based on positive development experiences rather than uninformed critique.