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While much scholarly attention has focused on the growing influence of China in Africa, India remains a comparatively neglected actor on the continent, especially among policy makers in the Global North. In this article, the authors argue that this comparative neglect is not only an empirical gap. Instead, it points towards a deeper conceptual challenge of accounting for shifting global power dynamics. To address this challenge, the article develops a relational account of power that takes into consideration questions of status and memory. Based on interviews conducted in Kenya and Ethiopia in early 2020, the analysis shows that India's influence in the region is perceived differently by different audiences. While diplomats from the Global North focussed primarily on material capabilities, respondents from East Africa also highlighted the importance of normative status, shared historical memories, and the Indo-African diaspora as central factors of India's influence in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explore how rising powers who are also donors within the G20 strive to achieve a positively distinctive identity in the field of development cooperation through status-seeking strategies. The article employs Social Identity Theory (SIT) to critically examine and understand the increasing importance of South-South cooperation in the foreign policies of the nine selected G20 rising donors (namely China, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, Turkey, Mexico, India and Argentina). For this purpose, it will first explain why status matters for rising powers. Second, it will present the linkage between status-seeking policies of states and state identity. Third, it exposes social creativity as a driver of state behaviour. And fourth, it focuses on G20 rising powers' quest for status through social creativity with a particular focus on South-South development cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South–South Cooperation is an emerging trend in international development assistance. Since 2011, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) initiative in South Sudan has been one of the most comprehensive attempts at post-conflict capacity development through South–South Cooperation, in terms of both scope and level of funding. This paper looks at the well-being of civil servant support officers deployed under the IGAD initiative, and the relationship between well-being and project performance. The paper explores assumptions underpinning South–South Cooperation and seeks to establish a better understanding of well-being and its impact on project performance. The paper also examines whether the second phase of the initiative has adequately addressed various challenges identified in the first phase. The paper finds that well-being, although often overlooked, has been critical to programme success in the IGAD initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article aims to trace South–South cooperation political lineages connecting the Non-Aligned Movement and the IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) Forum. In order to determine whether IBSA could be considered the ‘heir’ to Bandung's principles, we analyse the concepts of ‘Third World’ and ‘Global South’ as well as their current applicability, the interpretations provided by existing literature on the IBSA grouping, and its member countries' shared views on different issues of the international agenda. The article also considers the historical evolution of ‘Southern’ diplomatic thought and actions. IBSA's actions and history, as well as its members, are studied to grasp how they are related to the Third World movement in the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Emerging powers are credited with influencing development cooperation, but field-based studies incorporating the viewpoints of recipient developing country actors are scarce. This article analyses the presence and the material, ideational and institutional influence of assistance in agriculture and food security in Malawi by the governments of Brazil, India, China and South Africa. The findings suggest first that, despite a similar and powerful discourse linking these four states, in practice the emerging powers' approaches diverge to a large extent. Second, the material influence of these emerging powers is relatively limited and consequently so is their influence on Malawi's decision-making process with regard to development. Finally, perceptions about the emerging powers' potential contribution to addressing development challenges differ greatly between the Malawian government and the traditional donor community. This difference arises from limited coordination and cooperation on the one hand and the importance of ideational influence on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Over the past decade, power dynamics within the South Atlantic region have undergone significant changes. While the area has historically been dominated by North–South ties, both in terms of material flows and with respect to political influence, more recently there has been a surge in cooperation between developing countries within this space. As trade, investment and other forms of exchange and dialogue increase among actors from within the region (notably between South America and Africa) and with states located outside the region, the BRICS countries become more relevant to the South Atlantic. Individually, they have become relevant players in the South Atlantic's economic, political and security dimensions. Collectively, as inter-BRICS flows and political coordination intensify, new configurations of cooperation emerge within the South Atlantic. These initiatives suggest that rising powers are contributing towards making the South Atlantic – long dominated by North–South ties – a space where South–South cooperation and norms predominate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Optimising the development opportunities presented by emerging powers' growing interest in trade, investment and diplomatic engagement in Africa seems a priority for the continent in the context of a changing global system in which power is more diffuse. Taking into account a reconceptualisation of aid effectiveness as development effectiveness, this paper focuses on the manner in which African states understand and approach new opportunities for cooperation with emerging powers, especially China, India and Brazil, including the crucial issue of whether they seek joint development initiatives with both traditional partners and emerging powers. The central argument is that South–South cooperation, which is value-neutral although rhetorically reflecting the principles of solidarity and mutual benefit, must be part of an effective strategy to draw emerging economies into the national or regional development objectives of African states and the continent at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]