Search

Despite considerable debate on the normative foundations of Chinese international development cooperation and how they compare with those of traditional donors,positivist studies on the normative consequences of China's socialization into mainstream international norms of development assistance are scarce. This article explores this topic for the case of Ethiopia, an aid 'darling' with an extended presence of Chinese and Western development actors, taking the Aid Effectiveness Agenda as reference. Resorting to official documents, data analysis, and semi-structured interviews, the authors find that Chinese development actors' understanding of ownership and transparency is relatively stable and different from that of Western donors and that they promote their own understanding of those principles among Ethiopian stakeholders. There are, however, significant changes in inclusive partnerships and the focus on results, that have more to do with a pragmatic adaptation process by Chinese actors than with a socialization process through their interaction with traditional donors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 31 January 2020 the UK formally withdrew from the EU, with disengagement to become effective after a period of transition and uncertainty, aggravated by a global health crisis. By analysing the shifting profile of British aid since the Brexit vote and also the terms of the withdrawal, this article intends to shed light on its future course. Building on previous research, three scenarios on post-Brexit aid are considered in section 1: the nationalist; the realist; and the cosmopolitan. Considering the most recent changes in the UK's aid budgets and policy papers, it can be concluded that the country has a realist approach to development cooperation (see section 2). Finally, the paper assesses the impact these changes will be likely to have on European and global aid, ceteris paribus (section 3). Our data show that the UK's volume of aid has remained stable since the Brexit vote in 2016. This has come hand in hand with a shifting pattern of aid allocation: aid provided for health research programmes in the UK, companies and universities has increased, while aid directed at LDCs and DFID programmes has decreased. Our main argument is that the changes match a realist scenario, rather than a cosmopolitan or even a nationalist approach, which would result in decreasing aid and weaker links with partner countries. As a result, and despite the UK's new allocation pattern to countries, sectors and channels, there should be no major impact on aid at the European and global levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lack of coordination among donors poses several problems: it results in higher administrative costs for both donors and partner countries and weakens aid effectiveness. This rationale is the basis for the OECD and EU political agendas on harmonization and coordination, which has resulted in different coordination initiatives at both headquarters and field levels. However, despite the political agenda, recent studies show that for many donors and partner countries aid fragmentation has prevailed or even increased.By means of a country case study in Morocco, this document explores the obstacles to aid coordination in a specific EU development partner country. Coordination initiatives may have proliferated but not necessarily triggered results in terms of joint work or donors’ specialization. The main obstacles to coordination include varied administrative procedures; diverse administrative architectures; resistance from local authorities and also from leading donors (to abandon or share flagship aid programmes). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]