Is Development Assistance Getting Better Due to the Widening Role of Emerging Economies?

There is a seismic shift emerging in the way that the international development assistance regime is conceived, managed and run. It has two primary causes: Firstly, the weaknesses and limitations of the existing system, as grounded in the hegemonic and exclusionary power and influence of the West. Secondly, the arrival of the “emerging economies” with globalization, which are challenging the structural institutional architecture, central principles and underlying values of the old system, along with its managerial system and effectiveness of delivery. A central and critical aim of these emerging states is the fundamental and irreversible reform of the existing system and, even more radical, a fundamental change in the way international development assistance is understood. The New Development Assistance (NDA) practiced by these states reflects many influences, the most important of which are their historical experiences as colonies or semi-colonized countries and their long, often bitter paths to independence, reform and renaissance, and their experiences as recipients of international development assistance. Within this shared generic experience, each brings their own distinctive history, understanding and practices of development to NDA. At the center of NDA is the complex relationship between the traditional system and its counter-point, an intricate diachronic process. In this process, the agencies of NDA engage with the principles, structures, processes and practices of the OECD DAC system. In this respect, NDA is selectively learning from the “traditional” system whilst simultaneously stepping away from it to establish a “new” institutional architecture predicated on distinct principles and practices that deviate from that system.