Diversity and Its Origins of Aid Models in ‘Emerging Donors’

Abstract

The emerging donors are receiving considerable attention, being viewed with caution in the international donor community and regarded as challengers to the established international aid regime embodied by DAC.

To understand the reality of the conduct of the emerging donor situation, this article comparatively analyses aid models of the four emerging donors of China, South Korea, Thailand and India as well as examines factors which determine these diverse aid models.

After Chapter Two reviews how literature understands the diversity of aid donors and its determinant factors, Chapter Three analyses the diversity of emerging donors in terms of the following: (1) their aid purposes, strategies and policies; (2) aid activities and performances; and (3) aid institutions. In Chapter Four, the origins and transformation paths of the diverse aid models are analysed in terms of the domestic and international factors relevant to each donor. Different factor mixes are considered to have contributed to the formation and transformation of the different aid models.

This article reveals that the Asian emerging donors are as diverse as the traditional donors. It has also established that this diversity is a product of the different combinations of factors which influence emerging donor aid in contrast to those of the traditional donors. This article also contributes to the argument that the patterns of conduct by Asia's emerging donors are not statically fixed but are in a process of transformation. Hence, it is suggested here that the traditional donors take a more plural and longer-term perspective to understand the emerging donors; by so doing, they will realize how best to partner with the others.