GPPi research on emerging donors presented at f.ize forum

Claudia Meier, a member of the GPPi Circle of Friends, gave a presentation on 31 January 2013 about emerging donors at the Forum International Cooperation, or f.ize, a joint initiative of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the German National Merit Foundation. The event was titled Gulf States and Emerging Powers as Donors – Consequences for Humanitarian Policy and Development Cooperation.

Joining Meier as co-panelist was Inken Wiese from the University of Konstanz. In their joint presentation, Meier focused on the humanitarian policy of emerging powers, presenting results from GPPi research on India, Brazil and Turkey. Wiese shared insights from her PhD research on Gulf donors in development cooperation.

After an introduction on the scope of emerging donorship, the presenters discussed foreign policy, domestic political dynamics and decision-making processes of emerging donors. They argued that analyzing these three aspects is essential to understand the behavior of each donor. Meier and Wiese also stressed the importance of a critical view on foreign policy interests of traditional donors – who tend to portray their development cooperation as purely compassion driven.

The presenters went on to discuss the aid policies, approaches and instruments that emerging donors use. Meier and Wiese concluded that emerging donors – be they Gulf or BRICS states – are not interested in joining existing fora. This makes it necessary for the traditional system to rethink coordination. Following the presentation, the 12 invited participants focused their questions on alternative cooperation fora and the role of emerging donors in the agricultural sector, the Arab Spring and the Syria crisis.