China’s NGO Partnerships in a New Era of Development Cooperation

China’s 2021 White Paper, China’s International Development Cooperation in the New Era, offers a new vision for a more people-centred approach to its development cooperation. While the White Paper extensively discusses partnerships, it only briefly mentions encouraging cooperation with non-governmental organisations (NGOs). This article argues that NGO engagement in international development activities would improve their effectiveness, a view shared by many Chinese scholars and practitioners. However, challenges exist that constrain optimal engagement, especially access to funding, and a weak enabling environment and policy framework. This article addresses these challenges, drawing from the literature on ‘going out’ among Chinese NGOs and social organisations, along with interviews with key players in the Chinese NGO ecosystem. The article recommends, among other things, that the government clarify and improve its policy framework for NGOs/social organisations in support of China’s international development collaboration, especially regarding funding flows, personnel regulations, and material and capital outflows.

Glossary: China and International Development: Knowledge, Governance, and Practice

This is the glossary for IDS Bulletin 52.2: China and International Development: Knowledge, Governance, and Practice.

Whose Knowledge? Whose Influence? Changing Dynamics of China’s Development Cooperation Policy and Practice

This article aims to investigate the recent evolution of China’s development policy and practice. More precisely, how do China’s policymakers and practitioners understand and debate China’s role in international development, specifically in the context of the global Covid-19 pandemic? China’s growing development activities overseas, particularly in the African continent, have spurred intense debate over its role as a rising power in international development. China is viewed in the West both as a threat and as a valuable potential partner in development cooperation. However, differences between Western and Chinese conceptions of development have complicated cooperation and understanding of China’s development policy. Further understanding of these differences is needed, in order to evaluate their implications for low-income countries, and for potential trilateral cooperation.

Triangular Cooperation: Different Approaches, Same Modality

Triangular cooperation aims to utilise the comparative advantages of a pivotal partner (usually an emerging country) and a facilitating partner (usually a traditional donor) to generate development impacts with and for the benefit of a beneficiary, through simultaneously strengthening their partnership and providing opportunities for mutual learning. Utilising the triangular cooperation modality, China has acted primarily as a pivotal partner, implementing projects with facilitating partners and beneficiaries. Roles and responsibilities between China and facilitating partners differ greatly. Three approaches can be distinguished: (a) facilitating partner provides financial resources and China provides expertise; (b) China provides financial resources and facilitating partner implements; (c) China and facilitating partner provide financial resources and jointly plan and implement together with the beneficiary. This article argues that approach (c), currently practised in triangular cooperation projects between China, Germany, and beneficiary countries provides the partners with the most potential for effectively generating developmental impacts and partnership effects.

Ownership and Effectiveness of China’s Aid Projects in Africa

The notion of ‘ownership’ has occupied a central place in measuring the effectiveness of North–South cooperation. How is it represented in South–South cooperation (SSC) and how does it affect the effectiveness of SSC? There is no clear answer in the existing literature. In this article, we describe the representation of ‘ownership’ in SSC and explain how it has affected the process and impact of SSC projects using case studies of three uniformly designed Chinese agricultural aid projects in Mozambique, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. Based on long-term participatory observation and in-depth interviews, we find that ‘ownership’ in SSC is represented differently from project design to implementation. Divergence and ambiguity exist among different stakeholders on the operation of ‘ownership’. ‘Co-ownership’ of two partners at the local level contributes to the effectiveness of SSC projects while ‘de-ownership’ and ‘forced ownership’ have a negative impact on the survival and sustainable development of SSC projects.

Exploring China’s Impacts on Development Thinking and Policies

In this article, we explore the impacts, actual and potential, of China’s development experiences upon development thinking and policies elsewhere. New Structural Economics, a theoretical innovation by Professor Justin Yifu Lin drawing on a longer tradition of pragmatic ‘learning by doing’ development strategies, provides a framework in which three agendas stand out: structural transformation as a policy priority; the return of industrial policy; and the use of Special Economic Zones. We integrate related drivers of growth in China: rapid urbanisation pulling in massive rural migration in an economic transformation process; the financing of provincial and city governments by improvised local government financing vehicles based on rising urban land values; and competition and accountability processes in China’s subnational governance system. While China’s experiences cannot be directly replicated elsewhere, we argue that lessons on why and how to achieve structural transformation are relevant for other developing countries, especially in fast urbanising and integrating Africa.

The New Asian Development Finance

The recent challenges posed for multilateralism and the emergence of a sustainable development regime have pushed countries to engage in more flexible, issue-based development finance initiatives and institutions. These changes have profoundly impacted how China conceives and delivers its development finance. How is China’s development finance being shaped by other countries’ experiences? How has China been shaping development finance globally? This article argues that China’s development finance has been increasingly market-oriented, concerned about financial and environmental sustainability, and delivered through hybrid bilateral–multilateral channels, particularly since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative. Shaped by the changes that China experienced at both international and domestic levels, these new features signal the rise of a ‘new Asian development finance’ that is refocusing the global debate on the importance of combining aid, trade, and investment under financially and environmentally sustainable frameworks, and channelling development finance through multilateral channels to catalyse structural transformation.

Notes on Contributors: China and International Development: Knowledge, Governance, and Practice

This is the notes on contributors for IDS Bulletin 52.2: China and International Development: Knowledge, Governance, and Practice.

Mutual Learning in Development Cooperation: China and the West

This article looks at some of the characteristics of China’s foreign aid system and its development over the years. It discusses China’s foreign aid based on its own development experiences and its view of South–South development cooperation. Both the modalities and narratives of China’s international development cooperation need to be considered in order to better understand the complexities, strengths, and weaknesses of its aid system. As China’s international aid continues to grow and become more prominent, particularly in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative, the article calls for a deeper understanding of China’s aid institutions and the need for greater cooperation and capacity building.

Selective Learning: China, the CGIAR, and Global Agricultural Science in Flux

This article analyses the interaction between China and the CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) since the 1970s, exploring the formation of China’s modern agricultural science capability and its approach towards learning. While China was previously regarded and treated as a recipient of international scientific expertise, it is now a more equal partner and contributor, with capacity to provide funds, support exchange programmes for scientists, and collaborate in building laboratories and joint research programmes. Some of these now extend beyond the CGIAR system and are creating new platforms for scientific collaboration and knowledge production in the South. By offering an illustration of China’s ‘selective learning’ approach, emphasising self-reliance and pragmatism in its engagement with the CGIAR, this article feeds into broader debates on how China contributes to global development knowledge and learning.