Beyond the traditional North-South perspective Over the past 60 years high-income countries have invested over 4000 billion euros in development aid. With varying degrees of success, these investments in low-income countries contributed to tackling structural problems such as access to water, health care, and education. Today, however, international development cooperation is no longer restricted to helping by giving. Instead, it is rather about opportunities, mutual interests, risk taking, and an inclusive societal approach. With the arrival of major new actors such as China, India, and Brazil, and the manifestation of private companies and foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, development aid is being eclipsed by new forms of international cooperation, increasingly accompanied by investments, trade, and give-and-take exchanges. The agenda for sustainable development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 and to be realised by 2030, is a case in point of new influential frameworks that usher in a global rather than a traditional North-South perspective. This book reviews 60 years of international development aid and its relevant actors, outlining today’s challenges and opportunities. Richly illustrated with case studies and examples, International Development Cooperation Today maps successes and failures and synthesizes visions and discussions from all over the world. By pointing out the radical shift from the traditional North-South perspective to a global paradigm, this book is essential reading for all practitioners, academics, and donors involved in development aid. Over the past 60 years high-income countries have invested over 4000 billion euros in development aid. With varying degrees of success, these investments in low-income countries contributed to tackling structural problems such as access to water, health care, and education. Today, however, international development cooperation is no longer restricted to helping by giving. Instead, it is rather about opportunities, mutual interests, risk taking, and an inclusive societal approach. With the arrival of major new actors such as China, India, and Brazil, and the manifestation of private companies and foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, development aid is being eclipsed by new forms of international cooperation, increasingly accompanied by investments, trade, and give-and-take exchanges. The agenda for sustainable development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 and to be realised by 2030, is a case in point of new influential frameworks that usher in a global rather than a traditional North-South perspective. This book reviews 60 years of international development aid and its relevant actors, outlining today’s challenges and opportunities. Richly illustrated with case studies and examples, International Development Cooperation Today maps successes and failures and synthesizes visions and discussions from all over the world. By pointing out the radical shift from the traditional North-South perspective to a global paradigm, this book is essential reading for all practitioners, academics, and donors involved in development aid. List of figures List of tables List of boxes Abbreviations Preface Introduction Development cooperation in an era of globalisation More and more new actors on the scene: is the sector still a community? Big donors, generous donors More conflicting views and approaches: the arena is getting tough More transactional interests: market appeal Do new donors have other interests? Everybody from payers to players: the emergence of a new paradigm From colonialism to the Sustainable Development Goals Colonial warm-up exercises Technical cooperation and knowledge transfer Faith in development aid Development cooperation: aid in a global setting The Washington Consensus and structural adjustments International cooperation, the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals Addressing poverty in exchange for debt relief International development cooperation and Paris: introducing order to the community and the market The SDGs and the need for a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach It takes two to tango Internationally: among specialists Recipient countries: donor darlings and donor orphans The first pillar: official bilateral cooperation Many small players and institutional pluralism In search of an institutional foundation for development cooperation Decentralisation: to reach the SDGs or also for other reasons? The second pillar: multilateral cooperation Europe’s development cooperation patchwork Multilateral cooperation: the UN galaxy fans out further The third pillar: non-governmental development organisations A movement with many faces, roles, visions and strategies Several generations of NGDOs A sector with many different visions and strategies A movement with a plural support base The sector breaks free from the NGDOs Is the new social movement becoming an established network movement? The fourth pillar: towards a whole-of-society approach The key players of the fourth pillar The fourth pillar: the children of globalisation challenge the children of the North-South Starting from a different field From a level ‘telling’ field to joint action The near and distant future of a whole-of-society approach Humanitarian aid: more dispersed or more networked? What place for emergency aid? Overcoming the humanitarian nemesis Cash-and-carry on the market The unbearable lightness of the support for development cooperation The uneasy relationship with the support base No (more) aid fatigue? Popular, yet little understood Something needs to be done: but by whom? Time for a new narrative: from development education towards education for global citizenship Sixty years of international development cooperation: where has the bumpy road led us? 261 Progress, but not for everyone Is aid future-proof? Are we really that generous? Who is receiving aid? The effectiveness and impact of development cooperation Development cooperation: a stumbling-block? Conclusion: the past will not come back but is still there Notes Bibliography