I do not subscribe to the increasingly fashionable view that the current crisis represents the end of international development cooperation. For want of better terms, traditional donor countries and traditional developing countries will continue to cooperate on a range of issues. First, because they face both old and new shared challenges that can only be solved through collective action. Think of long-standing rules for international trade or the more recent focus on global issues like climate change, biodiversity loss, and pandemic prevention. Second, because, notwithstanding what the tabloids will shout, solidarity remains a widely shared public value. People want to help in humanitarian catastrophes, natural disasters, or when they see other human beings coping with extreme poverty or deprivation. And third, because development assistance continues to be a tool of broader international engagement in support of mutual interest projects for both provider and recipient countries.
So, development cooperation will continue, but I also believe that the way in which this cooperation takes place will be very, very different going forward. The model that has been the dominant framework for development cooperation for over a generation – characterised by North to South aid flows and associated conditionality – has now run its course. It won’t disappear all at once or everywhere at the same pace, but the direction of travel is irreversible, and the sooner we adapt our thinking to recognising that trend, the more productive and impactful our work will be.
