China, India, Brazil and others could revolutionise multilateral aid
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Version 0 of 1. We might dub them “cubists”, after the avant-garde art movement that revolutionised European painting and sculpture. Whatever the acronym, there is no denying that China, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and South Africa are becoming game-changers on the international development landscape. They have been active providers of development cooperation for many years, but their efforts have long been mainly bilateral. Today, their contribution to the multilateral system is increasingly visible. Related: World Bank welcomes China's new bank as means to fight poverty A report by the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee – Multilateral Aid 2015: Better Partnerships for a Post-2015 World – estimates that the seven countries injected $1.2bn (£770m) into the multilateral aid system in 2013. Although the amount is small compared with DAC members’ funding, which reached $59bn that year, it represents a 51% increase over 2009 levels. And it has made a big difference in collective development and humanitarian efforts. International humanitarian response has been a clear driver of increased multilateral funding by these countries, often complementing their own bilateral efforts (eg Turkey’s engagement in Somalia and Brazil’s in Haiti). China’s important role in the international humanitarian community was exemplified with the Ebola crisis: in 2014, Beijing pledged $6m to the World Food Programme, $2m each to the World Health Organisation and the African Union, and $6m to the UN Ebola Response Multi-Partner Trust Fund. These countries are not just injecting more resources into the multilateral aid system, they are changing its configuration to produce an increasingly complex geographic constellation. A south-south multilateral system – with large regional funds targeting infrastructure, industrial upgrading and possibly green technology – is coming into play. In July 2014, the Brics countries established the New Development Bank, with equal leadership and governance across the five founding members and a reserve currency pool worth more than $100bn. Related: Addis Ababa development finance summit: all you need to know China continues to exert its influence as a major investor in an array of bilateral and multilateral development finance funds and institutions. In 2014, it announced plans to launch the $100bn Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the $40bn Silk Road fund, both focusing on regional infrastructure, to upgrade industrial output and enhance the international competitiveness of regional supply chains. More than 22 Asian countries have expressed an interest in participating in the AIIB. But it is unlikely to be an exclusively Asian institution: in March the UK announced its intention to become a founding member, the first major western country to seek to join the bank. As argued in Multilateral Aid 2015, the implementation of the broad and universal post-2015 development agenda will require collective, cross-border solutions to foster a new era of economic progress, environmental sustainability, and peaceful and inclusive societies. China, the UAE, Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and South Africa can use their growing influence to spur innovation in the multilateral system, providing a greater voice to developing countries and mobilising resources in many different ways. By reinforcing and promoting inclusive partnerships, they can “revolutionise” the multilateral system, making it stronger and more effective. |