NKWAH Akongnwi NGWA: South-South Development Cooperation: The impact of Emerging Donors’ Aid on African Countries (The Case of Sino-Cameroonian Aid Relations)
Structural and Domestic Changes in South-South Cooperation Dramatic changes in the institutional and power structures of the South have occurred in the past two to three decades. The South as a whole is now not only richer in absolute terms; its economic weight relative to the global economy has also substantially increased. With increasing globalization, linkages between external and domestic policies have become stronger and more intensive. External events and forces are influencing domestic policies to a degree that continues to remain unparalleled today. How domestic and external factors interact at the country level in developing countries is a topic that merits further study. In contrast to the developed world, this aspect of international political economy has yet to receive adequate scrutiny in the South. Today, the economies of Botswana and Ghana are growing at a fast rate. To be sure, performance across the range of African countries continues to remain uneven, and the region’s pockets of success are not yet numerous enough to put Africa as a whole on the path to sustainable growth. A special focus on Africa should, therefore, be one of the defining cornerstones of concerted SSC. As such, the structural and domestic changes within the south will be analysed in the following domains:
Emergence of New Economic Powers During the past two decades, CIBs who account for nearly 40% of the world’s population and more than half the population of the South have all undergone a dramatic economic transformation. From 1980 to 2006, the Chinese economy grew annually at a rate of 8 to 9%, while that of India grew annually at 6%.81 By virtue of the size of the two countries and “the fact that, together, they account for about two fifths of the world population and one fifth of global income (measured in terms of purchasing power parity, PPP), their economic performance already has a sizeable impact on international trade patterns, global output growth and the economic prospects of other developing countries, including their progress towards achieving the MDGs.”82 China has accumulated large foreign exchange reserves, now exceeding $1 trillion; India has also built up significant balance of payment surpluses. Both countries have eliminated any dependence they might have previously had on bilateral aid flows and financial assistance from multilateral financing institutions.
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During the July-September 2006 quarter,the country’s economy expanded by 9.2per prospects increase as growth hits 9.2%” , Financial Times, 1 December 2006. 82 UNCTAD, Trade and Development Report,“New Features of Global (http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/tdr2005_en.pdf ).
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