{"id":1036,"date":"2025-10-02T04:01:38","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/india-aid-donor-or-development-partner\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T04:01:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:01:38","slug":"india-aid-donor-or-development-partner","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/emerged-powers\/india-aid-donor-or-development-partner\/","title":{"rendered":"India Aid Donor Or Development Partner"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"content column wide left blog_post content view\" id=\"content\">\n<div class=\"edit image\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/var\/broker\/storage\/images\/blogs\/emerged-powers\/india-aid-donor-or-development-partner\/349839-1-eng-gb\/india-aid-donor-or-development-partner_full_view.jpg\" alt=\"\">\n\t<\/div>\n<article class=\"fader\">\n<header class=\"contents\">\n<div class=\"share\">\n\t\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n    var addthis_config = {\n        ui_language = 'en'\n    }\n<\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"addthis sharing\">\n\t<!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --><\/p>\n<div class=\"addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style addthis_32x32_style\" addthis:title=\"India: aid donor or development partner?\">\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_twitter\" tw:via=\"thebrokeronline\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_facebook\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_pinterest_share\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_preferred_4\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_compact\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_counter addthis_bubble_style\"><\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n<p>\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">var addthis_config = data_track_addressbar;<\/script><br \/>\n\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/js\/300\/addthis_widget.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n\t<!-- AddThis Button END -->\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"addthis article_options\">\n\t\t<!-- \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/mandrill\/subscription\/add\/33332\/40942\">Subscribe<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t -->\n    \t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIndia: aid donor or development partner?<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"pubDate\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/experts-and-authors\/konijn-peter\/\">Peter Konijn<\/a>\t\t|<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t04 March 2025\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"body contents\">\n\t<!-- body --><\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\"><b><\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">In&nbsp;January 2012&nbsp;the Indian government formally established the Development Partnership Administration (DPA) within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with a mandate to coordinate India\u2019s overseas development assistance.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">The DPA is currently staffed with 20 professionals responsible for overseeing the complete project cycle including monitoring and evaluation, for India\u2019s aid projects. The DPA has been in the making for quite some time. In 2007 an attempt to establish DPA failed because of a lack of agreement between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Finance on the location of the proposed agency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">The creation of the DPA signals the emergence of India as an international aid donor, which is consistent with India\u2019s new-found status as a BRIC country and its recent transition from a low income country to a middle income country. However the Indian government has consistently refused to use terms as aid or donor when it refers to its overseas assistance, because it wants its development assistance to be seen as different from existing development aid. In the eyes of many Indians in- and outside of government, traditional North-South development aid has failed to deliver on its promises.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\nThe basic reason for its failure is believed to lie in an unequal donor-recipient relation. This relation generally lacks ownership on the recipient side, is driven by donor interests and views and meddles in internal affairs. The new government agency therefore carries the name of development partnership instead of development assistance or aid. &nbsp;&nbsp;<br class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\"\/>A second reason for not using the term development aid is rooted in domestic politics. To put it simply: there is little to no public support for development aid. Why should India aid other developing countries as most of the world\u2019s poor live inside its own borders? &nbsp;Public spending in India on health and education is still amongst the lowest in the world, so why spend money on poor people elsewhere?<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">India\u2019s development assistance is therefore couched in a discourse of mutual benefit and economic cooperation. It is justified because it generates economic benefits for India and not because it contributes to poverty alleviation in the partner country. This is not to say that it does not lead to poverty alleviation, but simply that it is not a stated goal. The discourse on mutual benefit and economic cooperation has deep historical roots in the Non Alignment Movement of which India under president Nehru was a big supporter.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">India uses development assistance, like all other countries, as a tool of foreign policy. There is nothing special about that. Its discourse is however radically different from the Western discourse on development aid. India\u2019s discourse is shaped by its own experiences with development assistance, the wish to distinguish from the practices of traditional OECD\/DAC donors and the need to justify overseas spending in the domestic context of widespread poverty. &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\n<p>\t\t<!-- body -->\n\t<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<section class=\"commentform content column wide left\">\n<div class=\"disqus_content\">\n\t\t\t<a name=\"comments\" id=\"comments\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"disqus_thread\"><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\t\t\t\t\/* * * CONFIGURATION VARIABLES: EDIT BEFORE PASTING INTO YOUR WEBPAGE * * *\/\n\t\t\t\tvar disqus_shortname = 'broker'; \/\/ required: replace example with your forum shortname\n\t\t\t\tvar disqus_identifier = '9159';\n\t\t\t\t\/* * * DON'T EDIT BELOW THIS LINE * * *\/\n\t\t\t\tfunction trackComment(comment)\n\t\t\t\t{\n\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log(comment);\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\tfunction disqus_config() {\n\t\t\t\t\tthis.callbacks.onNewComment = [function() { \n\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log(comment);\n\t\t\t\t\t}];\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t(function() {\n\t\t\t\t\tvar dsq = document.createElement('script'); dsq.type = 'text\/javascript'; dsq.async = true;\n\t\t\t\t\tdsq.src = '\/\/' + disqus_shortname + 'https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/blogs\/emerged-powers\/.disqus.com\/embed.js';\n\t\t\t\t\t(document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(dsq);\n\t\t\t\t})();\n\t\t\t<\/script><br \/>\n\t\t\t<!--\n\t\t\t<noscript>Please enable JavaScript to view the <a href=\"http:\/\/disqus.com\/?ref_noscript\">comments powered by Disqus.<\/a><\/noscript>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/disqus.com\" class=\"dsq-brlink\">comments powered by <span class=\"logo-disqus\">Disqus<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t-->\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false,"raw":""},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India: aid donor or development partner? Peter Konijn | [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template_2.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1036","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>India: aid donor or development partner? \/ Emerged Powers \/ Blogs - The Broker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In&amp;nbsp;January 2012&amp;nbsp;the Indian government formally established the Development Partnership Administration (DPA) within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with a mandate to coordinate India\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s overseas development assistance.&amp;nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/emerged-powers\/india-aid-donor-or-development-partner\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"India: aid donor or development partner? \/ Emerged Powers \/ Blogs - The Broker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In&amp;nbsp;January 2012&amp;nbsp;the Indian government formally established the Development Partnership Administration (DPA) within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with a mandate to coordinate India\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s overseas development assistance.&amp;nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/emerged-powers\/india-aid-donor-or-development-partner\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Homepage - Broker Online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"India: aid donor or development partner? \/ Emerged Powers \/ Blogs - The Broker","description":"In&amp;nbsp;January 2012&amp;nbsp;the Indian government formally established the Development Partnership Administration (DPA) within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with a mandate to coordinate India\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s overseas development assistance.&amp;nbsp;","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/emerged-powers\/india-aid-donor-or-development-partner\/","og_type":"article","og_title":"India: aid donor or development partner? \/ Emerged Powers \/ Blogs - The Broker","og_description":"In&amp;nbsp;January 2012&amp;nbsp;the Indian government formally established the Development Partnership Administration (DPA) within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with a mandate to coordinate India\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s overseas development assistance.&amp;nbsp;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/emerged-powers\/india-aid-donor-or-development-partner\/","og_site_name":"Homepage - Broker Online","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1036\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}