NN42, June 2009
A Safari Towards Aid Effectiveness?
The UK/China Development Partnership ? Is it Relevant for other Developing Countries?
By Adrian Davis, DFID China
Email: a-davis@dfid.gov.ukKeywords
UK-China; DFID
Summary
DFID?s partnership with China has been described as ?probably the most respected bilateral aid programme in China?. This article explains why, and asks whether this approach is relevant for other developing countries.
DFID has established a very successful development partnership with China. In a report released on 12 March 2009,[1] the International Development Committee commented that ?Over the last 10 years, the Department has built, within a unique and sometimes challenging context, what is probably the most respected bilateral aid programme in China. It has used limited resources to maximum effect, building influential relationships and highly effective aid projects from relatively small amounts of money. Central to this approach has been DFID's strategy of introducing small-scale pilot projects and, once their success has been proven, encouraging the Chinese Government to scale them up?.
Most of the success of DFID?s partnership is do with the nature of China as a development partner. China is unique amongst developing countries in its ability to draw on ideas and innovation from others (?searching for truth from facts?) and creatively build on them and roll them out across its vast country, pulling millions out of poverty in the process. When Deng Xiao Ping met Robert McNamara (then World Bank President) in 1978, he said: ?We are poor. We have lost touch with the world. But China is a big country. If we want to do something we can. But with the help of the World Bank, we can do it quicker and better?. The China country programmes in both the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank are always the most successfully performing portfolios, based on independent evaluation. This is largely because of the strong ownership and commitment of China to effective implementation of projects once they have been approved.
How could this be relevant to other developing countries? More effective state institutions seem to be one essential pre-condition. China's experience points to the importance of combining pragmatic, evidence-based, policy making with capable public institutions and a strong leadership that is committed to poverty reduction. Perhaps paradoxically, a lack of ideology could be another. Chinese policy making practices are generally based on a heavily pragmatic approach.
In general, China is committed to the global achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. One of the ways it demonstrates this is by its extensive programmes of South-South co-operation. China provides training to thousands of officials from developing countries, in various sectors, delivered by a wide range of institutions. Following the Global Poverty Conference in Shanghai in 2004, China established the International Poverty Reduction Centre in China to exchange experiences in poverty reduction. DFID and other international agencies work closely with it. DFID also works with individual line ministries in China, in particular health, water and agriculture, on supporting the exchange of experience in the relevant sectors, based on DFID?s own programmes in China.
[1] ?DFID and China?, House of Commons International Development Committee.
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