Hsu, Jennifer, Hildebrandt, Timothy ORCID: 0000-0003-2970-8638 and Hasmath, Reza
(2016)
'Going out' or staying in? The expansion of Chinese NGOs in Africa.
Development Policy Review, 34 (3).
pp. 423-429.
ISSN 0950-6764
Abstract
Growing attention has been paid to China’s recent entree into international development. While received wisdom has long suggested that NGOs have played key roles in assisting government-led development initiatives, little scholarly attention has been paid to the potential for Chinese non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in helping affect these process and outcomes. In this article, we examine two African nations – Ethiopia and Malawi – with high levels of Chinese development assistance, but with contrasting political regime types. Our findings indicate that irrespective of regime type, Chinese NGOs are yet to make a substantial impact in either nation. We argue that, despite the strength of the Chinese state and high levels of international development assistance given, domestic politics and regulatory frameworks in host nations still matter a great deal. These local contexts ultimately have constrained Chinese development work, especially in regards to the involvement of NGOs. Furthermore, the implications of our study suggest that the Chinese model of international development will continue to be one where temporary one-off projects are favoured; and, insofar as social organisations will play a role, they will be in the domain of government-organised, non-governmental organisations (GONGOs) than grassroots NGOs.
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