Realignment in international development cooperation: Role of emerging donors

International development cooperation has experienced large changes in recent years. One spectacular issue is the emergence of new donors, which are playing a more significant role than ever. China, India, Brazil, Russia, and the Arab countries — together with other emerging countries — support developing countries, though their activity is highly criticized by ‘traditional’ donors. The paper aims to analyse the behaviour of emerging donors with reflection on the question whether the additional resources complement or substitute the aid flows from traditional donors. The investigation shows that emerging donors do not behave as traditional donors and their aid allocation is determined by political and economic factors rather than the needs of the recipient countries. However, the statistical analysis reflects on the fact that in some cases emerging donors do behave similarly as traditional donors. Altogether, it is not proven that the additional resources complement existing aid flows.