DAC Aid in Africa South of Sahara The Impact of a Rising China

Abstract: The DAC countries have for a long time been practically the only large donors of international aid. However, China has become increasingly influential the last decade. This study is aimed at investigating how aid from the DAC countries has changed when Chinese aid has increased. Aid aimed at promoting democracy, corruption, governance, and human rights is investigated since these sectors present a clear difference in Chinese and DAC aid policies. The thesis also offers an explanation to this policy change through aid theory. It is concluded that DAC countries have somewhat increased aid towards democracy, corruption, governance and human rights in the region of Africa South of Sahara. This is explained by both a concern about Chinese aid being a negative influence, but also that it is a way of the traditional donors to keep its influence by investing in a sector where China explicitly states they will not interfere. Zambia is presented as an illustrative example which supports the conclusions reached in the first section. It is also found that new donors give aid recipients a new possibility to negotiate with donors, meaning the DAC countries are risk losing influence, not to China, but to their development partners.