SOUTH-SOUTH COOPERATION: A CONCEPTUAL ESSAY*

By Iara Costa Leite

“Concept formation concerns the most basic question of social science research: what are we talking about?” (Gerring, 2001:35)

The expression “South-South Cooperation” (SSC) has been used, maybe with unprecedented recurrence, by scholars, politicians and journalists. In general, the term is employed to refer to a broad set of phenomena involving relations among developing countries – from the emergence of temporary coalitions in multilateral negotiations to private investment flows. On their turn, specialists believe that SSC refers to a specific modality of international development cooperation (IDC).

If, on the one hand, little preoccupation in defining SSC has been stimulating excessive concept stretching and preventing the emergence of theoretical knowledge on its dynamics, on the other hand the study SSC as IDC faces at least two challenges: (1) the inexistence of systematized data on aid given by emerging donors; (2) the parochialism of specialized approaches to SSC, since they don’t consider theories on cooperation from neighbor areas and exclude, without providing any explanations, many events which would be classified as SSC by ordinary understanding.

The fist challenge has been identified, for instance, by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which has been collecting data on aid given by emerging donors. In a report published in 2008, ECOSOC identified three kinds of constraints to the development of databases on SSC flows: (1) technical and institutional problems of data definition and collection resulting from the inexistence of a clear definition in developing countries on which flows should be qualified as development aid; (2) lack of national coordination for data collection, since programs are usually dispersed among several ministries and agencies; (3) inexistence of an international forum to coordinate data collection (ECOSOC, 2008).

These difficulties were mirrored in the report produced by ECOSOC, which, besides relying on different sources according to the country, tried to be faithful to the respective national views on SSC. Hence, for instance, data referring to aid given by China and India, supposedly the great emerging donors, include credits provided by their respective Eximbanks, while countries like Brazil understand SSC strictly as technical development cooperation, excluding not only financial flows for trade promotion (like the credits offered by the Brazilian National Bank for Economic and Social Development to other developing countries) -, but also grants which are not directly linked to development promotion, as those related to humanitarian assistance (Ayllón and Leite, 2010). Therefore, we cannot compare the collected data.

As for the second challenge to the study of SSC, there are two difficulties. Firstly, the strict definition of SSC adopted by specialists has no resonance since for non-specialists the term has a much broader connotation. That is, when we treat SSC as a modality of development cooperation, we are excluding a series of phenomenon which ordinary understanding would classify as SSC – for instance, cooperation among middle income countries (initiatives among Brazil and China, for instance) and the emergence of coalitions in multilateral organizations (as the G-20 in the WTO). In fact, when specialists refer to SSC they are talking, consciously or not, about one modality of SSC – that related to development promotion in low income countries.

Secondly, studies produced by specialists ignore theories on cooperation produced by neighbor areas, preventing mature analysis and an eventual knowledge accumulation on the theme. Unfortunately, the possibility of establishing a dialogue with the discipline of International Relations is limited because its most advanced theoretical-analytical literature focuses on a specific type of international cooperation: the emergence of enduring cooperation arrangements among developed countries. Here, international cooperation is strictly understood as policy coordination.

In the face of this difficulty, it can be very helpful to establish a dialogue with theoretical works which have traditionally focused on the study of cooperation: the sociological studies. Here, cooperation is broadly understood as an exchange process among individuals or social groups – a process which can lead to the establishment of institutions in the long run if both parties feel they have attained their respective aims. It is precisely this notion of exchange which is not considered by the studies on SSC when they focus on official aid flows. The impression we have is that there is no exchange, but “donations”. This impression is not random. In fact, there has been great effort, since the 70’s, to substitute the idea of “assistance”, associated with unequal parties and paternalist practices, for the idea of “cooperation”, which would imply equality among partners, respect for sovereignty and common objectives.

Skipping an evaluation of the practical correspondence, or not, of these normative efforts, it is important to point to the need, for theoretical-methodological as well practical reasons, that SSC is understood as an exchange process involving Southern countries. In the case of SSC development cooperation, it is necessary to analyze if the partners are both feeling benefited by the initiative – if “beneficiaries” feel their development is being promoted and if “donors” feel their interests are being realized. This last point is largely ignored by specialized literature on SSC, although it is as fundamental as the first one if we want to understand SSC as an exchange process.

References
• AYLLÓN, Bruno. LEITE, Iara (2010). La Cooperación Sur-Sur de Brasil: proyección solidaria y política exterior. In: Bruno Ayllón e Javier Surasky (coords.). La Cooperación Sur-Sur en Latinoamérica: utopía y realidad. Madrid: Ediciones Los libros de la Catarata/IUDC-UCM, pp.69-101. (ISBN: 978-84-8319-509-3)
• ECOSOC (2008). Trends in south-south and triangular development cooperation. Background study for the Development Cooperation Forum. Available in: http://www.un.org/ecosoc/docs/pdfs/South-South_cooperation.pdf
• GERRING, John (2001). Social science methodology: a criterial framework. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Iara Costa Leite is a doctoral student in Political Science at the University Research Institute of Rio de Janeiro (IUPERJ) and a substitute professor at the International Relations Institute of the University of Brasília (IREL/UnB). E-mail contact: iaracleite@hotmail.com.

* This article was published in Portuguese:
LEITE, I. C. (2010). Cooperação Sul-Sul: um ensaio conceitual. Boletim Mundorama, jul. ISSN: 2175-2052. Available at: http://mundorama.net/2010/06/15/cooperacao-sul-sul-um-ensaio-concei...