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Introduction
Over the past decade, a number of countries that do not belong to the OECD's Development Assistance Committee (DAC) - the main regulatory institution of overseas development assistance (ODA) flows from advanced industrialized countries - have emerged as significant sources of aid flows to the Less Developed Countries (LDCs). Across the Global South, Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRICs) facilitate debt-cancellation, provide loans and grants, and engage in development projects and humanitarian assistance. Yet these countries are not the only new players, and other emerging powers beyond the BRICs are increasingly involved in providing ODA.1 A prominent actor among these new donors is Turkey.
Since 2002, Turkish foreign policy has been going through a major restructuring, and beginning this year ODA turned into a major tool to enhance Turkish involvement in previously neglected regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa. The Turkish Development and Cooperation Agency (Türk Isbirligi ve Kalkinma Ajansi-Turkish Development Aid Agency (TIKA)), a government body under the direct control of the Office of the Prime Minister, is the main organization responsible for the coordination of ODA flows. In 2005, TIKA became the only authorized entity to manage public and private aid, and began to cooperate with Turkish non-state actors. Recent statements of prominent Turkish political figures from Ahmet Davutoglu to Abdullah Gül suggest that this strategy is part of a new trend in exercising influence across the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia through the deployment of soft-power tactics.2
However, the Turkish ODA flows to LDCs exhibit a curious variation. While TIKA extensively cooperates with Islamic non-state actors and encourages greater involvement of these non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in some recipient countries, there is limited or no such cooperation in others.3 Where the latter is the case, the Turkish government is more directly involved in providing technical, economic and political assistance. How should we account for the presence or absence of non-state actors in Turkish ODA provision? Understanding the causes behind this variation elucidates the motivations and likely future orientations of emerging donors, and provides important lessons about the varying opportunities and limitations that emerging donors face in their aid programs across different countries.
This article shows that the official ideology and the regime type of aid recipient states influence...