The article below will be part of a forthcoming IBON International paper titled “Towards a UN Convention on International Development Cooperation.”

Foreign aid, official development assistance (ODA) and international development cooperation (IDC) are traditionally regarded as means by which wealthier nations in the Global North support the development of poorer nations in the Global South. This view, however, obscures the structural foundations of underdevelopment in the Global South rooted in the history of colonialism. Indeed, the post-colonial “aid system” has served to reinforce various dimensions of unequal relations between former colonies and imperialist powers now standing as donor countries.