Development cooperation refers to aid given by governments, organizations and other agencies to support the social, political and economic development of developing countries. This kind of aid is very one sided from developed countries to developing ones. Also, the word development here usually has a very neoliberal tone since only a certain kind of capitalistic development counts as development at all. Also, who gets to decide which countries even are developing countries and which are developed ones? Countries in the Northern South, of course, that define development in capitalistic terms. That is why I will rather use the terms Global North and Global South, though those all also somewhat problematic.
Countries in the Global North have a long history of exploiting countries in the Global South for their own benefit. That is why I think development cooperation is absolutely necessary. It is largely the fault of Northern countries that Southern countries are as poor as they are, that the goods they trade are very unilateral and their governments are fairly corrupt. I think, then, that it is only fair that Northern countries do all they can to aid Southern countries to solve these problems. However, unfortunately the idea of neocolonialism still prevails. Because of this, Northern countries still exploit Southern countries in many ways even though they do not concretely rule over them like in the times of colonialism. Well-meaning development aid also has many problems and can actually make matters worse when the intent is to help people in the Global South.
Often Northern NGOs send their workers and volunteers to the Global South to help develop the country in question. There are many ways to do this: some help build schools, some educate children, some work as nurses. Some of the people who the NGOs send are actually educated and for example nurses are often needed urgently in the case of a disaster of some kind. However, for some, the trip to a Southern country is more like a holiday. Many people who, for example, help build houses don’t have any education in the field of construction, so they don’t really know what they are doing. They can’t really help much or they might even do more harm than actually help but hey, they get to take cool photos for Instagram! They destroy the planet by flying to the country in question when they could very well have stayed at home and volunteered there. All communities need volunteers, be it with the elderly, the disabled or any disadvantaged group, really. But no, going abroad is much cooler even if you don’t really have the expertise needed.
When foreign volunteers go to the Global South to help, it also often means they, rather than the locals, are provided education regarding the task. Then, when the aid workers leave, the locals don’t necessarily know how to for example keep building houses themselves. The Northern NGO could have just sent one volunteer to educate the locals and then the locals could have built the houses themselves. This way the locals receive education and jobs. Of course, the lack of resources is often a big problem, which is something the NGO could help with. However, they have to make sure the resources are actually spent on what they were meant for because like I stated, Southern government officials are sometimes quite corrupt, courtesy of the Global North.
Northern NGOs also often have the mindset that they must educate the less privileged people of the Global South. However, in thinking this, they ignore the fact that the people of the Global South already know a lot, also things that people in the Global North don’t know. So, instead of teaching the people in a certain country how to build houses, NGOs could find out how houses are traditionally built in that region and trust that the people know their stuff. Yes, sometimes Northern construction styles might just be more long-lasting, for example, and in that case they should probably be used. But if the people in the North gave Southerners a chance, they might be surprised about how knowledgeable they actually are.
A big problem with development cooperation is that the people in the Global North ignore the knowledge and skills that the people in the Global South have because they are different from Northern knowledge and skills. Northern NGOs might forcefully teach Southern people things their way and in the process, lots of Southern traditions and ways of doing things may be lost. It is time for Northern agents to recognize the intelligence of the people who live in the Global South.
In my opinion, it would be time to shift from development cooperation to international cooperation. In international cooperation, both or all parties are equal and help goes both ways. This way, Northern agents could also learn from Southern agents, because there is a lot to learn. Rather than one party teaching the other, it would be beneficial for everyone to have joint teaching sessions where information flows both ways. For example volunteer trips should also not only be directed from North to South but also the other way around. With a system like this, prevailing power structures would be broken and ultimately, all parties would benefit.