title: Monitoring and Evaluation in South-South Cooperation: The Case of CPEC in Pakistan
Creators: name: Ali, Murad
Publisher: name: German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/01t3zke88
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Development Financing
subject: 2030 Agenda
subject: Trade + Investments
subject: New Donors + Multilateral Development Policy
subject: Effectiveness + Evaluation
subject: South Asia
subject: China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)
subject: South-South Cooperation
subject: Chinese aid/investment
subject: Pakistan

description: Pakistan is one of the key countries in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) where the
 latter is implementing a multibillion-dollar, multiyear investment plan known as the
 China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). A collection of projects aimed at developing
 energy, industry and communication infrastructure, costing over USD 46 billion, CPEC is
 expected to contribute significantly to socio-economic development and poverty reduction
 in Pakistan. The main research question is, while implementing development projects in
 Pakistan, to what extent China adheres to its avowed principles of international
 development cooperation comprising features such as mutual respect, non-conditionality,
 equality, building local capacity and addressing actual needs of partner countries. Based
 mainly on the analysis of primary data collected during fieldwork in Pakistan, this
 research explores the extent to which the official narrative guides and influences the
 actual practice of China’s development cooperation on the ground. Although still evolving,
 the BRI and its constituent the CPEC, which is an investment-grant-loan model of financing
 in Pakistan, is an example of South-South Cooperation (SSC): the form of international
 development cooperation whereby "two or more developing countries pursue their individual
 or collective development through cooperative exchange of knowledge, skills, resources and
 technical expertise" (UNDP, 2007, p. 1). For the analysis of CPEC-related Chinese
 investment in Pakistan, this study uses an analytical framework developed by researchers
 from the South Africa chapter of the Network of Southern Think Tanks (NeST), a group of
 key research institutions from various developing countries dedicated to generating
 standardised, systematic and clearly comparable knowledge on SSC (Besharati &amp;
 Rawhani, 2016; Besharati, Rawhani, &amp; Rios, 2017). Established in 2015, and then
 refined and finalised in 2017 after a number of expert group meetings and field-based SSC
 case studies, the framework operationalises various conceptual issues related to the
 quality and development effectiveness of SSC. The framework, which is discussed later in
 some detail, comprises five dimensions and a set of 20 indicators. The overall framework
 and associated dimensions and indicators not only offer valuable parameters to assess the
 quality and effectiveness of SSC, but these are also closely related to the key principles
 and features of China’s foreign aid policy. The five key elements of the analytical
 framework are inclusive national ownership, horizontality, self-reliance and
 sustainability, accountability and transparency and development efficiency. Within this
 framework and associated parameters, this research examines the China-Pakistan development
 partnership under CPEC and explores the extent to which SSC principles are practiced. By
 systematically examining SSC in the form of Chinese investment and development cooperation
 projects in Pakistan, this study contributes to the limited body of academic literature on
 Chinese development cooperation with its key South Asian ally.
description: Discussion Paper, 1/2018