India’s development model seeks to blend local ownership with global credibility, defining a new approach to South-South Cooperation that looks beyond aid dependency.

India’s development cooperation model 

• Demand-Driven Approach: Meaning proposals originate from partner governments eg. India-UN Development Partnership Fund
  • The fund was established in 2017 under the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC)
• Capacity-Building Focus: It includes training local personnel, strengthening institutions, and facilitating technology transfer 
  • Eg. The Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme, of the Ministry of External Affairs has trained officials from 160+ countries.
• Prioritizing vulnerable states eg. Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States 
  • Eg. Indian Development and Economic Assistance Scheme (IDEAS), which provides lines of credit through Export-Import Bank of India to developing African and non-African countries.
• Blending local Ownership and multilateral Credibility: By partnering with the UN, execution is transparent, insulating the initiatives from bilateral political dynamics.
  • Eg. India-UN Global Capacity-Building Initiative, under the ministry of external affairs 
• Other features: Respecting sovereignty, cost-effective solution, Non-Conditional Support eg, vaccine maitri, etc.

China’s Development model: Supply-driven (projects often initiated by China), projects driven by strategic and economic influence (Belt and Road Initiative), lending large sums of money to financially vulnerable developing countries (debt diplomacy), etc.