Paper short abstract:

SSC has been implemented as an alternative to traditional cooperation practices. Accordingly, traditional donors need to accommodate these new forces. The paper will discuss the impact SSC has on the practices of the international development cooperation field, in light of the Mozambican case.

Paper long abstract:

After a small number of research visits in Mozambique, it is very clear why the country is considered the "donor-darling" of the field of international development cooperation (IDC). The elevated number of stakeholders and initiatives taking place there indicates the complexity of the field. In light of Pierre Bourdieu's thinking, a social field is composed by a number of agents relating to each other based on different hierarchies of power. A social field is under constant transformation, and the IDC field is no different. Historically a recipient country of North-South Cooperation, Mozambique has recently seen an increasingly participation of emerging countries, such as the BRICS, implementing South-South Cooperation as an alternative model to the traditional practices. Hence, traditional donors need to accommodate the new forces present in the field. The inclusion of new agents and alternative practices endowed bargaining power to recipient countries, such as Mozambique, increasing their capacity to negotiate the definitions and implementation of their cooperation programmes. The ownership principle, fostered by Paris Declaration, is one of the reflexed of these transformations happening in the IDC field. Indicating that the aid effectiveness depends on mutual responsibility and on commitments agreed by both donor and recipient, the ownership principal reveals that the relation between those agents has been rethought. Therefore, the paper will discuss the impacts the growth of South-South Cooperation has on the practices of the IDC field, in light of cooperation programmes and projects taking place in Mozambique.