South–South cooperation: Africa on the centre stage, edited by Renu Modi, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, 272 pp., £61.00 (hardback), ISBN 9780230248854
Renu Modi's edited book is a significant contribution that chronicles the emerging counter-hegemonic South–South development paradigm with a particular focus on Africa. Viewed against the background of most literature that documents the hierarchical international economic and political relations of North–South development since decolonisation, the book is a unique effort to map out the various contours of a revitalised South–South relation that is not wedded to the dominant international development cooperation discourse.
The authors regard South–South Development Cooperation (SSDC) as a process of economic, cultural and technical cooperation which has no strings attached for the mutual benefit of the participating countries. SSDC thus contrasts to the economic and political conditionality of the development loans from Bretton Woods' institutions to developing countries, particularly in the 1980s. The authors investigate the normative and theoretical underpinnings informing the SSDC, as well as practical issues which arise from the socio-political and complex economic relations of particular SSDC groups such as the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). By drawing on the experiences of Asia and Latin America with similar demographic trend to African countries, other areas explored in the book relate to food and energy security; ‘medical tourism of African patients’ to India (117); and the role of regional economic communities in SSDC. The book thus foregrounds the utility of SSDC as an alternative development platform for African countries to fund their development projects. Far from conceiving the SSDC as a finished project, the authors identify various areas – such as institutionalising the structure of SSDC and the development of physical infrastructure – that need to be strengthened in order to facilitate its operations.
Although the book is not an archival work, in many ways it raises important questions about the role of the past and its significance in understanding the uniqueness of the current SSDC narrative in Africa today. The notion of South–South Cooperation in itself is not a novel phenomenon. It is historically grounded in many past events and resistance efforts across the Third World since the end of the Second World War. Indeed, Ned Bertz rightly observes that despite the proposed SSDC model for development being firmly rooted in historical precedents, its ‘globalized antecedents usually go unacknowledged’ (62). Bertz's contribution draws on major historical references in presenting the continuities and fluidities in the Indian Ocean context since the colonial encounter, but few other chapters follow his approach. Given the book's focus on Africa's political economy, a more contextual historical focus on Africa's particular past engagement with South–South Cooperation efforts would have been useful. For instance, the quest to rationalise how African countries can harness the new relationships with emerging powers such as BRICS to establish an alternative counter-hegemonic global economic and governance framework favourable to them (Chapter 3), raises significant questions about Africa's past attempts at South–South Cooperation. While some references are made to historically important moments like the Non-Aligned Movement and the New International Economic Order agenda of the 1970s, a more rigorous contextual analysis of these earlier experiences would have helped to better distinguish the uniqueness of the contemporary SSDC practice in Africa from past efforts especially in view of the heterogeneous nature of the SSDC which spans Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. Hence, beyond the call by Ned Bertz that South–South Cooperation be historicised, emphasis also needs to be placed on the trajectory of Africa's specific past relations within the South in order to provide for a more nuanced historical narrative particular to the continent.
Modi's other contribution in the book examines the concept of ‘medical tourism’ by African patients to India – itself a member of the BRICS coalition with strong presence in the economic sphere in Africa. Modi argues that the proximity of India to many African countries, its high level of expertise and comparative cost advantage over the West, are some of the factors that provide insight into the recent influx of Africans to India for medical treatment. A critical analysis of the BRICS will however reveal that the SSDC's emphasis on mutuality masks great inequality and imbalance. In this regard, it is therefore difficult to reconcile Modi's argument with the overarching mutuality claim of SSDC. For instance, what is the assurance that the eventual outcome of ‘medical tourism’ by African patients to India may not be the advancement of India as a Southern hegemon, thus simply reproducing the hierarchical relations of North–South which the authors critique, albeit with a different geographical inflection? Or, given past experiences in the continent, what is the assurance that the result of this practice will not reproduce or further the dependency of African states?
Despite the preceding reservations, the book represents a valuable and timely addition to the literature on South–South relations. It provides a greater avenue for further academic debates on South–South cooperation generally. The variety of areas examined – which include trade, energy, food and healthcare, as well as the practical policy recommendations – make the book a beneficial and accessible tool for scholars within and outside the development narrative in African political economy and the third world at large.