The COVID-19 pandemic can both be seen as a reason for changes in our daily practices and understanding of normalcy and one of the unintended consequences of globalization, with its economic, cultural, political and other aspects. It has clearly shown the fundamental and significant facts that we, as members of humanity, are all on the same boat and much stronger united than divided.

Each country, from North to South, has discovered its fragility and dependence on the rest of the world during that process against the global challenges that require strong awareness and common response based on collective actions, solidarity and cooperation.

The pandemic not only tested the health infrastructure of countries all around the world but also brought the global economy to a halt as a result of the disruption of the supply chains and severe lockdown measures blocking the free movement of people and goods. This dealt a strong blow to the core of the capitalist economic system and modern way of life. Furthermore, it exposed the weaknesses of the global economic system, the limits of global cooperation and the level of effectiveness of current development assistance mechanisms. This brief will focus on the lessons learned during the pandemic period in terms of development cooperation and discuss the ways to redesign the development assistance architecture on behalf of the most vulnerable people and countries in the world.

So in what respects has the pandemic enlightened us about development and global collective action?

Development: A matter of concern for all

It has become more evident than ever that the issues of development and economic growth, like other global challenges, are of concern for all countries, regardless of their levels of development, so the game is not over for the developed countries either.

The key here is achieving inclusive and sustainable development at the national and international levels instead of pursuing individual success stories through isolationist or protectionist policies. You may win a local battle in different ways, but you can get a decisive victory at the end of the war only if you leave no one behind.

As the waves of migrants from conflict-affected and politically unstable regions to relatively better-off countries have shown, no one can live isolated, prosperous and seamlessly in such an interdependent world until everyone reaches a certain level of development by eradicating poverty as much as possible.

Pandemic affected people disproportionately

The developed and developing countries and the different segments of societies were disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Whereas taking some money from a rich person means a limited loss of money or a relative and temporary decline in their living standards that can be tolerated in the medium or long term, taking the only possession of a poor person means taking their breath away.

The pandemic did not emerge in a vacuum and certainly affected all the actors, but its economic and social impacts have been most acutely felt by the most vulnerable or the least well-off people, who have almost no tools to cope with the existential threat and need foreign assistance, including fragile and conflict-affected states as well as least developed countries.

Thus, it exacerbated the existing wide disparities, deepening inequalities and vulnerabilities within and across the countries depending on the chronic problems of the modern economic system. According to World Bank estimates, the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed up to 60 million people into extreme poverty in 2020. That number reached 150 million people by the end of 2021 and it will increase in the medium and long term.

Moreover, states in the Global South faced urgent problems in terms of access to resources so they had to borrow more to compensate for their needs. Despite the dramatic fall of domestic revenues in many developing countries of around $1 trillion, financing to those countries also dropped by 45% in 2020. For instance, official development assistance (ODA) needed to double – a sum of an extra $40 billion-$50 billion – for the recovery of the sub-Saharan region.

According to the IMF, the largest one-year debt surge since World War II was observed with global debt rising to $226 trillion in that period, and there were 36 countries either "in debt distress" or at "high" risk of debt distress. As a result, self-interested approaches of developed countries based on "my country first" policies, that would lead humanity to a dead-end street, are unacceptable in this context. The problems of access to vaccines for developing countries exemplified intolerable attitudes like "vaccine nationalism" in the face of such a significant development crisis.

Foreign assistance should be redefined

The redefinition of foreign assistance is inevitable in the post-pandemic period due to the changes in assistance flows and the roles of different actors. The perception of assistance as flowing from the Global North to the Global South has been destabilized in this new period. Contrary to expectations, some Global South countries, that could achieve the recovery of their health governance and economic systems, such as the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries, took the lead in dispatching the expected medical or humanitarian needs of the vulnerable people living in other countries, including the ones taking part in the Global North.

Therefore, the dominant role of traditional donors is no longer the case depending on the rise of emerging donors in different parts of the world and the unprecedented budget deficits of the Global North countries during the pandemic. The concept of development itself has been transformed and the traditional donor-recipient relationship began to shift in favor of cooperation-based relations among the actors. The methods of the donors have also been diversified parallel to the participation of new actors despite the continuation of the central place of assistance in development finance.

Furthermore, donors have increasingly put more emphasis on global public goods, referring to the measures that are potentially important for the whole world instead of selfish interests and investments in global resilience, to address shared threats. Consequently, the traditional definition of foreign assistance based on the dichotomous and hierarchical conception of the actors should be replaced by a new understanding with the involvement of multiple actors and variables regarding their positions in the origins, motivations, changing trends and directions of foreign assistance.

Inspiring example: Turkish model of development cooperation

Amid a global crisis testing the limits of global cooperation, good examples of approaches and practices can be helpful in finding a way out. Türkiye, as an emerging donor, has long presented its model of development cooperation, through its policies and actions starting from its neighboring regions such as the Balkans, Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Middle East and Africa, and reaching Latin America and the South Pacific. It has come into prominence as an "island of stability" in a turbulent region and played decisive roles in regional and global affairs with the help of its active foreign policy and economic growth. Türkiye’s constructive role in signing the Black Sea grain corridor agreement during the Russia-Ukraine war and extending the agreement several times displayed a current example and concrete result of its active involvement and game-changing in the region.

In terms of development cooperation, Türkiye positively diverges from its counterparts via its model based on the principles of equal partnership, local solutions to local problems, demand-driven and human-oriented approach, and prioritizing sustainability and revenue generation for the poor. The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), as the official development cooperation agency of Türkiye, has made a great contribution to the Turkish model through its more than 30,000 projects in various sectors such as health, education, production and cultural restoration.

During the pandemic, Türkiye provided assistance, including medical equipment, respiratory devices, food aid and vaccine grants, to more than 160 countries, reflecting its humanitarian and enterprising foreign policy. Its responsible attitude, unconditional support and benevolent role won the people’s hearts in other countries. After the devastating earthquakes in 11 cities of Türkiye in February 2023, people all around the world could not remain indifferent to the victims and they willingly and sincerely mobilized aid campaigns for Turkish people. These priceless efforts showed the importance of the friends in need.

In addition to the numerous development cooperation projects directly touching the lives of people on the ground, Türkiye has been the voice of deprived and oppressed people on international platforms by drawing attention to the cases of global injustice and inequalities. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeatedly brought them to the global agenda at the U.N. General Assembly sessions and formulated the criticisms with the famous mantra of "The world is bigger than five." Thus, Türkiye not only expressed its concerns and criticisms regarding the global inequities and problems on behalf of the desperate people and societies at the discursive level but also put forward its model of development cooperation through its actions.

'Century of Türkiye' and future of development assistance

The year 2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Republic of Türkiye so the Turkish people and decision-makers attribute special importance to this year. The fundamental goals and a comprehensive road map of the Turkish government were declared by the Presidency with the name of the "Century of Türkiye" vision.

As President Erdoğan states, "The Century of Türkiye, which is also the century of development, sustainability and compassion, will rise by reaching the top 10 of the most advanced countries in political, economic, technological, military, diplomatic and other fields."

Moreover, Türkiye will share its capacity, experience and prosperity with its partners parallel to its development and economic growth. The next years will witness Türkiye’s attempts to accomplish the ambitious goals under the framework of the "Century of Türkiye." Hopefully, the world after the recovery from the devastating impacts of COVID-19 will be more inclusive, resilient and sustainable with the contributions of all actors, and shared prosperity and global solidarity will be the fruits of the lessons taken from the bitter experiences of the pandemic period.

Though the negative effects of the pandemic aggravated the already hard mission of realizing the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it can be turned into a golden opportunity for sustainable transformation and a paradigm shift with maintaining a long-term perspective because "you can’t put the genie back in the bottle."

Otherwise, we may miss the train for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, which is crucial for the destiny of the LDCs. Türkiye, with the help of its awareness, valuable background, and high infrastructure and governance capacity, will undoubtedly play a leading role toward the goal of a better and sustainable world.