Aid, Trade or Faith? Questioning Narratives and Territorial Pattern of Gulf Foreign Aid

The paper introduces and examines the narratives and specifics of Gulf bilateral donors-namely the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. It confronts established narratives with current data and trends and includes the perspective of both Western and Arab scholars. The research points to some new trends among Gulf donors, notably the diversification of their aid sectors and the strengthening of the distinctiveness of Gulf donors from other southern donors. The research also focuses on the narratives about bilateral aid allocation factors of Gulf donors. The results confirm the continuing preference of Arab countries in Middle East and North Africa with predominately Muslim populations. However, aid is not evenly allocated among recipients in the MENA region, and the different and sometimes conflicting (geo)political and security interests of Gulf donors play an important role in the territorial distribution of aid. In addition to these strategic considerations behind the allocation of aid from Gulf donors, the study reveals certain importance of social needs' factors in distribution of Emirati and Kuwaiti official aid.