Explaining the determinants of China and Indiäs development cooperation in Africa cannot be
achieved in simple terms. After collecting over 1000 development cooperation projects by China
and India in Africa using AidData this book applies the method of qualitative comparative
analysis (QCA) to understand the motives behind their development cooperation. Mthembu posits
that neither China nor India were solely motivated by one causal factor whether strategic
economic or humanitarian interests or the size of their diaspora in Africa. China and India are
driven by multiple and conjunctural factors in providing more development cooperation to some
countries than others on the African continent. Only when some of these respective causal
factors are combined is it evident that both countries disbursed high levels of development
cooperation to some African countries.
