Gulf charities in Africa

This chapter considers the work of charities from the Gulf region in Africa. After a historical overview of Gulf charities’ presence on the continent and a discussion of the ways in which diverse African contexts impact on their work, it continues by exploring how current changes in the global context affect Gulf charities in Africa. This includes the negative influence of the ‘War on Terror’, but also more recent trends that may facilitate Gulf charities’ work in Africa, such as changing ideas about religion and ‘development’ in the humanitarian field, and the emergence of an increasingly multi-polar world order challenging the hegemony of the West in economic, political and cultural domains.