3 - Debates about aid

Summary

I must say that I have rarely been involved in an issue, an initiative, where there are so many motivations for becoming involved as is the case here.

– Norwegian legislator Moe, 1952

Development assistance can serve a wide range of possible goals. Which goals matter most will depend on the way policy-makers frame the issue. This chapter presents measures of the relative prominence of different frames for aid, illustrating variation across both time and space. Although numerous patterns are shared across all four countries studied, their national aid discourses display enduring differences, dating from the early years of development assistance and lasting until the present day.

In Belgium, the frames of obligation and economic self-interest have dominated the aid discourse. Economic self-interest has also been central to Italian discussions of aid policy, but in that country this frame has been accompanied by an interest in the reputational aspects of aid. In turn, reputation has been an important secondary frame in Norway as well. However, in that country it has been coupled with a dominant emphasis on humanitarianism. In the Netherlands, finally, the two most prominent frames in relative terms have been humanitarianism and power.