‘There is no such thing as a free lunch’
The hidden powers of aid
Christine Smith-Simonsen
University of Tromsø
Tromsø
University of Tromsø
Today’s topic; aid relations
What is aid?
Different forms:
relief
development
What is development?
Aid; asymmetric relations:
givers and receivers
power of definition
moral power
The beginnings
o UN 1948-49: proposes an extended technical aid program
o US follow up; Harry S. Truman’s inaugural speech;
promotes the idea of a program designed to give
development countries the benefit of US technical and scientific progress
o Background;
o Marshall-help; (re)create new markets
o and new allies; Cold War scene; containment o Christian/humanitarian tradition
o Overlapping ‘regimes’; colonialism/cold war/aid
o asymmetric relations/paternalism; common feature
Major phases 1: transfer
Modernisation theories:
transfer of knowledge and capital
Walt Rostoff; the take-off theory
Major phases 2: dependency
Dependency theories:
how the ‘core’ exploits the ‘periphery’
Wallerstein, Frank, Amin, Rodney
Development from below
recipient orientation
the poor and marginalized
women
White elephants
Lake Turkana
Hilieu, Southern Sudan
Major phases 3: split image
Sustainability
recipient responsibility
recipient in the driver’s seat
recipient ownership
Structural programs to reduce poverty
Bretton Woods Inst.
Conditionality
democratisation
human rights
good governance
Theory versus practice?
Recipient responsibility versus
conditionality?
Norway; humanitarian superpower
Post cold war construction of foreign policy niche
The peace argument
not at war since the 1700s
small state advantage
Nansen and Nobel
peace facilitators; Israel/Palestine, Guatemala, Sudan
The civil society argument
close and non-ambiguous relationship between state and civil society
The innocence argument
no colonial past
…but; Norway at war
Civil society?
The NGO paradigm; good aid-channels
grassroot contact
target marginalised and poor
innovative, efficient, flexible
bypass sovereignty
Basically on state pay-roll
Executing (and defining) Norwegian
foreign policies
Norwegian colonial innocence?
NEAT, Zanzibar
Norway East Africa Trading Company (1903)
Thesen residence, The Hill
Knysna, South-Africa (1899)
Zulu whalers, Durban (1919-11)
Norwegian officers, Congo
Société du Madal, Christian Thams
Processing coconuts; 1907 - 2007
Aid; image of Self
…and the Other
Temporal segregation
‘Pathologisation’
Trusteeship
Whose burden?
The cash flow; in what direction?
The aid industry
Humanitarianism - a political agenda
The power of the purse
the power of definition
The power of the gift
givers and receivers
Whose burden? The