From Discourse to Practice? Evidence from the OECD DAC

• In Event: Global Governance and Development

Abstract

How has donor discourse on best and worst practices in foreign aid giving evolved over time, and how does it relate to actual aid giving practice? While existing research has measured donor performance and ranked donors on the quality of their aid, we know little about the relationship between the international rhetoric on what makes aid giving effective and donors’ actual aid giving choices. In this project, we assess the evolution of donor discourse on a number of practices, including tied aid, bypass aid, aid fragmentation, technical assistance, and aid volatility. We measure discourse on these topics in OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) documents, including annual Development Cooperation Reports and peer reviews. We then compare this discourse to actual aid giving practice. We present preliminary evidence that, on some issues, discourse seems to influence practice; while on others the opposite may be true.

Authors

• Simone Dietrich, University of Geneva

• Alice Iannantuoni, University of Geneva

• Bernhard Reinsberg, University of Cambridge