AFRICAN COUNTRIES AND DEVELOPMENT AID

In 2011 African countries were awarded 43% of the development aid by the EU and the EU Member States. This equated to EUR 25.3 billions.

Largest contributors of the total development aid amount granted were the following:

1. France :  18.2%
2. United Kingdom : 16.9%
3. Germany : 15.0%
4. Italy : 13.4%
5. Sweden : 7.2%
6. Netherlands : 4.1%
7. Denmark 4.0%
8. Belgium : 3.8%
9. Spain : 3.6 %

Based on the above, it is in the interest of African governments to actively lobby Paris, London, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, The Hague, Copenhagen, Brussels and Madrid.

Lobbying by African governments can increase development aid because it serves an informational role to elected officials in the EU countries. Lobbying can increase awareness of the mitigating factors why a given country might be struggling to achieve better policy outcomes (in a number of issue areas), allow African governments to spin or positively frame controversial domestic situations, and create a focal point for low-risk involvement. Increased media attention on a particular country can lead to an increase in development aid allocations. The informational role of foreign lobbying is particularly acute because development aid budgets are extremely tight.

While African governments work to influence donor countries’ policy by working through their embassies, they also need to rely on lobbyists to protect and promote their interests abroad. Promoting their progress being made toward democratic reform and improved governance can produce favourable consideration for assistance.

Admittedly foreign aid is predicted by “donor strategic interests” such as security concerns, colonial ties, trade benefits, and alliances or “recipient needs” such as GDP, population, infant mortality, education enrolment, macroeconomic policy, and conflict.  The recipient country’s regime type also helps determine how foreign aid is allocated . The identity of the donor country also matters in determining foreign aid allocations e.g. Nordic countries respond the most to humanitarian metrics and policy conditions within recipient countries ; France rewards its former colonies and political allies.

Lobbying by African countries can increase foreign aid because it serves an informational role to elected officials. African governments need to hire local lobbyists to highlight situational factors in their countries to politicians. Lobbyists can present information about the country that may debunk existing stereotypes or expose new understandings of domestic political struggles that  politicians then take into account when allocating foreign aid.

The informational role of foreign lobbying is particularly acute in the area of foreign aid because the foreign aid budget is extremely tight and new information can justify small changes in aid allocation.

Bigger foreign lobbying network (more lobbyists hired by the recipient nation) can result in higher foreign aid allocations. Information from lobbyists can alter foreign aid because it represents a low-risk way for politicians to incorporate mitigating circumstances in their foreign policy decisions. Because of the prevailing tough economic environment foreign aid is less popular with the European public, so donors tend to apply more scrutiny to foreign aid and layer on more conditions because the budget is tight. Therefore African countries need to be more proactive.

African countries need to hire lobbyists who can provide relevant information to the legislative or executive branch in the major donor countries to make their case for additional foreign assistance. This could be strategic information about the importance of the potential recipient country or it could be general information about the general “worthiness” of the state.  Increasing lobbying expenditures over time yields increased foreign aid. Lobbying through public relations pays off in terms of foreign assistance. Previous research on development aid has focused on donor strategic interests, recipient country needs, and domestic politics, but we postulate that development aid can also be influenced by lobbying the donor countries. There is no time for African countries to waste!