The representation of bilateral versus
multilateral development aid in Dutch
media
Author:
Jens Neefjes
Student number:
11025107
Thesis tutor:
dr. P.S.M. (Patrick) Weir
Second evaluator:
dhr. dr. A. (Aslan) Zorlu
Training:
Social Geography and Planning
Specialisation:
Planning
E-mail:
jensneefjes@msn.com
Course:
Bachelor thesis project
Course code:
734301500Y
Assignment:
Bachelor thesis
Institution:
University of Amsterdam
Thesis tutor:
dr. P.S.M. (Patrick) Weir
Second evaluator:
dhr. dr. A. (Aslan) Zorlu
Due date:
17 August 2018
Amount of words:
14,493
Author:
Jens Neefjes
Student number:
11025107
Index
1. Abstract ...3 2. Opening ...4 2.1 Introduction ...4 2.2 Thesis outline ...5 3. Theoretical framework ...63.1 Development aid and political geography ...6
3.2 Bilateral and multilateral development aid ...7
3.3 Development aid in the Netherlands ...9
3.4 The role and influence of Mass Media...9
4. Methodological framework ... 11 4.1 Main question ... 11 4.2 Conceptual model ... 11 4.3 Type of research ... 12 4.4 Operationalization ... 12 4.4.1 Development aid ... 13 4.4.2 Media ... 13 4.4.3 Representation ... 15 4.5 Research methods ... 15
4.5.1 Data collection method ... 15
4.5.2 Method of analysis ... 28
5. Data analysis: Thematic analysis... 29
5.1 Representation in the Dutch media of what effective development aid is ... 29
5.1.1 Choice themes ... 30
5.1.2 Results ... 30
5.2 Representation different types of development aid in the Dutch media. ... 31
5.2.1 Choice themes ... 32
5.2.2 Results ... 32
6. Conclusion ... 34
7. Discussion ... 38
7.1 Researching specific terms ... 38
7.2 Using too broad concepts in the research question ... 38
7.3 Access to certain data ... 38
8. Recommendations ... 39
References ... 40
1. Abstract
This thesis is trying to find out how bilateral versus multilateral development is represented by the Dutch media. There is a big discussion about the effectiveness of bilateral and multilateral
development aid, whereby a lot of academics have different insights on the topic. In the Netherlands a lot of money is spend to development aid and it is therefore important that this money is spent wisely and that the development aid is effective. The media can give useful insights on the whole process of bilateral and multilateral development aid, because the media is known for critically assessing government policies. What are there critiques on bilateral and multilateral development aid and how does that contribute to an understanding of the concept of development aid? By using a content analysis on 53 online news articles which originate from the Dutch newspapers de Volksrant,
Algemeen Dagblad and NRC from 2008 onward, data is collected about how these articles represent
bilateral versus multilateral development aid. A thematic analysis of this data has structured the data in a way, so that useful conclusions could be made. The thematic analysis will show which
statements on bilateral and multilateral development aid are made most often by the online news articles. In this way, there can be established how the Dutch media represents bilateral versus multilateral development aid.
2. Opening
2.1 Introduction
In this thesis I am going to research how a political geographical phenomenon is being represented by the Dutch media, namely development aid. The Netherlands and other developed countries support developing countries by development aid. The biggest part of this aid consists of bilateral development aid, whereby money is directly send from a government to another. This is an
interesting political geographical concept, because it looks at how a government here decides to help a government which is very far away there with a lot of money. How come the Dutch government wants to increase the amount of development aid to 0,7% of the Dutch gross national product in 2021? (Rijksoverheid n.y.). What are the political reasons behind this long distance aid? Besides bilateral development aid, there is also multilateral development aid. This type of development aid includes loans from international financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank (Chang 2010, p. 91). Some see this type of aid as the better type of aid, because it is not given on the basis of political considerations. Also, the fear of the domination of a donor country is removed in the case of multilateral aid. (Vladislav et al. 2013, p. 132).
There is a discussion about the effectiveness of development aid and it’s interesting to look at what the media of a donor country of development aid have to say about development aid. What are there critiques on development aid and how does that contribute to an understanding of the concept of development aid? How does the media perceive the relation between a donor country here and a receiving country over there? Because there is a lot of money going to development aid it is
therefore important to approach the knowledge and information of the media of a donor country and to find out there critique and opinion on development aid. Besides that it is important to know if people’s tax money is used effectively, insights of the media could also bring interesting information about the effectiveness of development aid so that maybe the government could take that
information into account. Also, it could frame a picture on which type of development aid is the best type to use. If information from the media show that is not clear if development aid is effective or that they don’t think development aid is effective, this would mean the government should give more insight in why they do the things they do. Moreover, the way the media represents a topic, influences the public opinion of this topic. If different media sources would agree on that
development aid isn’t effective for example, this will have influence on the public opinion in a way that there will be a negative attitude towards development aid in general. This will than influence the politics of the government, since the different parties want to have as many voters as possible by acting according to the public opinion. So, the media play an important role in shaping the national policies. This shows that the topic is social relevant. The goal of the research is to more widely start the discussion on the concept and effectiveness of development aid. On the ground of this
information I formulated the following research question:
How is bilateral versus multilateral development aid represented in Dutch media?
The research is scientific relevant, because there are already a lot of academics that created theories about the effectiveness of development aid, like Chang (2010), but never before is researched how bilateral vs multilateral development aid is represented in Dutch media. Approaching the media as a source of information on bilateral versus multilateral development aid can give new insights on the concept and effectiveness of development aid which can contribute to the scientific discussion of the utility of development aid. Approaching the media for information on the development aid topic, will also show if the existing theories of the concept and effectiveness of development aid are
internalised by the media. So, this will also show if there is a bridge between academic papers and the public. The research will be conducted by using a content analysis of 53 online news articles that
come from the Dutch newspapers de Volksrant, Algemeen Dagblad and NRC from 2008 onward to collect the relevant data. This data will be processed by using a thematic analysis which will structure the data in way that is easy to make conclusions out of the data.
2.2 Thesis outline
In chapter 3 the theoretical framework will be carried out. All the important theories which are relevant to this research and which give insight in the topic will be explained. Development aid and political geography, bilateral and multilateral development aid, development aid in the Netherlands and the role and influence of mass media will be discussed. Chapter 4 consists of the methodological framework. This chapter will give the framework for how I am going to conduct the research. The main question, the conceptual model, the type of research, the operationalization and the research methods will all be discussed in this chapter. Chapter 5 consists of an explanation of the data analysis, which is an thematic analysis. The thematic analysis of the representation in the Dutch media of what effective development aid is and the representation of different types of development aid in Dutch media will be discussed. In both sections will be explained the choice of the themes and the results of the analysis. Chapter 6 consists of the conclusion which is based on the results in chapter 5. Chapter 7 consists of the discussion in which there will be a discussion on researching specific terms, using to broad concepts in the research question and access to certain data. Chapter 8, which is the final chapter, consists of a recommendation for further research. After the
recommendations you will find the references and an the appendix which consists of the execution of the content analysis.
3. Theoretical framework
In this chapter the theoretical framework will be explained. In the theoretical framework I will be looking at my topic form different views an angles, which will clarify the topic I am working on.
3.1 Development aid and political geography
In this paragraph will become clear why development aid is political geographical phenomenon and more important raise questions about why bilateral development aid is being given.
The World systems theory was created by Immanuel Wallerstein in 1970s and it claims that rich core capitalist societies succeed by exploiting poorer peripheral ones (Chirot 2015, p. 748). Between these two types of countries there are also semiperipheral societies which form a precarious global middle class (Chirot 2015, p. 748). “The essence of World systems theory (WST) is that the modern world, dominated by capitalism, has since the sixteenth century increasingly become an integrated whole in which single countries cannot be usefully analyzed without placing them within the context of the entire global economic and political system.” (Chirot 2015, p. 748). The World systems theory emphasizes that poorer, or ‘peripheral’ societies have been systematically underdeveloped by the rich and powerful ‘core’. Without world revolution ‘peripheral’ countries have little chance of prospering (Chirot 2015, p. 748). The ‘semiperipheral’ countries act as a kind of global middle class which stabilizes the world capitalist system. They are subject to the greatest systemic strains and that’s why there revolutions are most likely (Chirot 2015, p. 748). On the image below you see the global distribution of these types of countries:
(SCIT Blog 2016)
Logically, donor countries of development aid and receiving countries of development aid fit geographically in this World systems theory. A donor country the Netherlands, which is also a core country according to image above, gives money to for example the periphery countries Afghanistan and Bangladesh (Rijksoverheid n.y.). It is interesting to look at how the concept of bilateral
development manifests itself in a world where the exploitative nature of the World systems theory would be active. What is the reason for sending bilateral development aid, while structurally receiving countries are being exploited at the same time. More reason to find out the nature of bilateral development aid. Looking at the distribution of core countries and periphery countries and at the distribution of donor countries and receiving countries makes it clear that development aid is a
According to an article in the Guardian developing countries actually develop the rich countries, not the other way around:
“In 2012, the last year of recorded data, developing countries received a total of $1.3tn, including all aid, investment, and income from abroad. But that same year some $3.3tn flowed out of them. In other words, developing countries sent $2tn more to the rest of the world than they received. If we look at all years since 1980, these net outflows add up to an eye-popping total of $16.3tn – that’s how much money has been drained out of the global south over the past few decades. To get a sense for the scale of this, $16.3tn is roughly the GDP of the United States.” (Hickel 2017).
A big part of this money is debt payed back to big banks and other big part consists of oil and gold foreign companies exploit. Hickel (2017) does make a large claim by saying that developing countries develop rich countries, but there could be asked questions about the fact that relatively, there flows so much money out of these countries. For example, if there is still flowing so much money out of developing countries, does development aid really help developing countries?
Before conducting the research it is important to look at what bilateral and multilateral development aid actually are exactly and what opinions there already are about them to give an idea of why bilateral and multilateral development aid would or would not be useful. This will be described in the next paragraph.
3.2 Bilateral and multilateral development aid
The Netherlands and other developed countries support developing countries by development aid. This aid includes bilateral foreign assistance, this means assistance from a government directly to another government. The biggest part of this assistance consists of money that is directly send from a government to another. Development aid also includes loans from international financial
institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank (Chang 2010, p. 91). This last type of aid is called multilateral aid (Vladislav et al. 2013, p. 132). Some see this type of aid as the better type of aid, because it is not given on the basis of political considerations. Also, the fear of the domination of a donor country is removed in the case of multilateral aid. (Vladislav et al. 2013, p. 132).
Chang (2010) argues that a less developed country should first build up its own national market by using protectionism as a strategy before entering the world market. However, these countries are forced to open up their borders and expose their economies to the full strength of the global competition. The way these countries are forced is by the following. Donor countries only give less developed countries bilateral foreign assistance and loans if they expose themselves to the global market (Chang 2010, p. 91). The article of Hart (2002) confirms that under these neoliberal policies problems in poor countries did not dissolve. Neoliberalism is a modified form of liberalism tending to favour free-market capitalism (English Oxford Living Dictionaries 2018). “Entitled ’prisoners of geography’, the article by Ricardo Hausmann is part of a veritable growth industry that has sprung up in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard purporting to explain why income levels and standards of living not only failed to converge across regions and countries in the era of neoliberalism, but in fact diverged sharply.” (Hart 2002, p. 814). This is an example of why multilateral development aid could be better than bilateral development aid. In this case, the demands to receive the bilateral aid contradict with the economic situation of the receiving countries. The political consideration of donor countries that receiving countries have to open up their borders for the world market, so that donor countries can sell more products to less developed
There are more things to say about multilateral development aid that are in favour of it.
“Multilateral organisations can influence countries and resolve an issue when it may be difficult for a single bilateral donor to do so.” (Australian Government n.y.). The wide membership of
multilateral organisations allows global consensus to be built on some of the some pressing international issues. Global consensus would be more difficult to achieve, without the driving and unifying force provided by multilateral organisations. The wide membership of multilateral
organisations adds legitimacy and weight to addressing challenging development issues. Multilateral organisations are often specialist organisations which are focused on specific development priorities such as gender equality, anti-corruption, sexual and reproductive health rights, and human rights. These organisations have the possibility to effectively mobilise relevant expertise and experience from around the world (Australian Government n.y). Multilateral organisations can deliver multi-country programs to improve efficiency and help countries share lessons across borders at global or regional levels. Also, these organisations have close working relationships with host governments at country level and help coordinate development efforts in line with developing countries’ own plans (Australian Government n.y.).
Swanson (2015) claims that sending money doesn’t work at all. Swanson (2015) describes in his article that giving money to developing countries only makes things worse. Money should come from the inhabitants in order for the governments to run themselves. In this way, the governments deliver services and this creates a good relationship with the inhabitants. If money always comes from outside there is no healthy relationship and governments won’t get money from its inhabitants and the government won’t be able to run itself. An academic article from Niyonkuru (2016) confirms that giving money doesn’t help in the long run: “In this study, it was shown that no matter the form of foreign aid, its relevance in the poverty reduction remains questionable: Being short-term programs addressing already identified superficial issues, they fail to offer a more lasting solution to vital societal economic dilemma.” (Niyonkuru 2016, p. 8). These theories suggest that in the end, aid in the form of money doesn’t help.
According to Mercer (2003), involvement of scholars in and outside the development industry are necessary for a good development environment: “The role of the intellectual then becomes one of cultural mediator, sceptic in arguing for more complex analyses of societies and becoming involved in information gathering which involves the people concerned and is more sensitive to their needs.” (Mercer 2003, p. 433). Jakupec & Kelly (2016) discuss that an impact assessment of development aid is necessary to create the best development aid: “Our proposition is that applying RIA (Regulatory Impact Assessment) for analysing ODA (Official Development Assistance) conditionality seems to be necessary, if one wishes to advance the effectiveness of regulatory decisions and decrease low-quality and unnecessary regulations required under arbitrary conditionality.” (Jakupec & Kelly 2016, p. 327). RIA would bring transparency of the decisions countries make to help developing countries. According to Pierre et al. (2017) there is no empirical consensus on the relative effectiveness of bilateral vs multilateral aid in any particular outcome areas. However: “While this lack of consensus appears to hold across most aspects of study methodologies, our results indicate that the relative effectiveness of aid channels may vary across countries.” (Pierre et al. 2017, p. 1441). In the end though, they come with the following conclusion: “Ultimately, we cannot draw strong conclusion about the relative overall effectiveness of bilateral versus multilateral aid at improving recipient country development outcomes.” (Pierre et al. 2017, p. 1442). This last research shows that the debate on the effectiveness of bilateral versus multilateral development still needs exploration, becasue there is much to say about multilateral development aid over bilateral aid, while this research doesn’t show that multilateral development aid indeed is the better type of development aid. Further research is necessary to shed more light on the effectiveness of bilateral versus multilateral development aid.
The research is going to focus on the representation of the effectiveness of bilateral versus
multilateral development by the Dutch media, it is therefore important to look at how development aid in the Netherlands is constructed. The next paragraph will give an outline of the construction of development aid in the Netherlands.
3.3 Development aid in the Netherlands
Development aid in the Netherlands is called development cooperation and the new cabinet Rutte III, wants to raise the budget for development cooperation. This means that the budget will grow to 331 million euros in 2021. With that, the budget will be 0,7% of the Dutch gross national product (Rijksoverheid n.y.). The ministry of Foreign Affairs checks if the development money is used
correctly. They check if the organisation or developing country meets the agreed performances, they check if the money is used according to what was agreed on and they demand reports about the progress of the development aid from developing countries. If donated money is embezzled the receiving country or organisation can be punished. This could mean that the money flow is stopped immediately or the Dutch government could demand back its advances (Rijksoverheid n.y.).
The core of Dutch development cooperation policy is the coherence between trade and development policy. In addition, the Netherlands focuses on 4 important themes: safety and the rule of law, water, food security and sexual and reproductive health and rights. In these themes there is much attention for issues such as equality of woman, the environment and the climate (Rijksoverheid n.y.). Dutch embassies and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs review whether development money is being spent properly and has the desired effect. They do this through research and assessments afterwards. The independent Inspectorate for Development Cooperation and Policy Evaluation (IDC) investigates whether foreign policy is efficient and effective. If this isn’t the case the IDC indicates how the national government can learn from things that did not work (Rijksoverheid n.y.). The Dutch
government gives development aid to 16 places: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Benin, Burundi, Ethiopia, Ghana, Great Lake Area, Horn of Africa, Indonesia, Yemen, Kenia, Mali, Mozambique, Palestinian Territories, Rwanda and Uganda. The exact kind of development aid that is given is described in the Multi-year Strategic Plan for each country (Rijksoverheid n.y.).
The last part of the framework is going to focus on the role and influence of Mass Media. Since the research is focusing on how a political geographical phenomenon is represented by the Dutch media, it is import to establish the influence of mass media on the public. The next paragraph will describe this influence.
3.4 The role and influence of Mass Media
In the Article of Wanta et al. (2004) was examined if coverage of foreign nations had an agenda-setting influence by doing a national poll and a content analysis of network newscasts. “The more media coverage a nation received, the more likely respondents were to think the nation was vitally important to U.S. interests, supporting the agenda-setting hypothesis. The more negative coverage a nation received, the more likely respondents were to think negatively about the nation, supporting the second level of agenda setting.” (Wanta et al. 2004, p. 364). However, positive coverage of a nation had no influence on public perceptions (Wanta et al. 2004, p. 364). So, the results of the research show a clear relationship between media coverage of nations and how individuals viewed those nations. For example, Japan and Russia, the top two countries on the public agenda, were among the nations receiving the highest amount of media coverage (Wanta et al. 2004, p. 373). “Overall, then, the results here show that media coverage of countries may have an impact on how
viewed.” (Wanta et al. 2004, p. 375). This article shows the important role and influence mass media has on the public. The media has the opportunity to influence the perceptions of the public. This can indirectly influence politics, because of the publics opinion. Political parties want to have as many voters as possible. Partly they do this, by acting according to the public opinion. So, the media indirectly influences national policies. This is another reason why it is important to look at the representation of bilateral versus multilateral development by the Dutch media. If the representation of bilateral versus multilateral development aid by the media differs in a great amount from the representation of bilateral versus multilateral development aid by academic theories, this could be problematic. If this would be the case, national policies could possibly not be in line with the acknowledged academic theories and could therefore be wrong.
Strömberg (2015) makes four statements in his article about the political effects of mass media. The first statement is that media research increases political accountability. This improves policy. Multiple studies find that an increase in media activity is associated with better policy outcomes (Strömberg 2015, p. 201). The second statement describes a negative effect from media on politics. “The media forces politicians to attend to issues that are not the most important.” (Strömberg 2015, p. 201). The third statement is that media effects are probably very strong in situations with strategic complementarities. In this situation a strong negative media effect may arise, especially when there are conflicts of interest among different groups in society (Strömberg 2015, p. 201). Finally, it is important that media policy should consider the points above. It is important for media competition policy to consider the match between the media markets and the political jurisdictions covered by the media to increase the total media coverage of politics. Also, to ensure that the interests of minority groups are covered, it is important to be aware of the audience share bias introduced by media. “Finally, it is important to guard against the governments exploiting strategic externalities to achieve welfare-reducing policy effects.” (Strömberg 2015, p. 202).
The next chapter will consist of the methodological framework in which the main question will be explained as well as the research design of this research.
4. Methodological framework
In this chapter the methodological framework will be explained. The main question, the conceptual model, the type of research, the operationalization, and the research methods shall be discussed. There will be argued why certain methodological choices have been made. For example, why a certain data collecting method and analysis method are being used and how they contribute to answering my research question.
4.1 Main question
The theoretical framework has shown the big discussion concerning the effectiveness of bilateral versus multilateral development aid and that there are still a lot of different points of view to bilateral versus multilateral development aid. There is still no final conclusion on the concept of development aid, so the discussion is not yet ended and therefore an interesting topic to analyse. Analysing this topic can contribute to the ongoing discussion about development aid and therefore help giving the discussion more direction to a final conclusion. Also, in the theoretical framework it becomes clear that the mass media has a big influence on for example policies and the public opinion. Researching the media on development aid will shed light on the consensus about development aid between the media and the existing academic theories and thus shed light on if national policies on development aid are in line with the academic theories and thus if the national policies are legitimate. Moreover, the media critically assesses government policies and could therefore give useful insights on bilateral versus multilateral development aid. These insights could be taken into account for further research on the topic. The following research question is
developed, taking all the above into account:
How is bilateral versus multilateral development aid represented in Dutch media?
This question will give insights on how bilateral development aid and multilateral development aid are perceived by the Dutch media compared to each other. In the end of the thesis it will become clear how the conclusion of this thesis contributes to the existing theories. Are the conclusions about bilateral versus multilateral development aid indeed in line with the assumption from the theories that multilateral development aid is superior in contrast with bilateral development aid or are there new insights created by answering this main question which will contribute to the long running discussion about development aid.
4.2 Conceptual model
The conceptual model below is developed, to illustrate how the relevant variables interact with each other. I am not looking for a cause-effect relationship, but for how the concepts bilateral and
multilateral development aid are represented in the phenomenon Dutch media. For that reason, there is no cause-effect arrow between the variables, but an arrow that indicates the comparison between bilateral and multilateral development aid on the left and an arrow that indicates that this comparison is being represented in the Dutch media in the middle.
In the conceptual model above, the three variables ‘Bilateral development aid’, ‘Multilateral development aid’ and ‘Dutch media’ are displayed. The conceptual model displays how the two concepts bilateral and multilateral development aid are being put on the opposite of each other and how that comparison is being represented in the Dutch media.
4.3 Type of research
The research that is going to be carried out is a descriptive research, because what I am going to research is a human geographical phenomenon. It is about how the Dutch media represents a political geographical phenomenon. The best way to research this, is by describing this
representation. With a descriptive research you do not start with hypothesis or a theory. With this research that’s also the case. In parts of the academic world there are already discussions and theories about the effectiveness of development aid, but how the Dutch media represents bilateral versus multilateral development aid is not yet researched, so I am not using an existing theory. The research design for this research is a case study, because I am going to do a detailed and intensive analysis of a single case. In this research that case entails analysing the representation of bilateral versus multilateral development aid in the Dutch media. I am only looking at the representation of a single comparison in the media sources of a single country, which makes it an intensive and detailed analysis of a single case. The Dutch media is in this case the unit of analysis of this single case, because I am analysing the content of Dutch media to get my information on the representation of bilateral versus multilateral development aid, so I am able to answer my main question. Looking at my type of research you can conclude that I am using a qualitative research strategy, because I am going to describe a human geographical phenomenon by analysing a single case intensively.
4.4 Operationalization
In this paragraph the relevant concepts from the main question are being operationalized in order to do a workable research. Before conducting the research, it is important that is clear what is meant by every relevant concept, so there is no doubt about what is actually being researched. This adds to the quality of the research and the conclusions that will be drawn from the analysis of the data, because if isn’t clear what is meant specifically by the concepts that I am using there could be confusion about what the conclusions actually mean. All the important concepts can be found in the main research question:
How is bilateral versus multilateral development aid represented in Dutch media?
Bilateral
development aid
Multilateral
development aid
Dutch media
Versus
Representation
The concepts that have to be operationalized are development aid, media and representation. To make clear what meaning these concepts have to this thesis, a corresponding definition will be given for every concept. When the definition is being given, the concepts will be operationalised in order to measure them.
4.4.1 Development aid
Development aid: Financial aid given by governments or other agencies to support the long-term economic advancement of a country or region, especially one currently underdeveloped (English Oxford Living Dictionaries 2018).
Concept Dimension Variables Indicators/Questions
Development aid Bilateral aid Economic Money donated from
donor country directly to country in need
Multilateral aid Economic Money donated for
development projects and loans from financial institutions
I will be researching the concept development aid through bilateral aid and multilateral aid, because they differ from each other fundamentally. They both use money as development aid, but the source of the money is different and this is why it is possible that the Dutch media could represent these types of development aid differently. The source of the money is in the case of bilateral development aid from a national government and in the case of multilateral development aid from financial institutions. As is discussed in the theoretical framework, some see multilateral development aid as the better type of aid, because it is not given on the basis of political considerations. Also, the fear of the domination of a donor country is removed in the case of multilateral development aid. (Vladislav et al. 2013, p. 132). It is therefore really useful to research how the differences between these two types of development aid are represented in the media, because the media can give up to date knowledge about the topic and can give new and different insights on the differences between bilateral and multilateral development aid.
4.4.2 Media
Media: The main means of mass communication (broadcasting, publishing, and the Internet) regarded collectively (English Oxford Living Dictionaries 2018).
Concept Dimension Variables Indicators/Questions
Media Dutch media De Volksrant Online news articles
Algemeen Dagblad Online news articles
The reason I have chosen to use online news articles on the development aid topic from Dutch media is because I am Dutch myself, which gives me an advantage reading the Dutch online news articles, because they are written in my mother tongue. This raises the quality of the research, because it is easier for me to do the content analysis and search for the core in the articles. Researching articles in my mother tongue makes sure I understand the message of the author as precisely as possible. Another reason to only look at Dutch media is so that I can go more in depth in the case. Since I am only looking at news articles from one country I have time to do a more detailed and intensive research of this single case. I have chosen to research online news articles from de Volkskrant,
Algemeen Dagblad and NRC because these newspapers are in the top 10 of most read newspapers in
the Netherlands, this means that a big part of the newspaper readers in the Netherlands are covered and that it is easier for me to generalize conclusions. Also, the online news articles of these
newspapers were free accessible. Another newspaper that is read by a big amount of people in the Netherlands is de Telegraaf, but unfortunately this newspaper wasn’t free accessible. Nevertheless,
de Volkskrant, Algemeen Dagblad and NRC together cover a large part of the total amount of the
newspapers read in the Netherlands. Researching online news articles is the most efficient media source to analyse, because the text is digital and you have all the information at one place. This saves me a lot of time comparing to analysing the articles in newspapers where you first have to collect all these newspapers before you can conduct the analysis. This also saves me a lot of time, so I can analyse a lot of online news articles, so I can analyse as much online news articles as possible. I am going to analyse articles from the financial crisis from 2008 onward. This is an interesting time-line, because when the financial crisis hit the Netherlands there was less money to divide over all the important government issues. Therefore, development aid was more critically assessed by the government and media, because it was very important that all the money available would be invested as efficient as possible. The fact that development aid was more critically assessed because of the lack of money to invest by the government, ensures that the media can provide useful
information on the usefulness of bilateral versus multilateral development aid.
Looking up the media as a source of information is very useful, because as was described in the theoretical framework on mass media influence, the media plays a role in shaping the opinion of the public. It is therefore possible that the way most Dutch perceive bilateral versus multilateral
development aid and development aid in general is because of how the media represents
development aid. By using the existing theories on bilateral versus multilateral development aid, it is possible to reflect on how the media represents development aid. If this differs largely from the existing theories, it is possible that there is a big difference in how the public perceives bilateral versus multilateral development aid and how the existing theories describe bilateral versus
multilateral development aid. Since the existing theories are developed after doing comprehensive research, you could say that the public opinion in this situation could be further away from what is actually truer. That is a reason why it is important to consider the media for information. Another reason to consider media as a source of information on this political geographical issue, is that politics are widely discussed in news articles, so there will be a lot of information on this development aid topic in online news articles.
4.4.3 Representation
Representation: The description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way (English Oxford Living Dictionaries 2018).
Concept Dimension Variables Indicators/Questions
Representation Representation
effectiveness development aid
Online news articles Content analysis
I will be researching the representation of bilateral versus multilateral development aid in Dutch media through a content analysis. A content analysis of the Dutch online news articles on bilateral versus multilateral development aid in the Dutch newspapers de Volkskrant, Algemeen Dagblad and
NRC, will give me insights on how this comparison is represented in a big part of the Dutch media
that comes to notice of the public. The content analysis that will be executed, will be searching for specifically those topics in the online news articles that are relevant to the topic of my thesis. More information about the exact process and execution of the content analysis will be discussed later on in this chapter in the paragraph research methods.
4.5 Research methods
4.5.1 Data collection method
I am going to collect my data through a content analysis of mass-media outputs. I will search for Mass-media outputs on the topic. “Newspapers, magazines, television programmes, films, and other mass media are potential sources for social scientific analysis.” (Bryman 2012, p. 552). I am going to look for information from Dutch documents in the form of news articles on the internet. The newspapers I will be using for my analysis of online news articles are de Volkskrant, Algemeen
Dagblad and NRC. These sources will provide me of information on bilateral versus multilateral
development aid as presented by the Dutch media. To collect the data from all these documents I will use a content analysis. “Content analysis is an approach to the analysis of documents and texts (which may be printed or visual) that seeks to quantify content in terms of predetermined categories and in a systematic and replicable manner. It is a very flexible method that can be applied to a variety of different media.” (Bryman 2012, p. 289). Using content analysis enables me to collect the
important data from a lot of texts. I could also use a discourse analysis, but that is a less structured way of doing this research and takes more time, so I could analyse less online news articles. So, doing the content analysis enables me to research more online news articles which makes sure I am able to do a qualitative research but at the same time make more generalizable statements at the end of the thesis because I have more data. Using coding when using content analysis enables me to collect the data on a structured way which makes it also easier to analyse the data found and to make
conclusions out of the data. To code all the essential information found in the online news articles a coding schedule and coding manual are necessary. The coding schedule consists of all the themes that will be given a specific code, each with a specific meaning. This enables me to collect all the data on how bilateral versus multilateral development aid is represented in the relevant online articles. The coding schedule used for this research is shown below.
Coding schedule
Case number Day Month Year Newspaper Type of
development aid discussed What is effective development aid? Representation bilateral development aid Representation multilateral development aid Representation development aid in general
From left to right, this coding schedule has 10 themes, whereby the first 4 themes aren’t being given a code. The first theme ‘Case number’ indicates the specific online news article which is analysed. The cases are being set in a chronological order per newspaper. So, the higher the number, the later in time this article has been published per newspaper. The themes ‘Day’, ‘Month’ and ‘Year’ logically indicate the date on which a specific online news article has been published. The last 6 themes are all been given a code. This means the number which is filled in under each theme doesn’t indicate an amount, but is a code which has a specific meaning. Every different code has a different specific meaning. Every specific theme has its own coding list whereby the numbers, which indicate the code with its specific meaning, only apply for that theme. So, the number 4 under a theme doesn’t have to have the same meaning under another theme. All these codes can be found in the coding manual which will be discussed later. The theme ‘Newspaper’ indicates from which newspaper an online news article originates. The theme ‘Type of development aid discussed’ indicates which type of development aid is discussed in a specific online news article. By far, the most articles discussed the effectiveness of development aid, so I also added the theme ‘What is effective development aid’. I did this, so that when online news articles represent development aid in a way whereby they include effectiveness, it is clear what the articles suggest what effective development aid is. The theme ‘Representation bilateral development aid’ indicates how bilateral development aid is represented if it is discussed by an article. The theme ‘Representation multilateral development aid’ indicates how multilateral development aid is represented if it is discussed in an article. After I collected the data of these two types of development aid I can compare how they both are represented in the online news articles and make my conclusions on how they stand against each other. The last theme is
‘Representation development aid in general’. A lot of articles didn’t specifically talk about bilateral or multilateral development aid, but just talked about development aid in general. For that reason, I also included how development aid in general is represented in Dutch media in my research. This theme indicates how development aid in general is represented when it is discussed. The coding manual in which all the codes per theme are described can be found below.
Coding manual Newspaper
1. de Volkskrant 2. Algemeen Dagblad 3. NRC
Type of development aid discussed
1. Bilateral development aid 2. Multilateral development aid
3. Bilateral and multilateral development aid 4. Development aid in general
What is effective development aid
0. This code is used when it is not discussed what effective development aid is 1. When the economy is improved
2. When the public health is improved
3. When social progress is achieved, for example through education
4. When structural developments are made, so that people can help themselves 5. When there is sustainable development
6. When there is a growing middle class 7. When the political rights are improved 8. When happiness among people is improved
Representation bilateral development aid
0. This code is used when bilateral development aid is not discussed 1. Bilateral development aid is effective
2. Bilateral development aid is not or barely effective
3. When bilateral development aid is used, there is some effectiveness
4. Bilateral development aid is effective on the short term, but not on the long term 5. Bilateral development would be more effective under certain conditions
6. The effectiveness of bilateral development is barely measurable, so hard to say something about it
Representation multilateral development aid
0. This code is used when multilateral development aid is not discussed 1. Multilateral development aid is effective
2. Multilateral development aid is not or barely effective
3. When multilateral development aid is used, there is some effectiveness
4. Multilateral development aid would be more effective under certain conditions 5. Multilateral development aid is effective on the short term, but not on the long term 6. The effectiveness of multilateral development is barely measurable, so hard to say
something about it
7. Multilateral development aid is more effective than bilateral development aid, because the self-interest of a donor country isn’t involved
Representation development aid in general
0. This code is used when development aid in general is not discussed 1. Development aid in general is effective
2. Development aid in general is not or barely effective 3. Development aid in general has some effectiveness
4. Development aid in general would be more effective under certain conditions 5. There is a lot of haziness about the effectiveness of development aid in general
6. Development aid in general will not solve poverty, but will be the catalyst for reducing it This coding manual gives a structured overview of the meaning of every code per theme. For
example, if I am analysing an online article where development aid in general is discussed and in that article development aid in general is represented as not or barely effective, I would fill in the number
number 2 indeed means that “Development in general is not or barely effective”. So, the numbers in the coding manual and the numbers under the last 6 themes in the coding schedule aren’t an amount, but a code with a specific meaning.
The entire execution of the content analysis can be found in the appendix. To be as transparent as possible about how I collected my data through the content analysis, I will give 2 examples of how I filled in the coding schedule by analysing an online news article. I will start the examples by showing the online news article, followed by the corresponding coding schedule and then an explanation about why I filled in a certain code at each theme.
Corresponding coding schedule
Case number Day Month Year Newspaper Type of
development aid discussed What is effective development aid? Representation bilateral development aid Representation multilateral development aid Representation development aid in general 15 2 5 2012 1 3 2,3 2 2 0 Explanation
The case number of this article is 15 because that is the chronological place of the article in its newspaper and the numbers under ‘Day’, ‘Month’ and ‘Year’ indicate the date at which this article is published. You can find this date the top of the article where it is marked yellow. The theme
‘Newspaper’ has been given the code 1 which stands for de Volkskrant, as can been found in the coding manual on page 16, since that is the newspaper from which this article is originated. You can find the name of this newspaper in the top of the article where it is marked green.
The theme ‘Type of development aid discussed’ has been given the code 3 and as you can see in the coding manual on page 16 this code means “Bilateral and multilateral development aid.” The reason this code has been given is because the author is talking about the effectiveness of giving a bag of money and leaving: “Een zak geld geven en weggaan werkt niet, zegt Savedoff.” (Vermeeren 2012). This sentence is marked red in the article. Translated this means: Giving a bag of money and then leaving doesn’t work, says Savedoff. Since both bilateral and multilateral development aid consist of transferring money to a receiving country, it concerns both types of development aid.
The theme ‘What is effective development aid’ has been given the code 2 and 3 and as you can see in the coding manual on page 17 these codes mean “When the public health is improved” and “When social progress is achieved, for example through education.” The reason the code 2 has been given is because the author is talking about that in Rwanda hospitals and health centres are being supported: “Wij hebben ziekenhuizen en gezondheidscentra ondersteund met mensen en materiaal en daar een resultaatgericht project van gemaakt.” (Vermeeren 2012). This sentence is marked blue in the article. Translated this means: We have supported hospitals and health centres with people and material and have made it a result-oriented project. So, in the article development aid is focused on the improvement of healthcare and therefore I have chosen the code 2 which means that according to the article development aid is effective when the public health is improved. The reason the code 3 has been given is because the author is talking about less dropouts in secondary education: “Dat was minder uitval op het middelbaar onderwijs.” (Vermeeren 2012). This sentence is marked orange in the article. Translated this means: That was less dropouts in secondary education. So, another goal of development aid discussed in the article is that the education should be improved by having less dropouts. If there are less dropouts, you can say that there is social progress. Therefore, I have chosen for the code 3 which means that according to the article development aid is effective when social progress is achieved, for example through education.
The themes ‘Representation bilateral development aid’ and ‘Representation multilateral
development aid’ have both been given the code 2 and as you can see in the coding manual on page 17 in both cases this code means that this type of development aid is not or barely effective. The reason bilateral and multilateral development aid in this case have the same code and meaning is because in this article they are considered from a perspective where they are the same. This is that in
because in the article they are talking about that giving a bag of money and leaving doesn’t work: “Een zak geld geven en weggaan werkt niet zegt Savedoff.” (Vermeeren 2012). This sentence is marked red in the article. Translated this means: Giving a bag of money and then leaving doesn’t work, says Savedoff. They literally say that giving a bag of money, which is the case with bilateral and multilateral development aid, doesn’t work. Therefore, I have in both cases chosen for the code 2 which means that according to the article this type of development aid is not or barely effective. The theme ‘Representation development aid in general’ has been given the code 0 and as you can see in the coding manual on page 17 this code means that “This code is used when development aid in general is not discussed”. The reason that this code is used is of course because this type of development aid is simply not discussed in the article.
Corresponding coding schedule
Case number
Day Month Year Newspaper Type of
development aid discussed What is effective development aid? Representation bilateral development aid Representation multilateral development aid Representation development aid in general 25 19 6 2009 2 2 2 0 6 0 Explanation
The case number of this article is 25 because that is the chronological place of the article in its newspaper and the numbers under ‘Day’, ‘Month’ and ‘Year’ indicate the date at which this article is published. You can find this date the top of the article where it is marked yellow. The theme
‘Newspaper’ has been given the code 2 which stands for Algemeen Dagblad, as can been found in the coding manual on page 16, since that is the newspaper from which this article is originated. You can find the name of this newspaper in the top of the article where it is marked green.
The theme ‘Type of development aid discussed’ has been given the code 2 and as you can see in the coding manual on page 16 this code means “Multilateral development aid.” The reason this code has been given is because the author is talking about that is difficult to determine how effective the costly help programs from the United Nations and their partners really are: “Afgezien daarvan blijkt zeer moeilijk in te schatten hoe effectief de miljardenverslindende hulpprogramma’s van de Verengide Naties en hun partners werkelijk zijn.” (Editors 2009). This sentence is marked red in the article. Translated this means: Apart from that, it is very difficult to determine how effective the multi-billion-dollar help programs of the United Nations and their partners really are. Since the United Nations and their partners are official organizations which get their money from different countries and other originations, that provide big amounts of money for specific purposes, but without self-interest they can be seen as a multilateral organization. Therefore, the code 2 has been given, because these are multilateral organizations which provide multilateral development aid. The theme ‘What is effective development aid’ has been given the code 2 and as you can see in the coding manual on page 17 this code means “When the public health is improved”. The reason the code 2 has been given is because the author is talking about that some people say that the only way to improve health care is to spend as much money on it as possible: “De mensen die werkzaam zijn in de openbare gezondheidszorg hebben de wereld ervan overtuigd dat de enige manier om slechte gezondheidssituaties in ontwikkelingslanden te verbeteren, is om er een heleboel geld tegenaan te gooien.” (Editors 2009). This sentence is marked blue in the article. Translated this means: The people who work in the public healthcare have convinced the world that the only way of improving health situations in developing countries, is to spend as much money on it as possible. So, in the article they are discussing the goal of development aid as improving public healthcare and therefore I have chosen the code 2 which means that according to the article development aid is effective when the public health is improved.
The theme ‘Representation bilateral development aid’ has been given the code 0 and as you can see in the coding manual on page 17 this code means that “This code is used when bilateral development aid is not discussed”. The reason that this code is used is of course because this type of development aid is simply not discussed in the article.
development is barely measurable, so hard to say something about it”. The reason that this code has been given is because the author is discussing that is really difficult to determine how effective spending big amounts of money really is: “Afgezien daarvan blijkt zeer moeilijk in te schatten hoe effectief de miljardenverslindende hulpprogramma’s van de Verengide Naties en hun partners werkelijk zijn.” (Editors 2009). This sentence is marked red in the article. Translated this means: Apart from that, it is very difficult to determine how effective the multi-billion-dollar help programs of the United Nations and their partners really are. So, in the article they literally say that it is very difficult to determine the effectiveness, so you can say that the effectiveness is barely measurable.
Therefore, I have chosen the code 6 which means that according to the article the effectiveness of multilateral development is barely measurable and therefore it is hard to say something about its effectiveness.
The theme ‘Representation development aid in general’ has been given the code 0 and as you can see in the coding manual on page 17 this code means that “This code is used when development aid in general is not discussed”. The reason that this code is used is of course because this type of development aid is simply not discussed in the article.
Finally, using content analysis on online news articles to analyse Dutch media is an efficient way to collect my data on this political geographical issue. Using content analysis enables me to collect a lot of data on a quantitative way on a more qualitative topic. The content analysis of online news articles is useful for researching this political geographical issue, because I can specifically look for the political geographical topics and quantify the found results by using coding. So, in this way I can quantify qualitative data.
4.5.2 Method of analysis
I am going to use a thematic analysis to process the data found from the content analysis from the mass-media outputs. This will enable me to search for the important themes that come up when I collect my data from the content analysis and structure the important findings, so I can compare them with each other. “However, unlike strategies like grounded theory or critical discourse analysis, this is not an approach to analysis that has an identifiable heritage or that has been outlined in terms of a distinctive cluster of techniques. Indeed, the search for themes is an activity that can be
discerned in many if not most approaches to qualitative data analysis, such as grounded theory, critical discourse analysis, qualitative content analysis, and narrative analysis.” (Bryman 2012, p. 578). So, a thematic analysis is a flexible approach to arrange the data in a logical way. The data is arranged according to multiple themes. A theme is: “a category identified by the analyst through his/her data; that relates to his/her research focus (and quite possibly the research questions); that builds on codes identified in transcripts and/or field notes; and that provides the researcher with the basis for a theoretical understanding of his or her data that can make a theoretical contribution to the literature relating to the research focus.” (Bryman 2012, p. 580). This is the best way to analyse the data, because I want to leave the themes open, after I have collected the data from the content analysis. I want to leave the themes open, because I don’t know yet which findings will appear from the content analysis. This will enable me to choose the best themes for comparing my results to answer my research questions. This method of analysis will in that way contribute to the quality of my qualitative research, because the themes of the thematic analysis will then be most relevant to the found data out of the online news articles. Another reason why a thematic analysis is the most appropriate analysis to use, is that there are already arising themes from the content analysis. It is therefore the most efficient and logical way to process the data found.
A common problem with qualitative research is that it sometimes isn’t structured and transparent enough, but because I am using the thematic analysis in combination with the content analysis my qualitative research is structured and transparent. The content analysis is a really structured way to collect qualitative data and this will bring transparency into the research, also because I have given examples of how I have executed the content analysis. I will give good arguments why I will use certain themes for my thematic analysis to make sure my research stays structured and transparent. The next chapter consists of the data analysis, namely the thematic analysis. In this chapter will be explained how the data from the content analysis is being processed.
5. Data analysis: Thematic analysis
In this chapter the data analysis will be explained. Like was mentioned before in the methodological framework, the data analysis consisted of a thematic analysis and in the following paragraphs there will be explained why curtain themes are used and how they were established. The thematic analysis consists of two parts. The first part looks at what effective development aid is according to the Dutch media, because effectiveness was a topic which was discussed in nearly every article. So, when the effectiveness of a type of development aid is represented in a way, it is also known what most articles meant by effective development aid. The second and more important part, looks at the representation of several types of development aid according to the Dutch media.
5.1 Representation in the Dutch media of what effective development aid is
What is effective development aid? Amount of times statement is mentioned in different articles When the economy is improved 21
When the public health is improved 23
When social progress is achieved, for example through education 9 When structural developments are made, so that people can help themselves 4 When there is sustainable development 3
When there is a growing middle class 1
When political rights are improved 1
When happiness among people is improved 1
If one specific statement is mentioned multiple times in one article, it is just counted once. So, if there is an amount of 21 in the table, this means that the statement is mentioned in 21 different articles.
Also, it is possible that different statements are mentioned in one article. So, the total amount in the row above, doesn’t indicate the total amount of different articles. It only indicates the total amount of statements mentioned.
5.1.1 Choice themes
Besides searching for the representation of bilateral versus multilateral development aid, the content analysis was also focused on searching for what effective development aid is according to the online news articles. This a relevant part of the research, because it is important to first establish what effective development aid is according to the articles before making conclusions about if it is effective or not. The reason for this is that when development aid seems to be effective, it is good to know what the effect then was. If a specific sector seems to be improved, you can then maybe look at other issues where you can focus on next. If it isn’t clear what is improved by effective
development aid, how can you then know on which issue to focus on next. The themes in the table above are directly derived from the coding manual form the content analysis. These themes consist of what in the online news articles was described as what effective development aid is, which was found in the content analysis. These are directly the right themes, because numbering how often these statements were used for explaining what effective development aid is, gives an insight in which statements are used the most for explaining what effective development aid is. Doing so, sheds light on how the Dutch media perceives what effective development aid is.
5.1.2 Results
‘When the public health is improved’ is the most often mentioned statement in the online articles for what effective development aid is. Out of the 63 statements made on what effective development aid is, 23 statements mentioned that development aid is effective when the public health of the receiving country is improved. The statement that is most often mentioned after that is ‘when the economy is improved’. 21 statements out of the 63 statements mentioned that development aid is effective when the economy of the receiving country is improved. So, ‘when the public health is improved’ and ‘when the economy is improved’ are mentioned almost as often and outrun all the other statements, because the most often mentioned statement after those is ‘when social progress is achieved, for example through education’, which is mentioned just 9 times. So, this statement is mentioned less than half as often as the other two statements. There are even 5 more statements mentioned in the online news articles on what effective development aid is, but these are mentioned even less often than the statement that development aid is effective when social progress is made, for example through education. Even though two statements on what effective development aid is, are clearly mentioned most often, the fact that there are so many different statements on what effective development aid is, shows that there are many different insights on what effective development aid is.
5.2 Representation different types of development aid in the Dutch media.
Number describes how often a type of development aid, which are described in the first row, was represented by the Dutch Media in a certain way, which are described in the first column.
Themes
Representation Bilateral development aid Multilateral development aid Development aid in general Effective 1 2 20 Not or barely effective 7 3 3 There is some effectiveness 6 3 9 Effective on short term, not on long term 2 1 - More effective under certain conditions 4 3 4 Barely measurable à hard to make conclusions 1 2 - More effective than bilateral development aid à self-interest of donor country isn’t involved - 1 - There is a lot of haziness about the effectiveness - - 4
Aid will not solve poverty but will be the catalyst for reducing it - - 1 Total amount of statements mentioned 21 15 41
If one specific statement is mentioned multiple times in one article, it is just counted once. So, if there is an amount of 7 in the table, this means that the statement is mentioned in 7 different articles.
Also, it is possible that different statements are mentioned in one article. So, the total amounts in the row above, don’t necessarily indicate the total amount of different articles. It only indicates the total amount of statements mentioned.
5.2.1 Choice themes
The themes in the table above are like the themes in the first thematic analysis derived from the content analysis. While conducting the content analysis, the representation from the online news articles of bilateral versus multilateral development aid emerged. Looking at how often each statement on the different kinds of development aid is mentioned can bring information on how bilateral versus multilateral development aid is represented by the Dutch media when you compare the results of each type of development aid. Therefore, all the themes derived from the content analysis are included as a theme into the table above.
5.2.2 Results
At first, it is important to say that not many articles specifically called out bilateral development aid or multilateral development aid. Most of the time the articles discussed development aid in general. However, it is still interesting to see how the effectiveness of development aid in general is
represented by the Dutch media, because this will show what the general idea of the media is about development aid. This will in all probability give some information about the necessity of
development aid. The researched articles all have many different views on the effectiveness of development aid. There are 6 different statements made by the online news articles on the effectiveness of bilateral development aid, 7 different statements made on the effectiveness of multilateral development aid and 6 different statements made on the effectiveness of development aid in general. Moreover, one of the statements which was mentioned multiple times in the online news article on the effectiveness of development aid was that development aid would be more effective under certain conditions. Different articles mentioned many different conditions under which development aid would be more effective. This adds up to the fact, that there are many different views on the effectiveness of development aid.
The most common statement on the effectiveness of bilateral development aid is that it is not or barely effective, 7 times this was mentioned, only 1 time an online news article made the statement that bilateral development aid is effective. However, 6 times the statement is made that bilateral development aid has some effectiveness. This last statement implies that even though bilateral development aid isn’t fully effective, there is still some effectiveness and thus not completely
useless. So, there is not much difference in the amount of articles that suggest bilateral development has some effectiveness and the amount of articles that suggest that bilateral development aid is not or barely effective. Moreover, 4 times the statement is made that bilateral development aid would be more effective under a certain condition, 2 times the statement is made that bilateral
development aid is only effective on the short term and not on the long term and finally 1 time the statement is mentioned that the effectiveness of bilateral development aid is barely measurable, with the result that it is hard to make conclusions on the effectiveness of bilateral development aid. The most common statements on the effectiveness of multilateral development aid are that it is not or barely effective, that multilateral development aid has some effectiveness and that multilateral development aid would be more effective under a certain condition. All three statements are mentioned 3 times. Moreover, 2 times the statement is made that multilateral development aid is effective, so there is not much difference in the amount of articles suggesting that multilateral development aid is not or barely effective and that multilateral development aid is effective. Also, 2 times is mentioned that the effectiveness of multilateral development aid is barely measurable, with the result that it is hard to make conclusions on the effectiveness of multilateral development aid, 1 time is mentioned that multilateral development aid is effective on the short term, but not on the long term and finally 1 time is mentioned that multilateral development aid is more effective than bilateral development aid, because with multilateral development aid the self-interest of a donor
