Breaking with the past? Belgian development co-operation at the turn of the century

This paper gives a broad overview of the evolution of Belgian aid policies throughout the 1990s. It documents changes in stated motives and objectives, aid volumes, poverty orientation of aid, the structure and main components of the aid programme, the use of new types of aid instruments, the geographic concentration of aid and the institutional set-up. Official rhetoric on aid motives and objectives as it is captured in subsequent official policy notes is confronted with effective aid practice. It is argued that aid practice was strongly influenced by factors which are external to deliberate aid policy making. Crisis in the countries in Central Africa, which were traditionally major beneficiaries of Belgian aid, for instance, did heavily impinge upon the structure and main components of the aid programme, the aid volume and the geographic concentration of aid whereas internal political discussions in Belgium, in particular linguistic tensions, largely dominated the various institutional reforms of the aid department.