The Decrease of Multilateral Development Aid between 1958 and 1966: An analysis of the origins and effects of business interests on European and Dutch development aid policies

Abstract

Between 1958 and 1964, the Committee for the Association of Countries and Territories Overseas (CACTO) was created by the European Parliamentary Assembly (EPA) and worked on the execution of the European Economic Community’s (EEC) plans for association and development aid. With the adoption of the Rome Treaty in 1958, the EEC redefined its relations with Africa by rebranding Eurafrique as ‘association.’ Simultaneously, the private sector grew as an important stakeholder and started influencing the development aid partnerships between states. Thereby, this thesis is linked to debates on Eurafrique, aid dependency and the bilateralisation of development aid. This Master’s thesis uses primary sources from the European University Institute in Florence and the Nationaal Archief in The Hague and examines the extent to which the EEC influenced Dutch development aid. The Netherlands is a valuable actor in this research as its evolution of its development aid policies is well documented and paves the way for an account of the motives for development aid, which relies on a novel interplay of nation states, international institutions and the private sector. The Netherlands initially embraced multilateral co-operation through the EEC, but grew critical after questions emerged on the profitability of development projects and increasingly started using self interests as a motive for development aid. This thesis argues that the criticism that fed these self-interests was fed by the CACTO’s inability to guarantee benefits for European businesses, and by a variety of Dutch actors who started voicing the interests of businesses who proved that there was unfair competition among the EEC’s member states. The thesis concludes that the EEC was influential for Dutch development aid because the CACTO accelerated the bilateralisation of the Dutch development aid policy.