Paddling on one side of the canoe?: The changing nature of New Zealand’s development assistance programme NZADDs Working Paper1 Glenn Banks:
[email protected] (corresponding author); Warwick E Murray:
[email protected]; John Overton:
[email protected]; Regina Scheyvens:
[email protected] The direction and nature of New Zealand’s aid policy has undergone a near revolution under the National Party government elected in 2008. Prior to this, NZAID, a semi-autonomous unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, had evolved to manage the aid budget in line with internationally-agreed principles on aid practice, reflecting concepts of partnership and shared responsibility, concepts analogous to the notion of paddling on both sides of the canoe. Under the new National Government, NZAID was reincorporated into the Ministry, its focus was shifted from poverty and diversified livelihoods to economic growth, and the aid programme has been aligned more closely with the country’s foreign policy interests. We suggest that this is tantamount to paddling the canoe on only one side. This paper interprets these shifts in the context of the restructuring in New Zealand international aid policy between 1970 and 2010. The article has three broad aims: Firstly, to provide an overview of shifting themes and geographies of New Zealand’s aid policy over the four decades of concern; secondly, to explore the relationship between the global aid regime and national practice commenting on the factors that lead to alignment in these two imperatives or otherwise; and thirdly, to analyse the influence of politics, and of key individuals within political parties, in setting the direction of aid policy.