The Purifica An ethnography of Dutch partnership policy and The (broken) dreams of development. T PurificaTion ion ‘what do‘what we tell do the we minister?’tell the minister?’ of aid of Jilles van Gastel 'society'society loses commitment’loses commitment’ a id Jilles van Gastel 'No!''No!' 'aid runs'aid onruns solidarity' on solidarity' 'we'we need ‘whatneed‘what to does tobe does be itconnected' mean?' itconnected' mean?' 'Why?''Why?' ‘this‘this is unethical' is unethical' 'aid 'aidneeds'Why?' needs'Why?' partnership' partnership' 'aid needs'aid needs ownership' ownership' ‘we‘we‘it's havenot‘it's about havenot aboutselling selling policy’to policy’to calculate calculate'enroll'enroll private what private companieswhat companies is in aid?''Yes.'isneeded’ in aid?''Yes.'needed’ JILL001 WTK Cover.indd 1 11/3/11 11:10 AM The PurificaTion of aid An ethnography of Dutch partnership policy and (broken) dreams of development Jilles Nathalie van Gastel Thesis committee Thesis supervisor Prof. dr. L.E. Visser Professor of Rural Development Sociology Wageningen University Thesis co-supervisor Dr. ir. M.C.M. Nuijten Associate professor, Rural Development Sociology Group Wageningen University Other members Prof. dr. B.J.M. Arts, Wageningen University, The Netherlands Prof. dr. J. Gould, University of Jyväskylä, Finland Prof. dr. O.J.H.M. Salemink, University of Copenhagen, Denmark Prof. dr. H.C. Wagenaar, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom This research was conducted under the auspices of the Graduate Schools CERES and WASS. The PurificaTion of aid An ethnography of Dutch partnership policy and (broken) dreams of development Jilles Nathalie van Gastel Thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of doctor at Wageningen University by the authority of the Rector Magnificus Prof. dr. M.J. Kropff in the presence of the Thesis Committee appointed by the Academic Board to be defended in public on Wednesday 14 December 2011 at 1.30 p.m. in the Aula. Gastel, Jilles van The Purification of Aid. An ethnography of Dutch partnership policy and (broken) dreams of development. Thesis, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands (2011) With references, with summaries in English and Dutch ISBN: 978-94-6173-105-0 Layout and printing: Off Page, www.offpage.nl Copyright © 2011 by Jilles Nathalie van Gastel. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the author. conTenTs Acknowledgement 7 Chapter 1 Introduction 11 Chapter 2 Dreams of Development 31 Chapter 3 Assembling a PPP-project 57 Chapter 4 Transportation of the PPP-project 79 Chapter 5 Who killed the PPP-project? 103 Chapter 6 Theoretical implications 127 Bibliography 137 Addendum Summary 145 Samenvatting 149 Curriculum Vitae 153 acknowledgemenT This thesis is a scientific work on (Dutch) development aid. But it is the personal journey that, with the help of many others, led to the ethnography that you hold in your hands. The first inspiration might have been the IS (International Samenwerking), a magazine about development aid published by the Dutch ministry of Foreign Affairs. As a young girl I would glance through these magazines at home while dreaming of life as a development worker in Africa. My father encouraged us to study and travel. My mother taught me not to give up too easily, a quality that turned out to be essential during this research. I want to thank them for that. Special thanks to my sister for housing me during the final stages of this thesis and for cooking me delicious meals while I was working. The foundations for this research were laid in the first years of my studies, mid 1990s, in Wageningen. There I heard stories about development projects that that did not take local context into account and failed to realize their objectives because the aid that was given was put to other uses. When during my internship in an NGO in Vietnam I encountered differences between policy texts and actual practices, I became interested in policy processes. That is when, in the beginning of 2000, I walked into the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I thank Otto Hospes for pointing out the possibility of an internship at the Ministry and sharing ideas on how to study policy. Thanks to Fred van der Kraaij I had the opportunity to work as research assistant on an evaluation of the Dutch research policy where I learned a lot about Minister Pronk’s ownership policy and policy processes in the Ministry. Then, I would like to thank the people who contributed information to write this thesis. Following ethnographic custom, I will not mention names to protect their identity. I am thankful to those in the Ministry who have been kind enough to allow me to interview them. This research would not have been possible without the Dutch embassy in country Z. They have granted me the opportunity to learn about their work by allowing me to be part of their lives for a period of time. Also I want to thank all people in the pharmaceutical industry, NGOs, and multinational organizations in country Z who accepted to be interviewed by me. The Rural Development Sociology Group has provided an inspiring environment to work in thanks to Alberto Arce, Roy Gigengack, Paul Hebink, Sarah Southwold, Elisabet Rasch, Gerard Verschoor, and Pieter de Vries. Without the help of the secretaries in RDS, Annelies, Diana, and not to forget the irreplaceable Jos Michel, this thesis could not have been written. Leontine Visser has commented on the last versions of this thesis and paid attention to every detail of it. Thanks for that. I would also like to thank my fellow PhDs Nienke, Kei, Laura, Carolina, Charlynne, Francine, Veronica, Nassim, Pablo, Annet, Vladimir, Rini, Max, and Arjumand for our inspiring talks and good company. Nuray Tumer and Yves van Leynseele - thanks for being there when it was needed. Inge, I greatly enjoyed our working sessions that usually ended with a well-deserved glass of wine. They definitely helped me finalize this thesis. Philip Quarles van Ufford and Oscar Salemink Acknowledgement 7 thanks for the stimulating debates. Martijn Koster, Marleen van der Haar, Merlijn van Hulst, Tijo Salverda, Jacob Boersma, Edwin Rap thank you for reading my work and commenting on it in different stages of the research. And Steven, thank you for encouraging me to take risks in my research. I would like to thank the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, which provided me with a grant to carry out the research for this thesis. Thanks to Cristel Lit for designing the cover. Megan Price and Bridget Rawles, thank you for fixing grammatical errors and advising me of sections that needed to be clarified. Monique Nuijten tried to teach me how to structure an argument and at the same time gave me a lot of intellectual freedom. She read many versions of my work and commented on each of them time and again. She has been invaluable to this research. Then, thanks the people who made my time in country Z memorable. I also want to thank my friends for their support during these years of the PhD-research and providing the much needed relaxation time. A last word of thanks to Gustavo. I want to thank you for listening to my ideas and discussing them with me, for commenting on many versions of this thesis, for your patience, and for reminding me that there is more to life than a thesis. 8 Acknowledgement chapter 1 inTroducTion An ethnography of partnership in Dutch development aid It is October 2003. In the Netherlands, the new Minister for Development Cooperation, Agnes van Ardenne, presents her policy document ‘‘Mutual Obligations, Mutual Responsibilities” (Tweede Kamer 2003, 29 234 nr 1, 3 oktober 2003). Soon after that, she received the following a memorandum from a ministerial official in one of the Dutch embassies1: Dear Mrs. Van Ardenne, First of all my congratulations with your policy document, “Mutual Obligations, Mutual Responsibilities”, which manages to reduce poverty alleviation into a handy format of three MDG’s [Millennium Development Goals] and declares important key words such as partnership, good governance and complementarity as new spearheads of policy. And yes, also for you, just as for your predecessors, it is all about quality and effectiveness, and just like your predecessors you believe you can accomplish that by drastically changing course every few years. Of course, as loyal civil servants we will execute the policy document to the best of our ability. […] You say to strive for even more partnerships beyond only [those] with [other] governments. Yet, the[se] long-term, ongoing partnerships that we committed to a long time ago are thus disrespected by us. You ask us to devote ourselves to good governance and a good business climate. Yet, you have no difficulty in breaching the written agreements and signed contracts [that we have with governments]. You want more donor coordination and complementarity, but yet you do not hesitate to jump into sectors in which donors tumble over each other. Let me leave it at that: there is after all nothing to do about it. Who knows, there will be another minister in four years who again will want something different, and then we will proceed to the order of the day. Time enough: poverty is for the time being not defeated. […] Yours faithfully… P.S. In [the monthly internal magazine], your previous and current deputy DGIS [Director-General of International Cooperation] mentioned the fact that they are barely challenged on development cooperation within the Ministry. One should wonder why that is: conformism, de-motivation, fatalism, or also anxiety for the consequences.