The Idea of Ownership: The Flaws in the Samaritan's Dilemma

Abstract

The idea of Ownership was at the heart of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, the key policy agreement for global aid effectiveness reform, in 2005. The Paris Declaration, the OECD claimed, would rebalance power relations between donors and aid-receiving governments. Despite the global consensus in Paris, Ownership emerged as a contested idea. My research examines the influence of the idea of Ownership on development partnerships in two Pacific countries by exploring the model for policy change which underwrote the Paris Declaration and its regional counterpart, the Forum Compact on Strengthening Development Coordination. My research in Samoa and Kiribati demonstrates that local policy actors attributed a different significance to the idea of Ownership to that agreed in Paris. They chose, instead, to assert locally-situated values and beliefs around aid and development. Ironically, I argue, although this reflected the exercise of Ownership in each site, it did so in ways that contested the policy logic claimed by the Paris Declaration. As a result, the exercise of Ownership in Samoa and Kiribati led to outcomes which challenged their largest donor and development partner, Australia, and its expectations of aid relations.