Attitudes towards Norwegian development aid, 2013

The results of the survey show high support for development aid in Norway. 82 per cent supports aid for Asia, Africa and Latin-America. This is a slight decrease from the survey in 2010, but the support has been stable for a long period. Between eight and nine out of ten has supported aid for these countries in all surveys after 1990.

Slightly more than half the respondents think the foreign aid budget has the right size or should be bigger. Around four out of ten thinks it should be smaller or be eliminated. This is the lowest registered support for the size of the foreign aid budget in the survey’s history. Younger persons and persons with higher education are most supportive of foreign aid and the size of the aid budget. The respondents were also asked what party they would have voted for if there was an election the next day, and Progress party voters were most critical of foreign aid.

Almost half the sample thinks the results of the foreign aid are quite or very good. Two out of ten think they are quite or very bad. This is a worse evaluation of the aid results than we have seen in previous surveys.

The respondents think aid given by voluntary organizations give the best results. Around three out of ten thinks that Norad (the Norwegian agency for development cooperation) administers the aid funds efficiently, and 35 per cent thinks that they waste the aid money to a small degree. This means that more people evaluate Norads work negatively than in previous studies.

The respondents were asked to name the aid organizations they knew. The Red Cross was by far the most well known organization, and was mentioned by six out of ten persons. It was followed by the Norwegian Church Aid, Save the Children and Doctors without Borders which were mentioned by three out of ten respondents. Norad were mentioned by two out of ten.

Approximately four out of ten said they were somewhat or very interested in matter about developing countries in the media, and around one in two was a bit interested. Three out of ten thought developing countries were portrayed correctly in the media. Just as many thought they were presented to negatively and 16 per cent thought they were presented too positively.

Almost half the respondents did not know of any countries with which Norway has development cooperation. The participants in the survey were also asked four multiple choice questions about developing countries. There were three alternative answers to each question, of which only one was correct. The respondents had a clear tendency to choose the alternative answers which presented the situation in developing countries negatively.