Locally-led or donor controlled? Australian preferences for the decolonisation of development aid

CHE RESEARCH BITES

By Jack Hennessy, Duncan Mortimer, Rohan Sweeney and Maame Esi Woode

24 November, 2025

For decades governments of wealthier countries and international aid organisations have talked about the importance of ‘decolonising foreign aid’ - giving recipient countries more say in how aid money is spent, rather than donors calling all the shots. Research shows that health aid works better when the countries receiving it have greater control over how it’s used..

Yet despite this evidence, most health aid still comes with strings attached - donors decide what the money should be spent on, not the countries receiving it.

Why is there such a big divergence between the rhetoric of aid donors and their actions? Perhaps donor governments, or at least their voters, don’t share the view that recipients should have greater control over how aid is spent.

We surveyed 1,523 Australians to find out what ordinary citizens think: should recipient countries have more control over Australian health aid, or should Australia maintain control.

On average, Australians strongly opposed giving recipient countries control over aid projects - whether that meant letting them choose what to focus on or how to implement programmes.  Preferences varied widely, some people appeared indifferent, but there was  no group in favour of recipient control of aid and the decolonisation agenda. Importantly, this wasn’t simply about doubting other government’s competence. Even when we described recipient governments as effective and well-functioning, Australians still preferred Australian control.

This creates a real dilemma for politicians. If they want to reflect what voters actually want, they should maintain tight control over aid. But this goes against international commitments to let recipient countries lead their own development - and it likely makes aid less effective.

Hennessy, J., Mortimer, D., Sweeney, R. and Woode, M.E., 2025. Donor preferences for recipient control of international development aid. Social Science & Medicine, vol. 384 p.118535.

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CHE Research Bites are short, easy-to-understand summaries of our recent academic papers highlighting new evidence and insights on topical issues in the health and healthcare sectors.

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