In the Quest for True Commitment: The Finnish Aid Paradigm and the 0.7 Target in Domestic Politics

Abstract

In contrast to its Nordic neighbours, Finland has failed to fulfil the 0.7 per cent of GNI target for development assistance over the past three decades. This has been the case despite restated commitments ‘to reach 0.7’ by every government since 1993 and Finland’s otherwise progressive role as a Nordic donor. This inconsistency, but also the Finnish aid approach in general, has been charted by only a few academic contributions. In this article, we begin by revisiting the Finnish aid paradigm for background purposes and identify continuities and changes including degrees of change [Hall, P., 1993, ‘Policy paradigms, social learning, and the state: The case of economic policymaking in Britain’, Comparative Politics, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 275–296] since the early 1990s. Then we shift our focus to the 0.7 target in the context of domestic political forces [Lancaster, C., 2007, Foreign Aid: Diplomacy, Development, Domestic Politics, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press] that shape Finnish aid. In addition, we provide snapshots of the two most significant changes in Finnish aid that relate to aid volume (centred in 1991 and 2015) and address them through the conceptual lenses of de/politicisation [Wood, M., 2015, ‘Puzzling and powering in policy paradigm shifts: politicisation, depoliticisation and social learning’, Critical Policy Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 2–21]. We conclude that some strong underlying continuities can be identified in the Finnish aid paradigm (1993–2021) concerning particularly poverty reduction, the role of aid, foreign and commercial policy self-interests as well as global concerns. The aspirations to reach the 0.7 per cent target are also a part of this continuum. However, domestic political forces related to the Finnish government coalitions and budgetary politics hinder the fulfilment of the self-declared 0.7 target. Furthermore, the largely depoliticised nature of both aid and these dynamics make it difficult to change the course towards true commitment.