Norway’s Development Dilemma: Global Power Structures in Western Aid Unveiled Through the WPR (What’s the Problem Represented to be?) Approach
Year: 2025
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Foreign aid and development cooperation have long been a topic of discussion concerning the global division of power, colonial history, and the inability to generate sustainable development. Norway and its aid agency, Norad, are not exempt from this criticism, despite Norway’s image as a humanitarian “idealpolitik” nation with a generous aid budget. How donor countries, such as Norway, view their position in the international arena and how they frame development problems is telling of how power operates within aid discourses and whose interests are ultimately prioritized. This research examines how donor countries like Norway frame development problems through a critical analysis of Norad’s most recent annual report using postcolonialism and world-systems theory. Adopting critical theories and the WPR approach demonstrates that Norad’s perceived problem reflects global power structures. The findings show how Norway is not willing to make changes that would challenge its international position of being a powerful country and follows a development plan according to the West-knows-best narrative. How this is demonstrated in the report highlights the misplaced focus of Norwegian development aid and how the aid has been unable to accomplish its intended objectives since the start of foreign aid and cooperation institutions.
Author: Skaar, Caroline Ranum
Language: English
Subfield: Development
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6983725414