Paper short abstract:

This presentation will look at the role of the major philanthropic Foundations Rockefeller, Ford and Gates'over the past one hundred years and how they have shaped public opinion and development policy, and even media coverage, on foreign aid issues and debates.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation will look at the role of the major philanthropic Foundations over the past one hundred years and how they have shaped public opinion development policy, and even media coverage, on foreign aid. The Rockefeller Foundation dominated up until the WWII with its funding of the Council of Foreign Relations, Chatham House, Ford post-war with Brookings International Food Policy research Institute, IDS, ODI and any number of university think thanks, and finally the Gates' Foundation and it generous grants to media groups such as the Guardian to publish stories on international development.

The question raised by the work of these very large Foundations and the resources they bring to bear in the perceptions of foreign aid is whether this can distort of critical analysis and diverse voices in favour of a doming liberal view. This paper will ask the question whether these Foundations' funding enhance or narrow the range of public opinions and what is good and appropriate development policy.

The presentation will start with a brief overview and touch on the work of the Rockefeller Foundation to provide some contextual background, and then focus in more detail on the work of the Ford and most recently the Gates' Foundations, in how they have 'guided' the policy debates by virtue of the funding they can bring to bear. The presentation is based on archival work by the author for a manuscript, as part of a larger research on the Story of Aid.