Paper short abstract:

Foreign aid also known as Official Development Aid provided by donor countries does not solely depend on government decisions, it is also affected by trends in public opinion. These trends may have implication for driving development cooperation by promoting aid flow to developing countries.

Paper long abstract:

Foreign aid refers to funds that developing countries benefit from in the form of grants, concessional or unconcessional loans by government or multilateral organizations aimed at promoting economic development and welfare. They form an integral part of the donors' country budget subject to availability and the economic situation in the donor country. The popular opinion that budgetary constraints from economic crisis reduce aid is inaccurate because donor government outlays actually tend to increase. Using data from Eurobarometer, we try to determine if economic crises will lead to reduced public support for helping development in developing countries. Findings from our study will address questions such as: What are the public perceptions and opinions on development aid, what are the roles of the private sector in promoting development? What are the views of the public on the roles of the private sector in development cooperation? How does the European Union (EU) boost private investment and strengthen its partnership to ensure sustainable development on both continents; what are the major challenges to development and the provision of financial assistance to Africa? Our paper contributes to literature on foreign aid by introducing a framework on which insights are built from separate bodies of literature on foreign aid and public opinion and how financial crises can influence aid allocation through voters' opinion.