THE ORPHAN FATE OF A HYBRID OBJECT: DEVELOPMENT POLICY WITH FRAGILE AND CONFLICT-AFFECTED COUNTRIES, THE CASE OF BELGIUM AND CENTRAL AFRICA

Klimis, Emmanuel [USL-B]

The research studies the changes caused to Belgium’s development policy by the adoption of an international agenda of Development Assistance in, or with, Fragile States. Between 2000 and 2015, the main objective pursued by Belgium shifted from a development policy substantially oriented towards conflict-prevention, to reach a formal concern for more effectiveness in development policy and its related public expenditures. The said shift is arguably the result of an international consensus that led to the merger of two distinct agendas: on the one hand, the use of development aid as a tool for conflict prevention (OECD, 2001); on the other hand, the process that led to the adoption of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (OECD, 2005). The merger of those agendas resulted in a new one: the Principles for Good International Engagement in Fragile States (OECD, 2007). Belgium integrated the agenda of State Fragility in its development policy, but not by merely implementing, at a national level, an internationally developed framework. Rather, the process is linked to the growing perception of development assistance as an arena of “depoliticised” policy-making, where external expertise challenges processes of democratic control on public decision. Building up on the idea of registers of political- vs. technical legitimation and on the findings of cognitive sociology re. référentiels of public policy, the research argues that the perception of a Great Divide between technical and political issues by the key actors implied in development policy, results in a depoliticization (Flinders & Wood, 2014) of highly political decisions. It assesses the potential influence of such factors as internationalisation of public policy, public policy instrumentation, instruments-based policing and other issues related to the New Public Management creed. The conclusions presented here are the result of a 15-year long embedded research within the DG Development of the BE Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the framework of policy supporting research contracts funded by the said Ministry through the channels of the Academic Cooperation Agency of the French-speaking universities of Belgium.