What Do Aid Recipients Think of Aid Projects and Donor Countries? Evidence from a Survey Experiment in Kenya

The purpose of the study is to examine public opinion in aid recipient countries toward foreign aid projects and donor countries, specifically the US, China, and Japan. Donor countries often use foreign aid as a tool for soft power, yet whether aid recipients actually hold favorable views of aid projects and donors that fund them is a question that has not been explored enough. Existing research on this topic focuses on mainly the US and China, but aid recipients may have strong pre-existing opinions about these countries, potentially minimizing the impact of aid on their perceptions. Investigating aid recipients’ evaluations of less politicized major donors provides a more comprehensive perspective of how foreign aid may serve as a soft power tool. A second aim is to assess whether recipients’ support for or opposition to aid comes from their views of donor countries or from their evaluations of specific aid projects. This study focuses on Japan as a major, but less politicized, aid donor to Africa and compares how the Kenyan public perceives aid projects from three donors: the US, China, and Japan. The main hypothesis is that donor identity influences aid recipients’ assessments of aid projects. Aid projects from less politicized donors, where recipients have less suspicion about donor motives and fewer concerns about conditions, are more likely to be viewed positively. Additionally, perceptions of donor reliability and project quality also influence how the public evaluates projects. However, these advantages may matter more in sectors where donors have a strong track record, expertise, and reputation. In contrast, they may be less relevant in sectors where donors have limited experience.