Make Europe happen on the ground? Enabling and constraining factors for European Union aid coordination in Africa

This article investigates the extent to which the collective commitments on aid coordination made in the EU context trigger any changes in the aid practices of EU member states in Africa. By exploring the trajectory of joint programming, it demonstrates that the development policies of EU members states are affected by EU membership, yet the impact of Europe is, surprisingly, less pronounced on the ground than at the headquarter level. This decoupling of norms from practices can be attributed not only (and necessarily) to the attempt of EU donors to pursue their national goals, but also to the resistance of national aid bureaucracies on the ground, the increased scepticism of developing countries, and the growing complexity of the development architecture.