Public Opinion in Iceland on Aid During the Ebola Epidemic in West Africa

Abstract

Public support in high-income countries for development cooperation and humanitarian assistance influences the provision of Official Development Assistance (ODA) to fight global poverty and improve conditions in low-income countries. This research examined public attitudes in Iceland toward ODA, with the aid provided by the Icelandic government in September 2014 to fight the Ebola epidemic in West Africa as a case in point. Specifically, it examines which characteristics relate to having negative attitudes towards the assistance, and what reasons the public believe influenced the decision to provide aid. A questionnaire about attitudes towards the Ebola epidemic was administered to a random sample of 1.500 adults from an internet panel established by the Social Science Research Institute of the University of Iceland, and 920 people answered (61 per cent response rate). A quarter of the respondents expressed negative attitudes towards the humanitarian assistance provided in response to the Ebola epidemic, and development cooperation in general. Those who held negative attitudes were more likely to lean to the right in political orientation and be less educated. The majority of the public believed ethical reasons influenced the decision to provide humanitarian assistance. Respondents with negative attitudes towards the aid were more likely to believe that self-interest influenced the decision to provide aid; yet, a survey with an experimental design is needed to elucidate this issue further. Governments should ensure that development cooperation and humanitarian assistance are based on ethical considerations, in addition to educating the public about development processes, to increase positive attitudes towards foreign aid.

Keywords:

• foreign aid
• development cooperation
• humanitarian assistance
• aid allocation
• relief work
• epidemics
• survey
• attitude
• ethics

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank staff of the Social Science Research Institute of the University of Iceland, especially Heiður Hrund Jónsdóttir, Guðný Bergþóra Tryggvadóttir and Ágústa Edda Björnsdóttir for their part in the study. We also appreciate the statistical advice from Rannveig S. Sigurvinsdóttir, assistant professor at Reykjavík University.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Faculty of Sociology, Anthropology and Folkloristics, University of Iceland.

Notes on contributors

Elín Broddadóttir

Elín Broddadóttir has an MA in Development Studies from the University of Iceland and MSc in Policy Studies from the University of Edinburgh, UK. Currently, she is a research assistant in the Psychology Department at Reykjavík University. Her research interests lie in health and mental health policy, global health and policy implementation.

Geir Gunnlaugsson

Geir Gunnlaugsson is Professor of Global Health at the University of Iceland (UI). He has a MD from UI with post-graduate training in paediatrics (PhD) and public health (MPH) at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. Research and publications on, e.g. breastfeeding, infant and child mortality, child health and development and abuse, measles, cholera, health systems and foreign aid in Iceland, Guinea-Bissau and Malawi.

Jónína Einarsdóttir

Jónína Einarsdóttir is Professor of Anthropology at the UI with a PhD in Anthropology from Stockholm University, Sweden. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in Guinea-Bissau and Iceland and shorter assignments in Mozambique and Malawi. Her main fields of research are medical anthropology, anthropology of children and development studies, including focus on fragile states, disaster aid and health care systems.