Tekijät

• Taloustutkimus
• Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

Asiasanat

aid, developing countries, development aid (international), development policy, international cooperation, poverty, public expenditure, refugees, sustainability, united nations

Sisällön kuvaus

The survey charted Finnish opinions on and knowledge of the country's development cooperation, its importance, content, objectives, and allocation. Some questions focused on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030). The data were collected as part of Taloustutkimus's national CAPI Omnibus study.

The respondents were asked to name things that they believed were achieved by development aid, how important they regarded development cooperation to be, and to what extent they agreed with a number of statements relating to development cooperation (e.g. "With the help of development cooperation millions of people have access to a better standard of living"). Familiarity with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030) was surveyed as well as views on the most important Sustainable Development Goals. Views were charted on the significance of development cooperation in alleviating poverty and improving the lives of people in developing countries.

Knowledge of the refugee crisis was studied by asking if the respondents knew which country had the most refugees per capita, and what proportion of refugees were living in other developing countries. Views were studied on whether development cooperation could prevent refugee crisis from happening by helping people in their own country, and how the respondents' believed this could be achieved (e.g. military intervention, humanitarian aid). With regard to development cooperation by Finland, opinions were studied on the importance of Finnish humanitarian aid, significance of Finland's achievements in development policy, the most important forms of development cooperation for Finland (e.g. bilateral, multilateral, cooperation through the EU).

The respondents' factual knowledge was charted by asking how much the respondents thought Finland was going to spend on development cooperation in 2016 (as percentage of the GNI and in euros). The respondents were asked whether Finland should increase or decrease the amount of funding allocated to development cooperation in light of the current economic situation.

Some questions pertained to whether there was enough information available on development cooperation and developing countries, from which information sources the respondents had received information on these topics, and how reliable public authorities, voluntary/civic organisations and the media were as sources of such information. The respondents were also asked how they thought they could help the developing countries as individuals and how they had participated in helping the developing countries or people in those countries in the past year. Finally, the respondents were presented with two questions measuring their knowledge on development aid received by Finland in the past, and Finland's history as a developing country.

Background variables included, among others, the respondent's age, gender, economic activity and occupational status, education, and marital status as well as economic activity/occupational status and education of the household head, household composition, ages of children living at home, gross annual income of the household, municipality size and type, major region (NUTS2) and region (NUTS3) of residence, type of accommodation, and Internet use.