Perceptions of the impact and effectiveness of public policy are often just as important as other measureable effects. We explore the image of the EU in African public opinion relative to the image of major bilateral donors such as France, the U.K., the U.S. or China. For this purpose we use Afrobarometer data on people’s attitudes towards these donors, and relate it to the amount of official development assistance with each of the African countries. We compare these results with the effects for the amount of trade (and investment) relationships of the donor countries with their African counterparts. We find that aid has a small, but visible impact on public opinion in Africa, but that a) the visibility of trade relationships is much stronger, even if more ambivalent, and that b) there are remarkable differences in the visibility of the major donors’ activities in Africa.
