How is aid used to exert power? Gender equality promotion and migration control in Senegal

This article describes how aid‐influence mechanisms previously identified by academic literature (aid conditionality, tied aid, consultants, people‐to‐people exchanges and the support of like‐minded donors) are triggered in a selection of six aid projects implemented by Spain and Germany and involving the EU in Senegal, in the domains of gender equity and migration control. Aid‐influence nexuses might prove ineffective if there is a lack of political will on the part of the partner, an insufficient involvement of its Administration or local actors, a mis‐selection of people involved in the aid‐influence link, or if the scale of the project is too small.