The history of development cooperation has attracted very little research to date. This volume offers an innovative interpretation by considering the history of SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, which has been in existence for over forty years now. Through SNV’s history, an analysis emerges of the role of the Netherlands in development cooperation and the attitudes of Dutch society towards it over the last fifty years as well as the changing ideas, practices and policies in development work more generally.The views and expectations of (former) SNV staff and those of local participants who were ultimately to benefit from the development activities were the focus of this historical research. This has resulted in a socio-cultural history ‘from below’ rather than a dry description of the organisation’s administrative changes and formal bureaucratic structures.