ABSTRACT
The technical legitimacy of the aid program is especially central to the existence of a separate aid agency. Even the most cursory glance at the rationale for the establishment of ADAA illustrates how important appeals to professionalisation have been in justifying the purpose and function of the aid agency. By examining the way the aid agency and its staff have gone about enacting their professionalism, one can begin to understand why an autonomous aid agency was created, survived and was ultimately abolished. The desire to professionalise the aid program begins with Secretary of External Affairs Sir Arthur Tange's interdepartmental review of aid in the mid 1960s. The key point is that the professionalisation of Australian aid has grown in parallel to this ever-expanding community of practice. In this transnational setting, development professionals become 'epistemic arbiters' who mediate between pools of knowledge, determining which are the most influential in different contexts.
