Malawi 2004 - 2007 |
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The Development Industry - Some Passing Thoughts
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'You can pour in as much aid as you like. Double it, triple it, increase it a hundred fold, it will make no difference as long as Africa produces what it does not use, uses what it doesn't produce and has no control over the prices of either.' (African analyst on BBC World Service) They went on to say that you tell how much aid is going into a country by the number of sparkling white four wheel drive Tonkas driving around. As I sat at the robots (traffic lights) close to City Centre I idly began to count the types of vehicles that were passing. In the time I sat there waiting to turn right I counted thirty five vehicles. Nineteen were a mixture of cars, trucks, and mini-buses. The other sixteen vehicles were gleaming, mainly white, four wheel drives. This in one of the poorest countries in the world. There is certainly a considerable amount of aid money coming into Malawi through Governments and International NGOs. The British Government is the largest donor at nearly $70 million. In total Governments put in excess of $350 million. That is about $30 per person in Malawi, a month's income for most of the population. So how much good does it do? My view, is inevitably partial, impressionistic and ill-informed, but it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the aid industry is offering a 'parson's egg' to hungry people. Without DFID funding justice systems would not have the funding to improve prisons; the UN keeps education and food security systems afloat. So what's the problem?
Four Development Stories: 1. The Dollar Filter. I saw the proposal from one of CEYCA's donors for a project. The funding amounted to $300,000 over three years. That is $100,000 per year. The NGO donor decided that its business is to support indigenous NGOs to deliver the work. It couldn't afford to do it itself anyway on the pay scales it operates with its staff. Because these Malawian NGOs pay low wages they do not need huge amounts of money. So each of the four organisations is offered around $10,000 per year to deliver the project. This means that around $40-50,000 goes to the NGOs and around half the funding appears to stay with the international NGO. Further down the dollar chain the Malawian NGOs have the job of improving the situation for people in their communities, in this case to improve local management of schools and reduce the abuse of children by those in authority. This is done by recruiting volunteers or people paid a small retainer and offering them training. They then go to communities with CEYCA support to raise awareness and organise people to run their schools more effectively. This is sustainable because it costs almost no money for the system to work. By this time the discussion is whether to offer local people an allowance of $2-$4 to come to meetings and how much to spend on training and lunches. ittle of the original $300,000 seems to get into the local economy even if they are changing attitudes and advocating change.
2. Food For Free. No-one can argue with the idea of giving starving people some free maize from the over fed western world. The UN World Food Programme works with the Government to identify areas of food shortage and often links distribution to the development of people's ability to produce food or local work projects and is often distributed to children at school to encourage attendance. The United States provides a large amount of maize support. So what's the catch? The money provided must be spent, not on the cheapest supplies from India but on maize sold by US farmers, who are also beneficiaries of the aid. This mechanism seems to permeate the aid world. The Japanese don't seem to have too much problem putting Toyota four wheel drives into Africa.
3. And While We Are Talking About 4 X 4s Donors recognised that the Youth ministry was hindered by its lack of transport. The solution- two brand spanking new 4X4 vehicles at a cost of £20 -35k each. The donors pay for the vehicles and the ministry pays for the upkeep. The vehicles are very welcome and put straight to use. But can the donors contribute to insurance? No, that is the Government's contribution. Within 3 months the first vehicle is involved in a crash and written off. Well isn't it insured? Yes it is, but because the Ministry is short of cash it only took out 3 rd party insurance and the insurance does not pay out for driving it into a ditch. To this day it sits like a burnt-out war casualty outside the regional youth office. The second vehicle lasted nearly a year before it was strangely stopped by an armed gang and stolen. Wasn't it insured? I refer you to my earlier answer. Luxury cars are often stolen. Sometimes an official is prosecuted for arranging the theft with accomplices. Up to £70,000 spent with firms who take much of the money straight out of the country. How many projects, salaries, buildings etc did this represent?
4. Fit for Purpose There is a story told about latrines on the early VSO training. A development worker undertakes a project to build latrines in a remote village. The project goes ahead and the latrines are built to a high standard with brick walls and locking doors. The organisation goes back to evaluate the success of the project. The local people express their satisfaction with the project, the donor is happy. When they go to see the latrines they find the first one locked. "what is the problem?". "Nothing. Before, our tools and food were stolen, now we can lock them away safely". Part of the difficulty is in ensuring that goods are used for the intended purpose. PSI works in social marketing - selling products at affordable prices to low- income groups. It markets cheap condoms. It also has a scheme to sell mosquito nets to Malaria-affected families at low cost. Their biggest problem - how to stop the nets ending up in Tanzanian markets to solve the more immediate problem of lack of food or money. On the World Service a nice man from the World Food Programme was complaining at the amount of food aid that ends up being sold for profit indicating that it had not reached the most needy.
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