The Financial Times (London, UK)
Published: July 4 2006
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, goes the old adage. Get a western consultant to teach him how to fish and he’ll eat for life, the consultant will get rich and the government giving the money will boost its aid figures.
That is the way much international aid works. Too much, according to the charity Action Aid, which on Tuesday unveiled a report detailing the extent of such so-called technical assistance.
The European Union is the world’s aid superpower, giving almost €45bn of overseas development funds in 2005. Around one-fifth of this goes on technical assistance.
This involves hiring contractors, overwhelmingly from the countries giving the money, to train and advise on reforms. In some cases it could be training nurses or drawing up a national education curriculum. In others it is advising on privatisations and economic reforms.
The most (in)famous case is from Tanzania, where the UK’s Department for International Development, hired the Adam Smith Institute, the free market think-tank, to promote water privatisation through glossy brochures and other means. Unfortunately, when the public found that involved paying more for their water they simply refused. Dfid has given €146m to the big five international consultancies - KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst and Young, Accenture and PriceWaterhouseCoopers - in the last five years.
However, the UK is not the only one playing this game. French technical assistance can only go to appoint French nationals, for example. Of what Action Aid calls “real aid”, excluding debt relief, much technical assistance. the stingiest countries are Austria, Greece, Italy and Spain.
Poor governments believe they could get better value for money by hiring locals . For example, contractors in Cambodia earn 1,000 times the civil servant’s average €31 a month salary. The key thing for local campaigners is whether the recipient country has genuine ownership and control of the reforms.
The EU also wants to get more bang for its buck, especially as aid grows. Last year the 15 old member states pledged to raise spending from an average 0.39 per cent of national income to 0.51 per cent by 2010.
Development commissioner Louis Michel is tackling the duplication problem, partly because he wants to hoist the blue flag over more projects. But member states have their own jealously guarded pet projects and are reluctant. Action Aid believes €3bn of aid was lost in 2004 by poor co-ordination and duplication of projects. The typical African country receives dozens of visits every month from donors assessing the use of their funds.
It is understandable that after years of seeing taxpayers’ money wasted or siphoned into offshore bank accounts European governments want to account for their money.
The new buzz word is governance. Those countries that meet around 100 criteria (and have the bureaucratic resources to show they have done so) will get extra funding from the Commission.
There is also a push to join up development and trade policies. In Kenya the Commission is funding Keplotrade, the body charged with negotiating a trade (economic partnership) agreement with the EU. The Commission’s man in Kenya sits in on the talks. That funding counts as development aid. A virtuous circle indeed.
That is the way much international aid works. Too much, according to the charity Action Aid, which on Tuesday unveiled a report detailing the extent of such so-called technical assistance.
The European Union is the world’s aid superpower, giving almost €45bn of overseas development funds in 2005. Around one-fifth of this goes on technical assistance.
This involves hiring contractors, overwhelmingly from the countries giving the money, to train and advise on reforms. In some cases it could be training nurses or drawing up a national education curriculum. In others it is advising on privatisations and economic reforms.
The most (in)famous case is from Tanzania, where the UK’s Department for International Development, hired the Adam Smith Institute, the free market think-tank, to promote water privatisation through glossy brochures and other means. Unfortunately, when the public found that involved paying more for their water they simply refused. Dfid has given €146m to the big five international consultancies - KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst and Young, Accenture and PriceWaterhouseCoopers - in the last five years.
However, the UK is not the only one playing this game. French technical assistance can only go to appoint French nationals, for example. Of what Action Aid calls “real aid”, excluding debt relief, much technical assistance. the stingiest countries are Austria, Greece, Italy and Spain.
Poor governments believe they could get better value for money by hiring locals . For example, contractors in Cambodia earn 1,000 times the civil servant’s average €31 a month salary. The key thing for local campaigners is whether the recipient country has genuine ownership and control of the reforms.
The EU also wants to get more bang for its buck, especially as aid grows. Last year the 15 old member states pledged to raise spending from an average 0.39 per cent of national income to 0.51 per cent by 2010.
Development commissioner Louis Michel is tackling the duplication problem, partly because he wants to hoist the blue flag over more projects. But member states have their own jealously guarded pet projects and are reluctant. Action Aid believes €3bn of aid was lost in 2004 by poor co-ordination and duplication of projects. The typical African country receives dozens of visits every month from donors assessing the use of their funds.
It is understandable that after years of seeing taxpayers’ money wasted or siphoned into offshore bank accounts European governments want to account for their money.
The new buzz word is governance. Those countries that meet around 100 criteria (and have the bureaucratic resources to show they have done so) will get extra funding from the Commission.
There is also a push to join up development and trade policies. In Kenya the Commission is funding Keplotrade, the body charged with negotiating a trade (economic partnership) agreement with the EU. The Commission’s man in Kenya sits in on the talks. That funding counts as development aid. A virtuous circle indeed.
1 comment:
just bolonies..!!
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