More Aid Issues

Yesterday's post on whether aid really aids generated a little discussion, or rather the link to it on Facebook did. So I'm doing a brief follow-up for those of you who don't see that link.

First, there's a whole area of study in this area, and I'm no expert, but one gets to hear and read stuff, and some of it raises some concerns. One story that sticks with me, also from the blog I quoted yesterday, is this:

I vividly remember Claire Short visiting our Dfid offices in Dar es Salaam in 2000 and haranguing a young Oxford graduate for still having 5 million in the bank when it should already have been spent in the Tanzanian education sector.
‘I haven’t been able to get hold of the minister’ the graduate complained.
‘Don’t give me excuses!’ she shouted, ‘give me results! That money should not still be in the account, get on with it! It’s a disgrace!’

Some aid money has to be spent, whether the appropriate checks and balances have been put in place or not. And that, obviously, is a problem. Targets of course are good things, but they can cause problems! It can create the problem of needing to be seen to be helping, more than needing to help.

A couple of other issues came up. With permission, I'm using some words from a friend, who has some experience in the world of aid:

Having such a wide range of activities covered under the one word "aid" is tricky because in challenging some of the shocking failings in one area anything else positive gets discredited - baby with the bath water stuff. While there are problems with the system of aid, there are also pressing problems in the world that require solutions, solutions that will likely be imperfect. All too often the critics of aid (generally without specifying details, it's great that this lady is specific) don't offer positive solutions, which is a shame. And while I am completely committed to trade as a solution, simply trotting off the cliched "trade not aid" line is does not count as a solution, it is massively over simplified. From my experience attempts at trade solutions are open to similar abuses and corruption as the aid solutions they are trying to replace. It seems to me that, as you say, so much comes down to trust and relationship. Perhaps we shouldn't be so surprised at the priority of relationship over process given its centrality in the trinity...

So, yes, often it doesn't work, but let's not throw that baby...

Another issue that came up was the use of images designed to maximize the portrayal of suffering, when raising money. A link was provided to a very interesting blog entry where the author had asked friends in Malawi to pose for the camera both as doing well, and as destitute. Take a look. Here's how it starts:

We’ve all seen it: the photo of a teary-eyed African child, dressed in rags, smothered in flies, with a look of desperation that the caption all too readily points out. Some organization has made a poster that tells you about the realities of poverty, what they are doing about it, and how your donation will change things.

I reacted very strongly to these kinds of photos when I returned from Africa in 2008. I compared these photos to my own memories of Malawian friends and felt lied to. How had these photos failed so spectacularly to capture the intelligence, the laughter, the resilience, and the capabilities of so many incredible people?

The truth is that the development sector, just like any other business, needs revenue to survive. Too frequently, this quest for funding uses these kind of dehumanizing images to draw pity, charity, and eventually donations from a largely unsuspecting public. I found it outrageous that such an incomplete and often inaccurate story was being so widely perpetuated by the organizations on the ground – the very ones with the ability and the responsibility to communicate the realities of rural Africa accurately.

Carry on reading! Turning Point, who I linked to yesterday, will only use positive images of the children they work with. Good for them! Let's never forget that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity.