Aid-ing the poor

It doesn’t take all that much time in a place like Rwanda to start wondering if aid works, or how it might work better. Here’s an excerpt from a blog I just happened upon, in which a guy from Europe (Germany?) who’s been here a lot longer than I raises a few difficult questions:

The failures of the aid industry are becoming more obvious and more difficult to hide. And it is unfortunate, because aid is not bad per se. For me, there are still brilliant people and great organisations doing amazing work in Africa. The methods of the aid industry simply need to change, and people back in “the developed world” need to begin to understand the change that is needed, in order to start lobbying for it. For example:

– Don’t give anything for free. Used clothes from Germany destroy the local textiles market, free American vegetable oil competes with local farmers, free solar power modules put local traders out of business and free money goes to the corrupt and lazy. When you give things for free, you destroy local businesses and livelihoods.

– Use the private sector, even if it means that projects are more difficult. Use local construction companies, hire local companies to implement projects, create joint ventures and public-private partnership, encourage an entrepreneurial mentality. Find ways to deal with the cheats, con-artists and dubious businessmen that leach off donors.

– Stop using cash flow as a way of measuring aid agencies’ performance. Almost all aid agencies have “spending targets” as a way of measuring their “success” in their country programmes. In the aid industry, if you’re not spending, you’re not working. This encourages reckless spending and bizarre behaviour. At the end of the fiscal year for example, many donors will start spending huge amounts of money on products and consultants with little overall strategy.
So the question is, is it worth continuing with the development aid industry?

You can read the whole post, or the rest of his blog, here. But don’t stop coming back to mine. I’ll be so lonely.