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在线翻译:
szdaily -> Opinion -> 
Round and roundthe money tree
    2010-11-22  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

    Jeff Byrne

    THE world has made great strides in medicine and technology over the past 100 years. So has poverty. So have the number of aid agencies whose primary purpose is to eliminate poverty.

    But, if one is to look at what has changed to improve the lot of the impoverished over the past 60 years, the evidence shows not much. Ask a friend how many international aid agencies he or she thinks are operating today. They will probably say any number between 1,000 and 5,000. Well, the truth is, there are an estimated 40,000 NGOs in the world today — many of them aid agencies in one form or another — and the number is rising. Then your friend will probably ask: What do they do? Promote themselves to a higher profile to attract donors. Otherwise, not much.

    While there are plenty of major aid groups delivering meaningful aid to undeveloped countries, there are multitudes more focused on maintaining a high profile to compete for the aid dollar.

    It must be said that all agencies are crippled by bureaucracy in their own ranks as well as senseless administration in some countries where governments tweak regulations to skim aid dollars for their own ends.

    Another crippling factor is contained in the logistics of delivering aid from source to the intended beneficiaries. This is where much of the donated funds intended to help the poor is directed.

    The problem is, we don’t know how much is reaching the people and how much is lost in the delivery.

    There is a distinct lack of transparency and coordination in the aid industry with so may organizations competing for aid dollars. Many of these agencies have plush offices in central business districts paying exorbitant rents in some of the world’s largest cities. Aid workers fly first class to undertake their contracts.

    And what about the huge salaries? I recently met a “freelance” aid worker who was flying to Kabul on a six-week contract. His salary? “About” US$800 a day.

    Some aid workers will justify this by saying “we put our lives on the line.” So do the NATO troops and support teams who don’t have the luxury of choice.

    But how many really do put their lives on the line? In Somalia, many aid groups have withdrawn because of the violence — but they are still accepting aid specifically donated for Somalia.

    In 1994, when Rwanda was plunged into hell on earth, 200 aid agencies descended on Goma, a town in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) where hundreds of thousands of Rwandan refugees fled to escape a campaign of genocide being waged by the ethnic Tutsis.

    In their research paper entitle “The NGO Scramble,” Alexander Cooley and James Ron note that “the presence of multiple international aid groups did not produce optimal outcomes.”

    They continue: “In particular, competitive contract bidding created powerful disincentives for a ... respected private relief organization to strongly protest aid diversion to Hutu militants and suspected war criminals.” A journalist observed in 1995 that Goma had become a “three-ring circus of financial self-interest, political abuse and incompetence where aid had become big, big money” and any NGO “worth its salt ... recognized that it had to be in Rwanda.”

    

    Just last week, Merlin, an international medical aid agency, announced it had commissioned a not-for-profit brand agency to come up with a new identity because Merlin had “failed to convey the full breadth of its work.” Merlin’s director of marketing and communications, Imogen Ward, wrote: “Our medical experts work on the frontline in some of the world’s toughest areas, Haiti, Afghanistan Pakistan ... providing emergency relief when crisis strikes and then staying put to help rebuild shattered health services.” Hmm. Why then is there a cholera epidemic in Haiti? Why was there no concerted campaign to vaccinate the population against cholera? No kudos there, perhaps?

    What the world desperately needs is fewer, but more effective, aid agencies, with independent oversight and coordination. When delivered well, aid is certainly effective. But, how often does this happen?

    What we do know is that there is a lot of money in poverty — truckloads — but not much for the poor.

    (The author is a Shenzhen Daily senior copy editor and writer.)

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