Where humanity, new media, technology and knowledge meet.
Wikipedia defines aid as “a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another, given at least partly with the objective of benefiting the recipient country.“ There are thousands of charities around the world that want to do good in Africa. Some of them are having a positive impact, working extremely hard to make a difference and meet people’s needs. But others are failing Africa because they have no real understanding of the continent and its complexity, they are unsure of the right strategies to adopt, or they simply lack the right resources.
Every year millions are poured into very impoverished countries with the objective of helping the poor. This has been going on for decades.
But much of this money is not getting into the hands of the right people. I could list a million reasons why this is happening, but I will mention just a few and suggest some solutions.
Not everyone will be surprised to learn that the people it is intended for are seeing little or no benefit from this AID. I certainly see it when I meet poor people every time I go to Africa. It drives me mad that money raised in countries like the UK, France and the US, sometimes through live TV shows, sometimes through organisations with world-famous celebrities at their head, is not getting to those who need it the most. The show or concert finishes, the money is counted and perhaps distributed to the chosen charity’s bank account and… that’s it. Perhaps a handful of projects are followed up, but a closer look reveals few signs of real continuity and the end result falls far short of the hopes raised by the huge sums involved.
There are thousands of NGOs in Africa that are looking to do good, giving their time to help those in need. But some of them are doing more harm than good or actually helping to destroy Africa. Little is achieved or efforts are badly targeted and with time, the poor end up exactly where they started. Perhaps, given that all the money we give passes through their hands, it is time to start monitoring NGOs, reviewing their status and accountability.
A BBC report on Wednesday 3rd of March suggested that some of the money given in the famous 1984 Live Aid campaign for Ethiopia organised by Bob Geldof was spent on weapons. This has created much confusion in the International development community and led many donors to wonder whether they should continue giving to charities. Nobody will blame them.
The entire aid industry needs to be reviewed as a matter of urgency, in my view. It is worth reading Zambian author Dambisa Moyo’s recent book ‘Dead Aid’, in which she calls for a radical change in the way that AID is distributed in Africa. Here are a few ideas that I feel could help to make NGOs in Africa more effective. They should:
* Spend more time in Africa and do thorough research before embarking on a project
* Learn how to manage funds properly and how to distribute those funds in poor countries
* Find and empower local partners on the ground
* Learn and gain knowledge from Africans
* Not be motivated by a misplaced sense of pity
* Focus on bringing new technology to ordinary Africans
* Speak to the people – including other existing reputable NGOs – who already have success stories
* Use the appropriate ICT tools, or mobile technology
* Communicate, learn and share with individuals on the ground
* Get training in cross-cultural issues,
* Do not think that aid alone can solve Africa’s problems
I think that by adopting some or all of these ideas, NGOs could play a more productive role and help to bring real and lasting change to Africa.
(9) Readers Comments
Leave a Reply
Search
Upcoming Events
My Top 50 Africans of the year 2011
This I guess is a wake call for all Africans, both home and abroad to
From Activist to President: Why Youssou Ndour shouldn't be President of Senegal
Absolutely right conclusion; You is more useful to Senegal in his curr
Dorette Steenkamp
I could not agree more with you. Please see my latest blog entry on the same matter. Thanks!!
Lunatrix
Dorette stole my line!!
I guess you’re talking mostly about NGOs, but I think the same could be said about governmental aid agencies who spend taxpayers’ money in Africa. I was overwhelmed when I interviewed a group of workers in a European development agency in Senegal, to find out that they didn’t actually know anything about the country where they worked. These people lived in the expat community, no real contact with anything Senegalese. To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, when I asked the person in charge of promoting women’s rights in the country, she told me she didn’t know much about the issue, but her secretary (the only Senegalese woman in the place) might be able to help. That is just unacceptable.
On a more positive note … thumbs up for groups that work with existing African organizations to give them the skills they need to do the job!!
Thanks for this entry
)
Amy Wilson
Great piece, Marieme. Are there NGO’s that you could recommend as modeling the solutions you note at the bottom? Or are we really far from that?
suzan
wow… keep moving Marieme… good luck
marieme
Hi Amy,
Thanks for your comment. Really appreciate it.
We are very far from my propositions, this is the sad bit. One International just posted a Blog today saying that they will have a new listening and learning strategy for Africa.
Why serve in a country for decades and suddenly decide to listen? Where they not listening before. One might wonder. Full new approach is needed.
Thanks Amy.
Yoheli
Great post Marieme! I knew Africa was poor but I never knew Africa was this poor until I started my research about poverty in Africa somewhere last year. I came across this site http://cozay.com with so many shocking facts and I was shocked! My family is planning on visiting Africa next November this year
Edmund Osei kwakye
There are serious local non governmental organizations working in Africa to make the needed impact. They are always ignored and the funds given to big foreign NGOs who end up using bulk of the funds for to purchase big vehicles, pay huge salaries to themselves, rent big apartment for staffs and little for development work.
Local organizations are given tokens for programs which cannot bring any usefull results.
This is the time to grow local NGOs in Africa to champion development agenda for the continent.
Dale Albertson
All good comments, and a very valid article that highlights some serious issues about aid to Africa. You may be interested to know that in Canada, at least the West Coast in British Columbia, there are a few NGOs that have a very different approach to development and in fact are accomplishing some amazing things.
Our NGO for example, has only Kenyans on staff in Kenya. Our programs are designed and implemented by Kenyans after consultations in the the communities that our Kenyan staff work in. They tell us what the needs are, what the problems are and how they would like to accomplish solving them to fulfill their needs. As a result, we leave behind self-sufficient and sustainable communities in a few years – we have an exit plan in order to squash the creation of dependency right from the start. We also do not like the words aid, charity or donation, and try to not use them in Kenya. We prefer to use partner, collaborator, and business ventures to describe the work we do in the communities.
We also have a very small staff in Kenya, and collaborate with other NGOs, Kenyan government agencies and institutions to accomplish the community development work we do. One example is our community health nurse who is seconded to us by a local hospice society. We simply pay a part of her salary, and she works for both our communities and the organization with which she is a full time staff person. We do our best to avoid duplication of services, while at the same time building capacity in our own staff as well as with those other groups we partner with.
We have since coined a term we like to use that we call “Kenyanization” whereby all that is done is done by Kenyans, for Kenyans. It is now an operational principle for us.
The coolest development of all is the local fund raising being done by our Kenyan staff, and the number of new partnerships that have been developed. Last year, nearly 20% of the Kenyan operational budget was raised locally!
We are not the only ones doing this kind of work, our local council has a number of others operating in a similar manner, not only in Africa, but all over the world. I am convinced that a paradigm shift is about to happen, and that Africans themselves will be at the helm, not only doing the work, but driving it and speaking with their own voices about what is to be done.
Keep up the good work everyone, and keep talking about these issues so they stay in the public forum.
Dean Moull
Great article and great comments. I recently studied for a Masters in Poverty and Development and what struck me was the poverty of the course content. Aside from a brief module on civil society the notion of actually listening to and engaging with the communities in question was barely touched upon. Frankly the entire experience depressed me with the vast majority of students solely interested in securing a well paid [with hefty travel and expense concessions] position with an international NGO. At the risk of sounding superior I was convinced there must be a better way and subsequently spent a year in rural Kenya with an amazing community. I barely spoke for the first few months, preferring to listen to the views and ideas of those that know best. It was an incredible experience and as well as having found a new home I feel far better equipped to help [my extensive business career being more useful than the entire masters course contents]. Anyway, sorry to ramble, just wanted to say how much I agree with the comments.
Best wishes
Dean