Comments on: Why AID money isn’t reaching the poor in Africa http://mariemejamme.com/blog/why-aid-money-isn%e2%80%99t-reaching-the-poor-in-africa/ Where humanity, new media, technology and knowledge meet Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:54:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Dean Moull http://mariemejamme.com/blog/why-aid-money-isn%e2%80%99t-reaching-the-poor-in-africa/comment-page-1/#comment-611 Dean Moull Sun, 12 Dec 2010 03:27:11 +0000 http://mariemejamme.com/?p=618#comment-611 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 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

]]> By: Dale Albertson http://mariemejamme.com/blog/why-aid-money-isn%e2%80%99t-reaching-the-poor-in-africa/comment-page-1/#comment-467 Dale Albertson Mon, 15 Nov 2010 23:51:50 +0000 http://mariemejamme.com/?p=618#comment-467 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. 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.

]]> By: Edmund Osei kwakye http://mariemejamme.com/blog/why-aid-money-isn%e2%80%99t-reaching-the-poor-in-africa/comment-page-1/#comment-446 Edmund Osei kwakye Mon, 05 Jul 2010 00:03:42 +0000 http://mariemejamme.com/?p=618#comment-446 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. 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.

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