Tussenorganisaties opheffen ten gunste van directe samenwerking met bugers in het Zuiden?

Berichten in deze discussie

Permalink Antwoord van Partos Plaza op 11 September 2010 op 10.31

INGEZONDEN BLOG BRIEF (via michael_byrne@harvard.edu):
"Aid as an Industry and a Delivery System"

Posted: 10 Sep 2010 09:32 AM PDT

This is the second in a series of blog posts on the work and findings of the Listening Project, which explores the insights of people who live in societies receiving international assistance (humanitarian assistance, development cooperation, peace-building activities, human rights work and environmental conservation). More than 130 international and local organizations contributed over 400 staff members to Listening Teams that held conversations with nearly 6,000 people over the last 5 years.

By Dayna Brown

In countless conversations, people have described international assistance as a delivery system and an industry. People have described how the systems and structures of international assistance (the “business model”) have become too focused on the quick and efficient delivery of goods and services.

People in all places talk about how donors and aid agencies are more focused on spending money quickly rather than on spending it well, and that in this haste they often do not spend enough time to establish and maintain effective relationships with their local partners (whether governmental or non-governmental) and those they are intending to help.

As the coordinator of a Lebanese NGO said, “We need strategic, long-term partnerships with donors. The impact doesn’t come overnight. We need to know that we can rely on their support not only tomorrow. If they want to make a change that lasts, they need to start taking longer breaths.”

People in recipient societies are more concerned about “how” assistance is provided than how much is given. Almost everywhere, people talk about the significant amounts of waste and mismanagement of resources in the aid system, and they suggest that agencies should combine their resources to address poverty and other systemic issues rather than fund individual projects and agencies or piecemeal solutions.

In several different places, people have described the wasteful “water bottle” effect of international assistance being passed from donors to international NGOs or contractors, to local NGOs or sub-contractors, to community-based organizations. As the last in line, the people in communities who are the intended beneficiaries often get just a tiny sip. Similar complaints have been echoed regarding budget support to national governments that may not trickle down.

While the increased reliance on local organizations is intended to increase the speed of delivery and support local capacity and ownership, many people are concerned that this results in reduced oversight and accountability to the intended beneficiaries. Local people have said that donors and aid agencies need to “be careful who they work with” and to monitor more frequently to be sure that the resources are truly reaching those whom they intend to help.

We heard many complaints that the increased number of “intermediaries” involved in the subcontracting and outsourcing of assistance by donors, contractors, and international NGOs has resulted in the growth of “briefcase” or even “wallet” NGOs who may not represent the local community or do the work they are intended to do and who waste valuable resources. As a staff member of a local organization in Kenya said, “international NGOs should have officials on the ground and get rid of the many ‘middlemen’ that have characterized the NGO fraternity…there should be provision of aid in a transparent and efficient manner without involving middlemen. Assistance should be decentralized so that it is closer to the people who need it.”

Throughout the listening exercises, we also heard many concerns from local organizations about how their ideas and perspectives are not sought as their donors and international partners seek to deliver assistance quickly and that time spent in the field has been reduced as they try to be more efficient. As the leader of a local CBO with funding from INGOs in Sri Lanka said, “Sri Lankan NGOs based in Colombo often claim a broad-based support and a country-wide network or grassroots movement…but in reality, just like the foreign NGOs, the national NGOs based in Colombo rarely come out here and listen to our priorities and goals. They call us in the middle of the night asking to bus people into Colombo for yet another rally so that they can show their ‘grassroots numbers’ but our people don’t feel listened to…you are missing out on the true voice of the grassroots communities by relying on the intermediaries. Come and listen to us, understand our daily reality and our development priorities.”

As someone who has worked for a number of years with local partners and in civil society development, I would love to hear reactions to these comments and insights, which are just a few examples of the many issues and perspectives on partnerships that I will write about in future posts.

Dayna Brown directs the Listening Project at CDA Collaborative Learning Projects. She can be contacted at dbrown@cdainc.com."

• ▶ Beantwoorden

Permalink Antwoord van Peter Giesen op 15 September 2010 op 15.45

"People in recipient societies are more concerned about “how” assistance is provided than how much is given."

This is not my experience. People are concerned about aid agencies not showing up or too late and not following up with aid after needs assessments. People are concerned about aid agencies spending too many resources in confernces and meeting rooms and not enough in villages and camps.

The international humanitarian aid industry is slow and heavy and is becoming more so as a result of donor and academia driven quality and accountability agendas.

People who want to help and people who need help are separeted by a machine that takes too long to mobilise and retro-spective mortality studies show that this is costing lives.

I am working on a new way of directly linking donors and local aid initiatives focussing on evacuation, food and water in natural disasters using mobile phones (for donations and reporting) , a webite and twitter. I wil use open source to develop this further and welcome everyone`s input. In the meantime, please email me at humanitarian.strategy@gmail.com for ideas, contributions, criticism or encouragement.

Peter Giesen (Humanitarian Strategy)

• ▶ Beantwoorden

Permalink Antwoord van Henk van Dalen op 20 September 2010 op 15.06

Zou het niet verstandiger zijn om 14 oktober te discussiëren over de gevolgen van de enorme bevolkingsgroei in Afrika die de komende 26 jaar met 1 miljard (1.000.000.000) zal toenemen?
Henk van Dalen – africanformula@gmail.com

• ▶ Beantwoorden