Achtergrond

Don’t try to satisfy everyone

Dit artikel krijg je cadeau van OneWorld. Word abonnee

Moet de Nederlandse overheid geld geven aan lokale organisaties die daarom vragen? Philip Kpakiwa verwijst naar komiek Bill Cosby: ‘De weg naar succes is onbekend, maar je faalt zeker als je iedereen tevreden wilt stellen.’ Mensen zijn onverzadigbaar. Conclusie voor de hulp: Nederland moet datgene aanbieden dat het wil geven, niet wat ontwikkelingslanden allemaal willen hebben.

Donors loom large in Africa’s small, aid-dependent countries, shaping development policies and identifying, designing, implementing, and evaluating projects. Donor dominance has several implications for the environment in which aid is implemented. Africa is the world’s most fraguemented region. It is demarcated with around 165 borders into 54 countries; 22 with less than 5 million people, and 11 with less than 1 million. Small size imposes real constraint to development, without economic cooperation and integration with developed countries; Africa will fall further behind the global frontier.

Yet with few exceptions, African countries confront similar economic problems and highly depend on international aid, to circumvent the weakness of African governments, donors often create project implementation units to ensure adequate accountability and rapid implementation. Let’s take I.C.R.C. (the Red Cross) for instance; they also bring their implementation unit staff from Geneva in any country they go, to work in collaboration with the local Red-Cross-Society in the said country.

You trust the one you know
So the Dutch government can also assign Dutch development agencies the task to organize development organizations in other counties. Or should this be done by the local organizations from the countries themselves? Yes of course, but for efficiency, if implementation units from Dutch development agencies are there restructuring aid delivery mechanisms to make recipients responsible for development, while recognizing the interest of the Dutch government that resources be used effectively and efficiently, will be much better.

It’s out of question, should local organizations receive direct support from Dutch government. Governments are interdependent and work hand in hand with other. Despite, in the International Customary Law (ICL), the minister of foreign affairs or cooperation or even any government official so far, will not leave Holland to any country unknown to the government of that country to provide security. So the Dutch government will only support local organizations through their governments, or through Dutch development agencies.

Offer what you have
The question how can the Dutch government know which local organizations are the ones to support, mustn’t be asked, because ‹‹ La plus grande maman du monde peut donner que ce qu’elle a ›› it’s a French proverb. It means; ‘the biggest mother could only offer what she can’. Bill Cosby an American comedian once said; ‘I do not know the way to success, but the way to failure is when you try to satisfy everyone’. That means no man gets satisfy, man’s needs are insatiable as it is said in Economics, so you offer man what you have or want to offer him not what he wants. In aid dependent countries, all development organizations are registered with the government, they have their constitutions in which their areas of intervention are clearly stated (mission statement) before government gives them authorization to carry out their activities within the borders of the said country. So which ever activities of these organizations that meet the criteria of the Dutch government’s aid packet or mandate, will be the ones to support.

Philip Yayah Kpakiwa is a native of Sierra Leone currently living and working in Senegal. He is the founder of the Conquerors for Christ Movement Africa and a member of the VoiceOver 2015-network.

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