Africa's aid industry

A long time ago I had started writing an article on how foreign aid in Africa had done absolutely nothing to bring the people out of their poverty and instead given birth to this huge self-serving industry in the developed nations which involved expensive fund raisers for the rich and vacations in the third world for their 'volunteers'.

I have in fact written about this earlier, but a very nice and detailed article again introduced me to this issue. Written by Yash Tandon on the news site http://www.allafrica.com/, the article follows the Fourth High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness, held at Busan, South Korea from 29 November to 1 December.

Titled "It is Official - Busan Heralds the Dismantling of the Aid Industry", the article says that all the donors at the Forum finally came around to accept that what is required is not "aid effectiveness", which has been the focus all along, but "development cooperation", which should have been the focus on the entire aid industry in the first place. Everybody got this but the Western aid industry itself, and perhaps for very obvious and self-serving reasons.

According to The Guardian, the biggest outcome of the Forum at Busan was the emergence of the BRIC nations as one of the key players in providing aid and assistance in future. Apart from that, the article says, there was no serious commitment or targets set at the Forum, but only a promise to do so in the future.

If you care about evidence-based policy making, this conference has been mixed. While there was not enough explicit referencing, sifting and collation of the plethora of evidence available on what has worked and what hasn't over the five years since the Paris declaration, it has, nevertheless, filtered into the outcome document, with less important Paris commitments being dropped and the vital ones being reaffirmed.

The issue of ownership, as I understand, is that the third world nation that is the recipient of the aid must have a great control on the aid and a greater say in where to spend the aid. This has been lacking because, I feel, the donor does not believe the recipient has the ability to spend it wisely, or perhaps the fear of corruption, or simply because they think they can do a better job. In India's case, corruption was and remains a huge issue as large amounts pilfered through the numerous aid schemes, both funded within and without the country.

After last minute negotiations (in which Brazil played a key role) and the insertion of a paragraph distancing non-DAC (the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) donors from concrete commitments, China, India and Brazil all endorsed the idea of working together more closely in what is being described, even by usually critical civil society representatives, as a "new global partnership". This matters to African countries that want to apply principles to all international partners, without diminishing the distinctiveness of Chinese support for their development.

The inclusion of civil society in negotiations was also an important procedural innovation, in contrast to the reduced political space it is experiencing in many countries.

If Paris was a triumph of technocratic organisation, Busan has been an expression of shifting geopolitical realities, with the role of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) proving more critical than ever before.

African nations too, are beginning to demand greater ownership of aid, and its a good step forward in asserting to the donors that the former probably knows best whats best for itself.

The Business Daily Africa article linked above says it best that while aid is a noble thing, all effort must be made by African nations to replace it with homegrown aids to development.

In the aid industry, since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 there have been significant structural changes to make aid more effective. In recent years, this re-engineering process has come to be known as ‘the new aid architecture’.” Before 1989 aid transfers to poor countries were largely driven by geopolitical and commercial reasons. Consequently, some of the most inhuman regimes in Zaire, Philippines, Haiti, Bangladesh and Nigeria received aid regardless of atrocities committed on citizens.

With the Cold War long gone today aid delivery is being informed by a number of factors. These include: failures of previous economic management approaches such as the Washington Consensus; emergence of new global economic players (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Venezuela and South Korea) from among recent developing countries; reinvigorated roles of the international philanthropic foundations; emerging development challenges such as climate change and global terrorism; and recurrence of financial crises around the world since the 1970s.

Much as aid has been useful in preventing destitution and in catalysing economic growth, on its own it is not a panacea to development in poor countries. There is need therefore to radically implement local non- aid means to development.

But to finish out on this post where I can see that the global consensus is firmly headed towards the realization that the aid industry, the way it has functioned, has achieved very little, and rather, has emasculated the societies it proposes to help by making them dependent on that aid and doing nothing to enable them to be independent. China has built a lot of infrastructure in the continent of Africa in recent years, but as more and more media publications find out, it is mainly on a quid pro quo basis as the Chinese ask for the country's natural resources in return. A Professor in the American University in the United States follows Chinese aid in Africa and seems to be a decent source (biased in the way I like it) of information.

Coming to the paper written by Mr.Tandon, there are some choice lines I could pick up.

Professional politicians and diplomats have a particular way of making public speeches. They send important and often critical messages encrypted in coded language. One has to be able to interpret the code, to read between the lines, in order to get to their hidden messages. At Busan, when the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said 'Beware of those who want to take your resources with quick fixes', you can be reasonably sure that the warning was levelled at African countries and the pointer was at China. (I was once a politician and a diplomat; I have learnt to read between the lines).

One, the ODA (Overseas Development Aid) is no longer the main source of development financing. 'It used to be 70% of total financial flows in the 1960s; now it is only 13% -- even as aid quantity has increased'. So, then, what is the purpose of aid? It should be, she said, 'to facilitate private sector investment'.

Two, 'donor aid is driven by donor agenda...We should follow partner lead'. By 'partner' she meant the recipients of aid. There should be, she added, 'genuine mutual accountability'. She gave the example of recipients' insistence that donor aid should be 'untied' to donor procurement sources.

Three, and this is a telling statistic that put to question the whole issue of aid effectiveness. Clinton said that an independent study undertaken just before the Busan meeting revealed that out of 13 objectives set out by the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, only one was met.

The principles of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness do not address the underlying dynamics of 'aid'. The PDAE takes 'aid' for granted as a 'virtue', and gets on to the 'technical' task of making it 'effective'. Deeper thinking (not a forte of 'normal' professional politicians and diplomats) would show that the PDAE principles obscure, obfuscate, reality of life; they encourage muddled thinking on aid.

The President of Rwanda made a cool, dispassionate, speech covering the following issues.

One, 'massive aid transfers have been ineffective'.

Two, there is a contradiction in the growth statistics of Africa. On the one hand, African economies have grown 7 to 8 per cent over the last several years; on the other hand, the per capita income has fallen.

Three, many African countries are unlikely to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. This is the hard reality.

Four, there is a 'huge aid industry' that has now become 'a permanent feature' of north-south relations. This 'industry' is undermining the essential linkages between aid, trade and investment.

Five, the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness states 'mutual accountability' as one of its principles. 'In reality there is no mutual accountability'. Kagame pointedly added: 'When a country is not managing its resources how can it be held accountable?'

Six, Donors only talk about channelling aid through country systems; 'in practice they refuse to use national systems'. There is a 'need for greater mutual trust'.

QUEEN RANIA AL ABDULLAH OF JORDAN - THE MOST ENLIGHTENED AND FUTURIST SPEECH OF THE WHOLE BUSAN CONFERENCE

Busan, she said, is different from Paris or Accra. 'We live in a different world; it is a world of Tahrir Square, and Wall Street occupation'. The world, despite all talk about globalisation, is 'growing apart, not coming close'. In some countries such as Argentina and Malaysia they have narrowed income gap. But global inequality is increasing. We need 'a new development paradigm'. Development has to be based on equity; growth itself does not bring equity. We must give everyone an opportunity to develop his or her potential. 'Sixty percent of our people are youth and a quarter of them are unemployed. They want jobs not aid'.

ANGEL GURRIA, MYUNG-BAK LEE AND BAN KI MOON TREAD OLD, OBSOLETE, PATHS

Angel Gurria, the Secretary General of the OECD, President Lee Myung-bak of Korea, and Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary-General were treading old, worn out, paths in their presentations. Interestingly, they had the same message, as if they had sat together and planned what to say. Their arguments can be briefly summarised as follows:

One, Korea is a shining example of a country that has 'moved from being a recipient of aid to a donor'. (This message was played up, insensitively, almost nauseatingly, in speeches and in large poster displays at the Bexco Convention Centre).

Two, aid will end poverty, improve gender equality, bring education to girl children, and so on and so forth.

Three, the world has fallen behind achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). 'Therefore' (sic!), rich countries need to 'give more aid'.

Four, the 2008 financial crisis has shown that when countries work together they can prevent contagion. Etc, etc.

Korea was presented as a 'success story'; that may be the case. But the period when Korea was able to carry out land reform under American occupation; pursue state-aided and bank-rolled programs for encouraging Daihatsus; industrialise without having to pay massive intellectual property rents for technology; and export to the US almost duty-free at a time when the latter needed a dependable ally in Asia to contain communism - this period and its circumstances are not the same as today. Korea cannot be repeated by, for example, African countries. Korea is no 'model'. Furthermore, the two Koreans (Lee Myung-bak and Ban Ki-Moon) conveniently ignored the fact that their country's development owes itself largely to their hard-working working classes rather than 'aid'.

Here is a brief analysis of the outcome document.

To start with its title, 'Busan Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation'. 'Effective aid' is now replaced with 'effective development'. This is a more telling indictment of 'aid' than is realised at first glance.

HLF4 was largely an affair between the 'poor' countries of the so-called 'third world' and the so-called 'traditional donors' of the OECD countries. Conspicuously absent were the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China).

This was reflected in the telling opening of paragraph two of the 'Outcome Document' with the words 'The nature, modalities and responsibilities that apply to South-South cooperation differ from those that apply to North-South cooperation.'

There is no question that the bigger countries of the south (India, Brazil and China) as well as Russia have distanced themselves from the 'aid effectiveness' agenda of HLF4. Their agreement to refer to the principles of North-South relations on a 'voluntary basis' can only be interpreted as a political rejection of those principles.

Aid to the Third World is a self-important feel good activity of the developed world, and Mr. Tandon makes a very valid point that it will not go away easily. The likes of Oxfam and Bono will forever call for aid to help the third world, but I believe it will be better if they channel their energies in getting the third world to be more self reliant and thus more confident in its abilities to take care of itself.

One big point made is the greater south-south cooperation, which is something I have always stood for and believed in in my blog. The third world, including the fast industrializing and fast developing nations, must come together and get out of the WASP shadow on their own future. I had written in a post some time ago about how countries like India and Brazil help the rest of the third world by introducing them to better agriculture practices, or China can come in (without its greed for resources) and genuinely usher in infrastructure development and redevelopment of cities and urban spaces.

An important point is that if global trade is still the way forward, notwithstanding the protectionist attitude of the first world now that globalization is finally becoming the two way street they advertised, the third world is an important market in itself. There are big markets in developing nations across the globe where fledgling industries in other third world countries can sell their goods and services.

I think a big factor in achieving this greater south-south cooperation is getting rid of the developed west centrality. A brown man must learn to trust a black man or a yellow man, to give a very crude example! Considering the last two centuries were ruled the WASPs, unfortunately our thinking is centered around their thinking. Global media and flow of arts and culture is controlled by North America and Western Europe, and a greater exchange of people and ideas among the third world is absolutely essential for this shift to take place. I can see it happening and I hope it only goes stronger.

another fire tragedy in Kolkata

Kolkata is a city that is crumbling apart. Littered with old, unmaintained British architecture and bustling streets with people living in every nook and cranny, tragedies should be inevitable, and when they do happen, there is a lot of talk of change, of rules being followed, and people being punished, and then things go back to the usual till the next tragedy occurs. What is true of Kolkata is true for the rest of the country - safety of buildings and the people inside is just not a concern for the society at large.

After the tragedy at Stephen Court on Park Street where an old heritage building caught fire and it was found out that almost every construction rule was violated such as illegal construction of additional floors, no fire exits, and the doors to the roof-top locked by the owners, this tragedy that occurred at AMRI Hospital took place in a modern super-speciality hospital which, ideally, should have been at the forefront of building safety.

The tragedy with Indian society is that we just don't value life as much as we should. No rules are followed by individuals who live in the cities, who man the buildings, who construct the buildings and those who control the buildings. Once the details become clearer, nobody has any doubt that there will be a long list of rules that the building flouted and hence the tragedy. BusinessWeek calls it India's worst fire tragedy in 7 years, and with 93 lives lost at last count, I still doubt if anybody will wake up. We will blame everybody, like I am, but there is no doubt that things will be back to regular programming sooner than we know it. I suppose it is impossible to enforce rules over a billion people!

The big news was that as soon as the fire broke out, many of the doctors fled the building. Another big news is that many of the fire alarms were turned off so hospital staff could smoke indoors.

The police told HT that several smoke alarms, which were connected to fire-sprinkler devices, had been installed at AMRI hospital.

“But they did not go off on Friday as some doctors and hospital staffers, during their night duty on Thursday, turned off the main switch connecting all smoke alarms so that they could light up indoors,” said an investigating officer on condition of anonymity. The police are now trying to identify the doctors and staffers who habitually deactivated the alarms before smoking.

I don't suppose any of those individuals would have ever thought their seemingly harmless action could lead to such a tragedy, but it did, and I don't think this will be the last time either when fire alarms in modern buildings across the country are turned off because they are either a pain, not deemed necessary, or they get in the way of the people in the building.

Meanwhile, the amazing regularity with which the government gets "wake-up calls" from tragedies would make one believe that governments in India must never be sleeping anymore, but always awake. Unfortunately, that's not true either. There is a system that has to run, and I suppose when apparently the basic premise of this society (I mean the Indian society at large) is still to make money, make ends meet, or get through the day, a lot of the rules and regulations simply take a back seat. I've made this point earlier, and in relation to other regulations as well, such as the environment.

Its like letting the beggar be on the street because at least he is able to get some money. Letting people live in dangerous settings because at least they have a roof. Letting people travel in dangerously overcrowded buses, trains or other public transportation modes because at least they are traveling and adding to the economic output of the country. Let factories burn pollutants in the air because the cost of controlling effluents is high and that will cause undue economic stress on the many who rely on such a factory. So this thought seems to permeate each and every justification of this country to not follow rules. We simply have not been able to get out of the "we are a poor country only hence can't follow rules" mentality.

It is amazing how regularly the same scenarios cause the maximum damage in a fire tragedy. In Uphaar Cinema, the emergency exits were locked shut. The doors to the roof top were locked shut in Stephen Court, and in AMRI Hospital, the basement intended for parking was turned into office space and storage space for flammable material. According the article linked above from Live Mint,

Within 24 hours of the hospital disaster, the fire and emergency department, the state health department and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), which were responsible for checking and monitoring fire safety, again formed fresh committees for carrying out inspections and pledged to bring the errant to book.

The accident in Amri hospital in Dhakuria area has shown that promises made in the past have not been kept. Amri caught the attention of the fire department for flouting guidelines as early as 29 August.

“A routine inspection showed glaring deviations from norms,” according to a retired fire service official. A basement car park had been converted into a two-tier structure—one accommodating the radiotherapy unit and cubicles for doctors, and the other serving as a godown, crammed with inflammable materials such as chemicals, jerry cans of spirits, oxygen cylinders and wooden furniture.

Moreover, firefighting equipment such as fire extinguishers, smoke alarms and sprinklers were not functioning in the basement.

Despite this, the fire department did not slap a closure notice on the hospital. Instead, it allowed the authorities three months to set their house in order. This deadline expired at the end of November, but no team returned for a follow-up, said the fire service official quoted earlier.

A team from the city’s municipality, which has independent infrastructure and staff to conduct inspections of buildings before renewing trade licences, also looked the other way when they found serious irregularities in the basement, said an official from the building department of KMC who did not want to be identified.

Nobody should be surprised that rules are flouted because the people in charge of ensuring those rules aren't flouted are almost always hand in glove with the perpetrators. However, we know how the system works, and how the government works at all levels, so an aspect that should be shocking to everybody is that when such seemingly professional organizations such as this modern super-speciality hospital flout safety rules, it hints at the general apathy that is deeply set even in the most modern of India's private sector. When such an organization does not want to follow norms on its own accord, then perhaps even the best of governance can't make them, because as its often repeated, its not possible to rule a billion people and keep an eye on each and every regulation by the government. Most times, the people have to step up to regulate themselves, and unfortunately, the Indian society is incapable of doing so.

This editorial in the Hindustan Times raises the same valid points.

The AMRI incident has proved that money alone can’t buy safety in India. The second-floor cabins that were affected by the fire there did not come cheap for patients: they have a hefty tag of Rs9,000 a day. Moreover, unlike in government hospitals, there was no funds crunch at AMRI. Then why was there no emergency staff on duty or any evacuation plan? It is now clear that there was no chain-of-command that could have taken quick decisions during the emergency. So while the patients suffocated and choked to death, there was no one to give out the basic order of calling the fire brigade. Now that the tragedy has happened, the law will take its course and the case will go on for a while.

So while the laws of the land will follow the slow path to justice, the basic problems of cracking urban housing, poor and unscientific construction and a general attitude among the population of cutting corners and getting more bang for the buck will remain. So like we say after a terrorist attack - lets wait for the next tragedy. Statistically, we're still doing well per thousand Indians, so bring on the tragedies! Bah, even sarcasm doesn't feel nice at this point.  

I don't think the Hindi cinema that was made in the 1950's, the 1960's and some of the 70's can be matched anytime, if ever. I am a very old fashioned individual when it comes to Hindi cinema I suppose. I simply refuse to believe that there can be a better gamut of actors, singers, directors and musicians than from that era. I just think that much of the things made in those years made a lot more sense than most of the things made today. The inane acting, the cacophony of music and putting in models instead of proper actresses tells me that today's Bollywood isn't really about substance, at least not as much as it was way back in the day.

Everybody's talking about the spate of deaths to some of India's best musical and thespian treasures within a span of a few months. We lost Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Bhupen Hazarika, Shammi Kapoor, M.F. Hussein and now Dev Anand. That's a lot of talent!

So while Dev sahab had drifted into making independent films with unknown faces and daring themes in the later half of his film career, nobody can deny the quality of stuff he made way back in the day. They say that when he would venture out wearing black, girls would literally swoon over him from every corner. Of course, the great music that accompanied him in so many of his great movies just adds to the perfection.

One of my most favorite movies is the movie Guide. Based on a Sahitya Kala Academy Award winning "The Guide" written by another of India's great literary sons, R.K. Narayan, directed by Chetan Anand and starring Dev Anand and Waheeda ji as the protagonists, this movie hit the entire spectrum of human emotion. And the music this movie had was heavenly. I think the scenes in the end of the movie (yes they have taken some theatrical liberties with the story line but all for a good cause) such as the Swami asking Ram to take him and his Muslim friend Gafoor in the background praying "No, Ram", or the people singing the Lord Ram bhajans and then the Swami finally passing on are etched permanently in this mind of mine.

The music sung by Mohammad Rafi sahab, Kishore da and Lata ji and music by S.D. Burman all in all created one of Bollywood's masterpieces.

Then there is Haqeeqat, about the India-China War, and all the buggers who talk about how India should be China's best friend because they are oh so nice and oh so progressive should watch this movie. The Chinese of today have only one demonic aim in mind, to rule the world, and since they can't rule the world on the basic principles of human freedom, they can only do so by force. Sorry for bringing it in but this is just to talk about the relevance of this movie even today.

My respects to all these great people who've passed away. There is something about being an artist, at least their creations will stay long after they're gone. Unfortunately those of us in the corporate grind will probably never be remembered for any achievement at work. The position of Manager - Finance will stay, but maybe 2 years down the line people will forget who was in it on Friday, 9th December 2011.

But I must not be cynical now. I want to remember the great movies and songs of that era of which Dev sahab was an integral part, and hope that humanity for all its shortcomings and failures continue to inspire itself and keep unlocking its artistic potential.

Fraud Gandhis' sycophancy

At airports all across the country, Indians are greeted to a rare sight where an individual, not elected to power by the people, not leading soldiers and not having served this country in any sort of way is exempt from security check-in because he happens to be the son-in-law of the fraud Gandhi family that is raping this country today along with its very very dangerous posse of criminals and thieves. I suppose he needs the protection considering how his entire family was wiped out in freak accidents.