Africa Tells Off Donors On Aid
4th Sept 2008
Delegates to an Aid forum in Accra, Ghana have
accused donor countries of not being accountable on
utilisation of development funds.
Several speakers have said between 60 per cent and
75 per cent of the donor money do not get to the
recipient countries, but remain in the donating
country.
"You cannot demand or expect us to produce results
or alleviate poverty when only 25 per cent of the
donated money gets to us," said Patrice Bemba, an
official from the Democratic Republic of Congo
Ministry of Finance.
He said a lot of the donor funds meant for
programmes to help uplift vulnerable groups such as
women and children from poverty or manage diseases,
end up as fees and salaries to experts from the
donating country. Other monies are lost as overhead
costs.
"Much of the aid remains in the hands of consultants
and companies in Europe, America and Asia, or is
just tied aid," said Robert Fox, of Oxfam Canada and
Head of Oxfam International delegation to Accra
talks.
"Donors cannot run away from this fact when two
thirds of the money goes back to their countries as
technical assistance and transaction overhead costs
and less than 20 percent gets to developing
countries as aid," said representatives from
Catholic and Protestant participants at the Accra
forum.
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A Kenya government
official, who sought anonymity, said at times the
donors send highly paid experts from their countries
to offer services even in areas that do not need
such assistance or where the country has enough
technical experts.
"If you raise this issue, they tell you provision of
such services was part of the contract the
government signed with them, and as an officer,
there is nothing you can do."
However, some donors say they have no option but to
source some of the skills and know-how from the
developed countries. |
"Although there is some justification in this, the
issues are somewhat exaggerated," says Werner Gruber
Head of Operations, Economic Cooperation and
Development at the Switzerland State Secretariat for
Economic Affairs.
"Nevertheless, we need to work on how to use experts
in developing countries more and more."
But Prof Ben Turok, Member of Parliament from South
Africa said this practice means African countries
have little say of how the money is used and where
the goods and services are sourced from.
"In this scenario, the money does not even boost
economic growth of African countries as local
industries and experts are shunned. Instead, it
continues to make companies and individuals in
developed countries wealthier."
Mr Fox said the only way to make African governments
and donors accountable in the way donor money is
used is to strengthen the media, civil society and
the citizens by providing them with comprehensive
information on donor money.
"Mechanisms should be put in place to ensure
citizens in Africa and the North are empowered to
demand answers from their governments on aid
disbursement and use."
Delegates want the media to be given information, on
a quarterly basis, on where aid money is sourced,
how much is disbursed and for what purposes, the
time-frames for programmes and project
implementation
credits: |
