>> Because most of the money never makes it to where its intended.
Here's some figures from Pt2 of the article below. I think it makes my
point:
Lords of Hypocrisy, Part 2
The estimated budget for an upcoming 17-day ?research trip? by an
acquaintance working for an anti-hunger NGO:
SUV rental: 500 birr per day x 17 = 8,500 birr ($979)
Gas for SUV: 600 birr per day x 17 = 10,200 birr ($1,175)
Hotels: 200 birr (two people) per night x 17 = 3,400 birr ($391)
Miscellaneous supplies: 100 birr per day x 17 = 1,700 birr ($195)
Estimated Total Expenses: 23,800 birr ($2,741)
Destination: Several of the top tourist spots in Ethiopia
Justification for this trip: ?Preliminary research for a future survey?
Hungry Ethiopians that could have been fed with $2,741: ???
http://noyau.com/~rwalsh/wordpress/?p=48
Lords of Hypocrisy
The opulence and inefficiency of the NGO in developing countries is
well-worn territory, but it has become much more intimate for me now
that I am in Africa. Now I see the White SUVs roar past every day, now
I know what NGO employees? salaries are compared to locals, now I?ve
seen where the employees live.
Here are several recent examples that I have witnessed first hand that
have left me sourly disappointed and disenchanted with the multi-
billion dollar industry that is aid work.
Two weeks ago UNICEF held a retreat in the same building where my
newspaper office is located. For several days the suited participants
made ebullient speeches and took copious amounts of notes, generating
agendas and proposals and objectives, all documented on white boards.
On the last day there was a party. Three longs tables were presented
and laid out with a plentiful buffet. Corny 80s dance music blared from
speakers while the food was left mostly untouched. The food, the
alcohol that was served, and the rental of the equipment and space,
were of course all on UNICEF?s tab.
Bjorn Ljundvist, the country director for UNICEF, is driven around
Addis by a chauffer in an expensive car.
UNAIDS holds all of its press conferences at the ridiculous and
absurdly gaudy Sheraton Hotel.
In the main UN compound, there is a ?cafeteria? where gourmet food is
served everyday - and where the employees can afford to eat.
An Ethiopian friend worked for an international NGO, and his reports on
the treatment of locals was particularly sad. From his stories, this
was the daily routine: The expatriates would sit in the office behind
computers and in lush chairs. The locals would take buses or mini-bus
taxis (the white SUVs weren?t available to them) out into small towns
to do the fieldwork the foreigners were supposed to be doing. When the
locals would return late that night after a day of arduous travel and
hard work, the mostly white foreigners would, from behind their desks,
chide them for not doing one small thing or another. And this
continued, day after day.
NGOs that have no reason or need to go off-roading all have enormous
white SUVs. All of them: CARE, Save the Children, Action Against
Hunger, Doctors Without Borders. Even the smaller organizations drive
the white SUV emblazoned with their logo on the side.
An acquaintance was discussing a future project in which he was
requesting funds from his organization for a rental car and a transport
allowance to drive through the Northern part of Ethiopia to do
?preliminary research that would lead to a future survey.? So he wants
to explore the Ethiopian countryside, visit all the tourist landmarks,
and while he?s there do some preliminary work not for a future project,
but for a future survey. Why can?t he do the survey then? Why can?t he
reallocate the funds spent on two-weeks of travel to the hungry
Ethiopians his group is supposed to assist?
I understand that many NGO and UN employees have good intentions, as do
their organizations.
But if you are passionate about service work, how can you accept a
30,000 birr monthly salary when the woman who cooks your food and
cleans your clothes makes 100 birr a month?
How do your organizations and the UN bodies justify these expenses,
when the people they purport to help languish just outside the gates to
their compounds?
