Tuesday 1 December 2009
NZ Aid: What is Given May Be Taken Away
One again, with the arrival of NZAid's newssheet No. 63, we are reminded that Fiji has dropped off the map and is now somewhere south of the Pacific's "triple star." There's nothing to be done about it. NZAid is a government agency, and does what government says. But one item of news struck my eye. The Development Resource Centre is to get a new name: Global Focus Aotearoa, with a budget of $1.8m. Development NGOs, university Pacific Studies and Development Studies departments, and development agencies generally must ever be alert to what, subtely, they may be asked to pay for governnment funding. What is given may be taken away.
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It is time to consider that the funding of many Non-government organisations in Fiji is not properly accountable and therefore might be considered unjustified in some quarters. Rigorous tests of expenditure related to outcomes should be conducted. The mountains of paperwork generated in some NGOs defies description: NGOs funded by aid should be GREEN. There is really no excuse for those that are not. They should also be required and able to demonstrate annually or even twice yearly that they are responding to real needs in an efficient and non-self-indulgent way.
All Carbon Footprints should be measured closely by donors. They might be appalled to see how their taxpayers' funds are wasted by useless journeys to meetings which ought to be conducted by Video Link. The use of aid-funded, overseas consultants should also be limited. Are they truly required and what is their fundamental value in their field? Can it be measured? If not - then chop.
Time for the Joy-rides to be called in and for the Planet Earth to be given a chance for a change. Taxpayers of the World Unite! An audit of NGOs and their worth is long overdue.
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