Pacific Reset - NGOs to the fore in NZ's Aid Programme

Winston Peters and Pacific leaders pn158

The NZ Government is putting $70 million towards non-government organization (NGO) work in the Pacific, which Foreign Minister Winston Peters says will strengthen New Zealand's voice on global trade and security issues.
The money is part of the $714 million over four years, announced in Budget 2018, for Pacific Reset, the Government's strategy to grow New Zealand's influence in an increasingly contested strategic area (The self-interest component in the Reset is acknowledged.)
The $70m will help the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to nurture partnerships between New Zealand NGOs and NGOs in the Pacific.  "We also want to encourage you [NGOs] to collaborate. Not just with each other, but with the private sector and Crown Research Institutes, to maximise our collective New Zealand impact," he said.

The Budget 2018 boosted the money spent on aid as a percentage of Gross National Income to 0.28 per cent, down from 0.3 per cent in 2008, but up from 0.23 per cent in 2017. The target set by the United Nations for developed countries is 0.7 per cent. Sixty percent of our aid money is spent in the Pacific.  NZ's aid record adds clout in discussions with other nations.

Deputy PM Winston Peters says, "New Zealand needs a proud  aid  record because it adds to the value of our voice. [We need to] have a far more powerful voice than just the size of our country, [which means] being a seriously influential country that understands the Pacific better than any other country does."

Peters made the announcement at a conference organised by the Council for International Development, New Zealand's umbrella body for international development and humanitarian organisations.Its director, Josie Pagani, says the direction this government is taking presents an exciting opportunity for development in the region.

"The whole point of this conference was to bring a Pacific perspective to the reset discussion and I think having the deputy prime minister of the Cook Islands here, Mark Brown, also having Pacific, New Zealand born Pacific people here talking about what it means for the diaspora here and how they move along these corridors between New Zealand and the Pacific. I think this is how we make it real.
-- Condensed from Derek Cheng's article in the NZ Herald "Winston Peters flags $70m for nurturing Pacific NGOs", 29 October, and Koroi Hawkings in RNZ Dateline Pacific "Peters lays out aims of Pacific Reset",  30 October.  ,#dchrng

Comment.  There is much merit in focusing aid on Pacific NGOs that help develop local resources and skills, improve the standard of living, and are close to ordinary  people (the "grassroots") but there are also dangers, especially with NGOs primarily concerned with "human rights".  

This may seem heretical but most of the leaders of these NGOs are Western educated, imbued with Western values, and are to a greater or lesser degree out of touch with the "grassroots." Their priorities may or may not always and everywhere be in the best interests of ordinary people, stability, unity and national development in their own country. I think of the post-2006 Fiji Coup. Tokelau could be another example.

 -- ACW