AFRO-NETS is about malaria (25)
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Dear Colleagues
I had to smile when I read the message of Dr. Shamim ul Moula.
When I was younger I was an expert, an international consult-
ant... and employable by the major organizations of the official
relief and development assistance (ORDA) industry. I jokingly
used to refer to myself as an 'insultant'... a short way of say-
ing international consultant.
I also used to joke that in the 'insultant' community, there was
an inverse relationship between expertise and distance from
Washington.
By the time I had experience, and applied my corporate account-
ing and analysis ability to the ORDA activities that I had been
exposed to... I was no longer 'employable'. The World Bank, the
UN agencies and others were not very interested in getting 'in-
dependent' feedback about project performance!
Some years ago a colleague pointed out that there are many good
people in the ORDA community... many who are willing to put
themselves in harm's way in order to be helpful... but it was
the system that was the problem. Years later the system is bad
as it ever was... but there are still amazing people in the sys-
tem working hard against the odds.
During 2006 I want to see some serious independent objective
'management information' available about the ORDA industry. It
is an important industry and the abuse in it needs to be identi-
fied very specifically and those involved held accountable. It
can be done... it merely requires serious commitment and ef-
fort... and Tr-Ac-Net plans to be involved.
By the way... malaria eradication or abatement requires rather
little money compared to the benefit that can be realised... I
am happy to do the accounting for anyone that is interested!
Happy New Year.
Sincerely,
Peter Burgess
Tr-Ac-Net in New York
Tel.: +1-212-772-6918
mailto:peterbnyc@gmail.com
The Transparency and Accountability Network
With Kris Dev in Chennai India
and others in South Asia, Africa and Latin America
http://tr-ac-net.blogspot.com