RFI: Nutrition support to people living with HIV/AIDS (3)
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Dear Colleagues
Dr. Joel Msafiri Francis has raised a very important question,
and one that has been studiously avoided by the academic, scien-
tific and social science experts of the HIV-AIDS pandemic and
the official relief and development assistance (ORDA) community.
The ORDA community... government, World Bank, UN organizations,
International NGOs, bilateral donor agencies, etc... are able to
fund very little of what is needed to have a holistic response
to the crisis. They have a business model that is hugely expen-
sive, often focused on absolutely useless initiatives, and at
the end of the day cannot do the job.
I will argue that Professor Jeffrey Sachs who has had a big role
in the UN Millennium Development Goals project has grossly un-
derestimated the cost of making a difference. If the approach he
describes in his book is used, my guess is that ORDA fund flows
will need to be $500 billion a year rather than a mere $50 bil-
lion a year that they are now in order to have meaningful suc-
cess. The business model is fundamentally wrong.
Dr. Joel Msafiri Francis asks the right question. How can people
in total poverty be helped? I may not have it exactly right, but
I think the following is a lot better than the prevailing ORDA
approach.
Throughout the "south" there are wonderful people and organiza-
tions doing amazing things with very little in the way of exter-
nal resources and external help. In Africa millions of people
are presently engaged in "helping" in one way or another. None
of these "helpers" gets much, if anything for helping. They do
it because as good human beings it is the right thing to do.
They are all members of communities, most of which are, as com-
munities, also terribly poor.
I would like to advocate for helping these poor communities and
these poor "helpers" with direct assistance so that the people
and communities can do more useful work. How can this be done? A
starting point is that the present ORDA communities cannot do
it. They do not have the mindset for it, and they cannot change
their ways of doing business quickly, if at all. They do not
have the needed information, and are unlikely to get it any time
soon.
But it can be done. Every community needs to be helped. We are
advocating for a simple multi-step process:
(1) The starting point is for every community to be "on the re-
cord" with some basic information about the "state of the commu-
nity";
(2) A next step is to identify human resources, natural re-
sources, other resources like organizations, infrastructure,
source of jobs, development activities (if any), religious or-
ganizations, etc that make the community function... and what
the community would like to do, can do, and the constraints that
stop progress;
(3) planning and making available help to remove constraints...
including external financial and technical assistance; and
(4) measurement and progress reporting so that resources do what
they were intended to do.
The biggest use of financial resources should be to pay local
people to do what might otherwise be done at a 1,000 times the
cost by external international "experts". Put this money into
the local economy, and it will start the process of getting the
community out of the abject poverty basement. Grandma looking
after orphans is doing something of huge value. The community
should fund grandma. Why not? Local girls do care giving. The
community should fund them. Nurses around the world get good
pay. Why not a caregiver in a community?
This is basic Keynesian thinking which has been absent from the
ORDA world as long as I can remember... and wrongly excluded, in
my view (I studied economics in a Keynesian environment, and I
am proud of it!).
If grandma and local girls (and others doing valuable work) are
going to get funded by the community, where is the community go-
ing to get its money? The Community should be able to borrow
modest money to pay for things now... and the community should
commit to repaying these funds from progress in the future. Do
it in local currency... and plan on making the "fund" grow lo-
cally for ever.
If I have my history right, Britain lost the US Revolutionary
War in 1776, but returned as an investor during the 19th century
and even today is one of the largest investors in the USA. The
money came, stayed in the USA and as the USA prospered so did
the investment... over decades, over centuries now.
Put money into the community... help to make it prosper... and
money and community will both do well.
There will be two sorts of community... those that have human
and natural resources with a future... and those that can never
be successful. Fund the communities with a potential for suc-
cess. Find ways for communities that cannot succeed to change...
fund the work needed to have change and have success.
In other words... the new paradigm for development success is
community centric with incentives to fund things that will re-
sult in success.
I would be delighted to expand on the thinking... and how Tr-Ac-
Net is proceeding to implement this... one step at a time.
Feedback is welcome... cooperation is welcome. There is a huge
amount to do. But all the pieces to do it are available.
Sincerely,
Peter Burgess
Transparency and Accountability
a global not-for-profit Network
Tel: +1-212-772-6918
mailto:peterbnyc@gmail.com