You don't bite the hand that feeds (2)
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Dear Colleagues
It is long overdue. The donor community should be held account-
able for its poor use of resources for relief and development.
But the sad thing is that good people cannot speak out because
they will never get another assignment, or they will be pushed
out of their organizations.
I tried to help get the rules changed almost 20 years ago. It
did not pay off and my work as a consultant with the World Bank
went into a tail-spin... same with the UN system.
It takes time... and it is now time to start asking the hard
questions and insisting on getting answers.
Question 1. What is being done, and how much is the activity
costing?
Question 2. What is the output arising from these activity ex-
penditures?
Question 3. What is the durable value for the community derived
from these activities?
Simple questions. And hardly every answered.
I don't know whether anyone else has noticed it... but it does
not matter how long a report from the relief and development
community... it is almost always impossible to get answers to
these three questions. Why is there so much secrecy? My guess is
that the costs are high, the outputs are rather modest and the
durable value non-existent. Maybe I am wrong, but I don't think
so.
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