Page 18 - IB FEB 2020

Politics Politics

Australian aid delivered through the Red Cross after Tropical Cyclone Pam. Photo: Hannah Butler/New Zealand Red Cross

SMART AID NOT MORE AID

COLLABORATION, ACCOUNTABILITY KEY TO BETTER AID RESULTS

By Sadhana Sen (FWCC), says such conclusions call for a different way of
doing development in the Pacific. FWCC has received direct
An honest and critical appraisal by donors, recipient nations Australian aid for almost two decade, and Ali was the
and other stakeholders is critical if the region is to take recipient of the 2018 Mitchell Humanitarian Award: “There
advantage of every donor dollar and show growth that truly are issues around corruption and wastage but if the Pacific
impacts Pacific people’s daily lives say some of the region’s people were to have a greater say in programming and aid we
leading development thinkers and workers. received, we can then be held entirely responsible for it.”
The “poor performance” of aid to the Pacific has again She adds that any development assistance given to the
been in the spotlight. Development Economist and the Pacific needs to take into consideration the cultural and
ANU’s Development Policy Center Director, Stephen Howes religious beliefs and contexts within which Pacific lives exist,
has demonstrated that based on annual DFAT performance including the gendered rules under which people live.
reports, aid to the Pacific achieves less than aid to other In her analysis, if development assistance shows poor
regions. Howes cautions against increasing aid to the region, returns, it’s often because of a poor knowledge of the Pacific
saying this will further erode aid effectiveness. by some of the expertise provided by donor partners, who she
Carolyn Hunt an engineer and infrastructure adviser with says, are often young persons who have done “some gender
22 years’ international development experience says she has studies courses at University level”. Overcrowding in the
seen wastage of aid money firsthand. funding field with numerous donors funding an existing area
Writing for Australian media, she said while the of work means donor dollars are dispersed in a “haphazard
governments of many Pacific island nations gladly accept manner” Ali says.
aid funding, there is often little buy-in to assist with the “There is a great need for aid coordination in the Pacific.
implementation of aid projects, and that “decades of aid has Even among funding agencies and organisations there is a lot
done little to filter down to the way most Pacific islanders of competition in terms of who is in which space, so there is
live.” much duplication and while this goes on, problems remain”.
The blame she attests, does not rest entirely with aid Former Head of Parties to the Nauru Agreement, and
recipients. “Infrastructure projects funded by donors in the Solomon Islands’ new Permanent Representative to the UN,
Pacific are notoriously devoid of well-thought-out motives, Dr Transform Aqorau contends that ‘smart’ aid rather than
good planning and follow-up maintenance programs and more aid, is needed. “Aid has to be targeted. What we need
are all too frequently of poor standard. Donors often give is not aid for development, rather proper economic policies
scant attention to follow-up surveys, value-for-money that empowers people to improve their social and economic
considerations, reciprocal and tangible inputs by recipient conditions.”
governments, and to holding recipients accountable. The Dr Aqorau contends if aid in the Pacific is performing poorly,
general attitude by donors and by recipients is to build it, its real destination needs to be looked at. “If 60 per cent
watch it decay, then rebuild it – all with aid money”. or a good proportion ends up with Australian consultants
Shamima Ali, who heads the Fiji Women’s Crisis Center and contractors, then it really begs the question of what

18 Islands Business, February 2020