Democracy For Nepal: Aid

Showing posts with label Aid. Show all posts

Friday, May 22, 2015

Foreign Aid Truths

English: The United Nations Development Programme in Ukraine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

a country where corruption is seen as "endemic"? Britain is already the biggest national donor to Nepal - but what has happened to this aid? ....... The UK's Department for International Development (DFID) has spent more than £20m ($30m) in the last four years on an earthquake resilience programme. So what has it achieved? ....... One focus has been on improving building regulations and enforcing them. But walk through downtown Kathmandu and you see hundreds of new buildings that are unsafe, badly built and have clearly flouted these building laws. ...... "Nepal suffers from poor governance, and corruption is endemic. ....... "If Nepal is to become less corrupt, improvements in governance and a change of culture have to be made to state institutions." ..... Part of DFID's programme was carried out by the United Nations Development Programme, (UNDP) which received more than £5m in funding from the UK for its comprehensive disaster risk management programme (CDRMP). One senior aid insider told me the project was "a disaster from start to finish". ......

Over five years, the UN spent £1.3m of its original £10m budget on two international employees.
...... Millions more went in what the public project document lists as unspecified "professional services". ...... the UNDP had "poor financial controls, weaknesses in payment processes and misreporting and recording of payments". .... Because of the widespread corruption and bureaucracy within the government of Nepal, international donors like DFID have channelled their money into the big NGOs and UN agencies to deliver their programmes. ...... Dr Govind Pokharel, vice-chairman of Nepal's National Planning Commission, admits the system is weak and corrupt but says the huge salaries on offer in NGOs and the UN means they are causing a brain drain in Nepal's civil service.
"A government guy gets $200 for a month, whereas you are paying $2,000 per month at an NGO or agency, it is damaging," he says.
....... "The Nepal police didn't like it. I was paid $300 (£190) a day but for the international consultants it was £1,200 a day." ..... "There's a strong case to say we should use national consultants before we go international. There will be a wave that will come - whether it's a helpful wave remains to be seen."

If the corruption culture is not remedied, and if somehow magically you get to cut down on the huge fees for foreign consultants, then most of the money will then go to corruption. Foreign consultants might be ridiculously expensive, but domestic corruption should not be getting a free ride in the process. There are two problems.

Saturday, May 09, 2015

The Nepal Government Should Compete For Funds

Much has been made about the Prime Minister's Relief Fund. There is an easy solution: compete. Nobody stops the government of Nepal from making a strong case and going out there and raising money. It should respond to the criticisms, and it should make a case, and it should go for it.

It is all about ROI, return on investment. It is a business term, but it also applies to governments.

It is being said that the Nepal Government, given the pledged funds by the various governments, will do a much better job, the ROI will be much higher, than if those foreign governments spent the money themselves. Haiti is being cited as an example. Heck, I am one of the people shouting Haiti! Haiti! Haiti!

Well then, make a case. Why is your ROI greater? How? By how much? Let's see some numbers. There are enough well educated people in Nepal, inside the government and outside, inside the country, and in the diaspora, to be able to do that.

Based on that case, lobbying efforts can be organized. If you want the $20 plus million pledged by the US government to go directly into the Prime Minister's Relief Fund, lobbying can be organized in Washington DC. Heck, there is an even better way. Do it online. America is a democracy. If enough Americans get convinced by you, and they act to reach out to their Congressman and Senators, the work will get done. A democracy responds to its citizens.

Thursday, May 07, 2015

A Marshall Plan Is Possible Through 100% Online Transparency

Logo used on aid delivered to European countries during the Marshall Plan. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Marshall Plan was a US government effort. Done right, 100% online transparency allows you to bypass that US government and go straight to the American people. And by American, I also mean British, Indian, Japanese, whoever.

Needed: A Marshall Plan

governance in Nepal was a disaster zone even before the earthquake. ..... Slow delivery of services, lack of coordination, mismanagement, ad hoc decisions and corruption have been the hallmarks of our soft state. Despite the restoration of democracy and regular elections, accountability has somehow always fallen between the cracks. Leaders who traditionally thrived on patronage have felt no need for performance-based legitimacy. ...... How could we expect the Nepali state to become the epitome of efficient management and speedy delivery overnight, just because there was an earthquake? ....... It would have streamlined procedures to receive maximum assistance instead of creating hurdles, it would have expedited delivery of urgent medical and food supplies to remote areas instead of letting it pile up at the airport, it would have encouraged donations to pour in instead of creating obstacles and obfuscation. ...... what we saw were politicians and bureaucrats showing the same inertia and lethargy as they have during ‘normal’ times. They pushed paper, waited for rubber stamps and ‘clearance from higher-up authorities’ as if it was just another humdrum day in our banana republic. All right, we’ll say it:

the bureaucratic delays in the initial days after the quake cost lives. The earthquake killed people, red tape killed many of the survivors.
........ The Prime Minister toured Sindhupalchok by air 10 days after the earthquake, Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal has been holed up in a secluded villa in Man Bhavan for the past week, and only briefly gate-crashed a relief distribution event organised by the Guru Dwara. The President, it must be said, shunned media attention and made low-key personal visits to ruins of Kathmandu’s historic heart. ..... And when the politicians and the government did act decisively, it was to spread even more hopelessness and confusion. Just like the famously absurd sound bite by a palace official after the royal massacre in 2001 about it having been caused by the “accidental discharge of an automatic weapon” this time too, officials were busy shooting themselves in the foot every time they opened their mouths. .......... The Central Bank issued a dreadful statement that all earthquake aid had to be channeled through the Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund (‘otherwise they will be seized’) that immediately halted most emergency cash donations from abroad. The PMO tried to clarify it was only for NGOs set up after 25 April for earthquake relief, but its interpretation sowed even more confusion. Then some wiseguy in government said we don’t need any more aid. Not to be outdone, another smartass told foreign rescue workers “we don’t need you anymore we can handle it ourselves”. The government is the subject of ridicule across the world, it is squandering the goodwill that Nepal and Nepalis command internationally – testament to which is the tremendous and prompt delivery of relief flights.......... The Army and Armed Police together have 120,000 personnel deployed in the 12 districts, and by all accounts have gone beyond the call of duty, despite their own family tragedies, in search, rescue and ferrying supplies. Civil society, individuals, overseas Nepalis and the private sector have stepped in to fill the gaps. ......... In the short-term there is still the need to get emergency food, medicine and shelter to the areas where they are most needed. In the medium term, we will have to turn our attention to semi-permanent housing as well help with seeds for the planting season as the rainy season approaches. This is of vital importance so subsistence farmers who have lost their granaries have something to eat in the coming year and will not have to depend on outside food aid. Then there is the colossal need for reconstruction of the 300,000 homes and 15,000 schools that have been destroyed. ........ This needs a Marshall Plan type movement with seamless coordination between the government, local bodies, the international community, the UN and the multilateral agencies. By now we have plenty of lessons learnt from Haiti to Haiyan about how to best manage the rehabilitation of vast populations. No two countries are alike, but there are red flags about where things went dreadfully wrong elsewhere, and why things worked brilliantly in places. ....... more than anything else, we in Nepal need to turn this tectonic shift into a paradigm shift in the way we govern ourselves, how we plan, move towards a renewable energy economy, be more self-sufficient, enforce urban planning, zoning and safe housing regulations, and decentralise decision-making. ....... Nepal has turned into a no-man’s land because of overseas out migration. Village after village devastated by the earthquake have only women, children and the elderly.

Saturday, May 02, 2015

Outlines Of A 100% Online Transparency Bill

(Subject to a wide review and discussion)

100% Online Transparency For The 2015 Earthquake Relief And Reconstruction Act

All funds and materials sent in, mobilized and earmarked for relief and reconstruction work by any and all actors including the Nepal government and the foreign governments will be subject to 100% online transparency through a website managed by a large number of Nepali volunteers globally.
All pledges will be accounted for. The date of the pledge and the date when the funds were actually made available will be noted. The funds will be managed by the respective actors - governments and NGOs - but they will be subject to the 100% online transparency rules as a matter of law.
Organizations that spend 5% or less on administrative work will be highlighted at the site and will be displayed on social media channels for further fundraising.
Organizations that can connect individual donors globally to individuals families that are directly benefiting from that particular donation, complete with pictures and video clips shared on social media, will be displayed prominently on social media channels for further fundraising.
Just like with the crowd sourced map of the on ground damage, relief and reconstruction work will be displayed on a rich multimedia map for the world to see. Every participating organization - governments and NGOs - must participate to tell the world what they did, where, and at what expense, in as real a time as possible, but always within a week.
The IT volunteers managing the website should have a coordination committee of at least 51 people with a representative from each of the 51 largest donors, of which only half maybe government donors. Another 50 IT volunteers maybe added to that from among Nepalis across the world. This coordination committee will try and build a large army of social media enthusiasts who will help spread the word on relief and reconstruction work by widely sharing pictures and video clips of work as it gets done.
This act has been passed by the parliament of Nepal in an emergency session called for this very purpose.