What has become of Donor Aid?
By Isaac Twumasi-Quantus in Accra.
While the increase in donor aid can be said to be a positive aspect because it can bring much more rapid development than even a few years ago, we shouldn’t forget that aid is provided under certain conditions. And on this point we must be very vigilant.
As I see it Aid has tended to focus on meeting what the donors want and not what the people want. Aid focuses on meeting donor objectives and not necessarily poverty reduction. And this has led to aid being poorly targeted and ineffective in Africa.
The ways in which donors behave in Africa needs to be looked at again. It seems donors are not held accountable by our government, our members of parliament or indeed us. But they take a driving seat in everything that is happening in our country.
This turn could undermine accountability in Africa. It is continually weakening our government’s ability to decide its own policies and in turn our people’s ability to hold their government to account is also continually reducing.
Our government’s view continues to refocus on donors rather than the citizens and their representatives in Parliament. And because of this, aid has been increasing expectations without delivering results.
It is time we are allowed to spend the funding given to us by donors on our priorities, priorities truly decided by us and not by them. The quality of aid must improve if poverty reduction objectives are to be met.
There’s need to change donor practices if we are to increase aid effectiveness. And donors should realise that their aid will only be successful if it is truly owned by us.
In today’s scheme of things, we are highly accountable to donors, but donors are rarely accountable to us. Making donors more accountable to us will go a long way in helping to improve their aid practices and more leadership by us in this aid relationship itself could promote our ownership better.
This article was originally posted on Sustainable Development Africa Platform
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