February 10, 2011 By IdaHorner
A week ago there was an article in The Guardian on food shortages in Karamoja North Eastern Uganda, I had just written about it over at Ethnic Supplies blog following the BBC report on the same issue.
What caught my eye is the response down the line by someone whose handle/user name is Java1930- he concludes by posing the question in whose interests do the NGO’s and AID agencies work?.
Karamoja like most parts of the developing world have Aid agencies and NGO’s for as long as some of us can remember and this is a very important question for us as Africans to ask or at the very least seek to address.
And before I continue I ought to pose another question-
Are African owned/led NGOs any better than foreign ones?
If so why and if not why not?
My beef with with NGO’s and Aid agencies for that matter is two fold
- the foreign NGOs/AID agencies come with their own agendas and whether or not this fits priorities on the ground it never seems to matter
- the recipients almost always never get a chance to influence the said agenda
All that said and done I would actually be OK with an NGO that came out and said you know what we are a business and we are in this for the money like any other business! Am I nuts perhaps, you decide
Does the problem lie with the Citizens of the developing countries? Why I hear you ask?
How much responsibility do we or at least our leaders abdicate to NGO’s?
Remember Na’s post of the Village that Aid forgot?
I am going to keep this very short so we can have a discussion.
What are your views about this all?
Do you work for a NGO , head one or founded one? Whose interests do you serve?
Over to you folk
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