clare lockhart, the best and the worst of aid

The Best and The Worst

International engagement and national leadership in fragile/ failed states

Clare Lockhart5 March 2010

November 13, 2001

The Worst

• Afghanistan• Haiti• Kosovo• Pakistan• Sudan• Somalia

The Syndrome• Thousands of projects, dozens of systems• Technical Assistance vs vocational training• Parallel Bureaucracies• Multiple layers of contracting• Wages Disparities• Double Standards: failure of UN agencies, NGOs

private companies to provide information of accounts

• The so-called “coordination problem”• Stove-piping: security, development, economics,

politics, humanitarian issues all dealt with separately

• The “blank slate” syndrome• Ignoring the balance state/ market: all state or

all market

Fragments rule of lawMarginalize national &

local leadersDuplication, substitution“salami-slicing”Leaching human capitalCulture of duplicity

Imports further layers of bureaucracy

entrenching the problems

Marginalizes citizensPuts domestic companies

at a disadvantage

Root: Double Failure• An international "aid complex" with no accountability either to citizens of

the supposed beneficiary countries or to taxpayer countries

• UN agency contracts and programs do not provide accounts to governing boards, donor countries or citizen-beneficiaries- allowing for cycle of non-delivery: rely on ever-increasing appeals to fund HQ costs

• NGOs fragmented and no agreed upon standards for accountability

• Governments not accountable to their citizens, no agreed upon standards for accountability

The Best• Singapore• Spain• Portugal• Ireland• US South• Chile• Peru• Accession Countries• Gulf countries• Mozambique• Botswana• Rwanda

Successful transformations

1960 2000

The Singaporean economy has grown by a factor of almost 260 within one generation

Characteristics and Drivers

• Leadership and management

• National Accountability systems

• Investment in vocational training & higher education

• Investment in domestic firm creation and jobs

• Creation of citizenship rights and obligations

• Getting financing flows right

Application to Challenging Contexts

• Leadership: the political process and settlement, creating the space for new leadership

• National Accountability Systems: sequencing the creation of accountability

• Investment in the next generation

• Investment in a few key economic sectors

• Delivering social services through policy frameworks and platforms: National Programs

• Trust Funds and new approaches to financing

sequencemap existing assetsleverage networks + hierarchies

currency

telecoms

rural

Delivering Services • Afghanistan: ARTF, National Accountability Systems and National Programs

• National Programs, elsewhere:– Indonesia– Mexico– Brazil– Nepal

Next steps?

• Movement and standards for accountability (from left and right)

• Scrutinize the aid complex• Scrutinize government budgets• Collect stories on, and codify, what works • Focus on leaders and managers and their

stories • Ask them