clare lockhart, the best and the worst of aid
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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