The Roar on the Other Side of Silence

Joyce Wu presents “The Roar on the Other Side of Silence: A pre-fieldwork presentation for a multi-country research on sexual violence in conflict/post-conflict situation”. Centre for International Governance & Justice (CIGJ), Regulatory Institutes Network, the Australian National University. At Coombs Extension Lecture Theatre, Bldg 8, Room 1.04. Tuesday 11 August 2009, 12.30pm – 1.30pm.

Traveller’s Tale: Indian NGO development revisited

I remember many years back in the early 1980s, I came across an older journal article by a pair of brothers with the arresting name of Paddock. They wrote in the mid-1960s, saying that India was beyond redemption, and that the world should undertake triage and only provide emergency assistance. Similar things are often said about Africa in today’s discourse, including Dambisa Moyo’s argument (discussed on this blog) to cut aid all together. It is nearly ten years since I was last in Bangalore (in Karnataka state) in India. Now the question is: what is the relevance of aid agencies and NGOs in the context of a booming economy, at least in southern India, and Karnataka in particular? Ten years ago, the concrete and glass IT offices were on the edge of Bangalore, standing rather incongruously in farmland and paddy fields, and people commuted out from the city to them. Now these IT offices are all surrounded by luxury apartments and gated highrise suburbs for the IT elite.

Now where does this leave the ‘real’ India – the rural communities which still make up most of the population and most of the poverty? They have not been left out all together: the construction work on roads and the like is evident everywhere. The question is does this reach the most marginalised?

Wu’s seminar on “From ‘Fallen Blossoms’ to ‘Army Latrines’

In this seminar, I highlighted some of the discourses at hand surrounding the issue of sexual- and gender-based violence (SGBV) in conflict situation, and the influence they have upon aid agencies.

In particular, I wanted to explore how the prevailing understanding and distinction of the private vs. public understanding about violence against women during the so-called peacetime is carried into discussions about violence against women in conflict and post-conflict situation. This distinction is played out in the prioritisation of different forms of sexual violence, where military-perpetrated forms of sexual violence takes precedence, as demonstrated in wider media attention as well as the rhetoric of aid agencies and donors.

Commentary on Dambisa Moyo’s book ‘Dead Aid’

Dambisa Moyo’s book Dead Aid has received a lot of publicity over the last month and joins a long list of popular books attacking aid programs, and those organisations and groups that deliver it. This book is by an economist who has spent most of her working life with Goldmann Sachs the investment advisory service, and before that the World Bank. I emphasise that point as most of the commentary highlights her Zambian heritage, and it is used to give her more credibility than the many middle age white males who comment on aid to Africa – and I readily admit falling into that category. Of course there are also many black voices who comment on the aid policies to Africa but take a different line, and we can think of Nobel laureates Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, or former UN Supremo Kofi Annan, all of whom have lived and worked in Africa; or the Kenyan lawyer Binaifer Nowrojee who is a member of the Coalition for Women’s Human Rights in Conflict Situations, and writes extensively on gender and conflict in Africa contexts.

The line Ms Moyo takes is a familiar one, and that is the debt crisis in Africa is of Africa’s own doing and that ‘aid’ makes things worse. What is interesting is that the book comes out at the time the world is facing by far the worst global recession since the 1930s, and the solutions Ms Moyo is suggesting for Africa, are now generally been agreed as been part of the cause of the current crisis: that is, access to unfettered global exchange markets, and poor credit regulations – particularly in the US. One can argue that Goldman Sachs is probably more to do the problem than the solution.

That aside, this book’s rather passionate defence of the neoliberal approaches to development is rather selective in its view of aid and development. While it readily accepts the role of the re-building of Europe after the war and cites the Marshall Plan as a very positive example, Ms Moyo seems to be less supportive of the aid successes in the developing world of the last sixty years, and the role it had in many countries, some of which are in Africa. She also suggests that the Asian successes are to do with ‘free market policies’ and ‘outward orientation’. While we can agree with an outward orientation, one is hard pressed to find any Asian country, successful or otherwise, that practices free market policies. Much of the success is to do with a high level of government (and dare I say it ‘aid’) investment in strategic areas, and in planning. None of this is mentioned in Ms Moyo’s book. [...]

The role of the affected state in humanitarian action: A case study on Indonesia

Whilst covering a lot of old ground on the role of the affected state and others in humanitarian action, this report by Barnaby Willitts-King is very timely as it raises issues including of the role of local authorities, local ownership, and appropriate behaviours of international agencies, both official and NGO.

Shifts in New Zealand aid policy: a sign of things to come?

The New Zealand aid program has hit the headlines in the last week with an announcement by Foreign Minister Murray McCully of two reviews into the foreign aid program, and at the same time flagging a shift away from poverty reduction to economic development.

Bretton Woods 2: What Should be on the Agenda

Since the beginning of the current global financial and now economic crisis the role of the global financial institutions namely the International Monetary Fund and the World bank are under scrutiny. This paper from the Bretton Wood Project raises a number of key issues which any new global financial architecture must address. In among issues such as exchange rates trade surpluses and deficits and other global economic issues, is the important dicussion about local development and the preservation of the global commons.

Labour says Minister axed funding to Pacific aid programme

The Labour Party has accused Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully of personally intervening to cut funding of $1.95 million to a Pacific aid programme.

McCully’s attack on NZ’s Aid Programme

NZ Foreign Minister McCully has trashed NZAID’s emphasis on alleviating and eliminating poverty. That framework is something he has chosen to ridicule as a handout, not a hand-up. “You could ride around in a helicopter pushing hundred-dollar notes out the door and call that poverty elimination,” McCully said recently.

Throwing money at planes Govt’s approach to aid

Subsidising Air New Zealand Pacific Island airline routes using aid money is more about ensuring shareholder returns than helping the poor, said TEAR Fund executive director Stephen Tollestrup.