22615: Durban: To Hess on Sustainable Foreign Aid (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Lance Durban <lpdurban@yahoo.com>

In his post 55280, Doug Hess notes that
   ...here in the US community development corporations
   have learned that going beyond physical infrastructure
   development is key to helping communities thrive.

I'm sure there are some effective community groups out there,
Doug, but in suggesting that aid monies should NOT be going
there, I base my views on the fact that such projects frequently
aim to create the community development group first and then
dump money on it.  Measuring the return on this kind of project
in any kind of empirical manner is pretty impossible.  Even
worse, when the aid money dries up, more often than not, the
community development group withers away.  OK, that's only my
opinion based on limited experience, and I would be pleased to
hear what others have to say.

I favor a "bricks and mortar" aid project over a fuzzy,
touchy-feely kind of institution building effort any day for a
couple of reasons:
  1. A road, bridge, or building project is easy to
     budget beforehand and evaluate upon completion.
  2. There is an obvious need everywhere you look in
     Haiti.  Hardly a paved road in the country,
     electricity supply a disaster, public access to
     water non-existant in many neighborhood.
  3. From the donor's standpoint, foreign aid should
     also be a tool to generate good will toward the
     donor country.  That's just reality and it
     shouldn't come as a shock, but if the population
     can't even see it, it can hardly be appreciated.

To summarize, a good new road trumps the next surreptitious
democracy enhancement project in my view.  As for paying a raft
of consultants and imported lawyers to try and strengthen the
Haitian legal system?  Fugeddaboutit!

Lance Durban