U.S. Foreign Aid Increasingly Incoherent, Ad Hoc, Charge NGOs

[DUreader]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1103-01.htm


WASHINGTON -- U.S. foreign aid under the administration of President George W. Bush is
becoming increasingly incoherent, according to a coalition representing more than 160
non-governmental development and humanitarian organizations (NGOs) that are calling for a
"full-scale review" of U.S. assistance for poor countries.

In a 15-page policy paper released Friday, InterAction, a coalition of virtually all major private U.S. aid
groups, charged that aid programs are increasingly fragmented among a growing number of new and
existing U.S. agencies, creating new layers of bureaucracy that defy coordination. The result,
according to the groups, is that aid activities in the field are "scattershot," in some cases leading to
as many as five different agencies in the field working on the same problem, sometimes without the
knowledge of the local U.S. ambassador or aid director.

The paper, "Foreign Assistance in Focus: Emerging Trends," also said aid is being increasingly
distorted by the administration's ever-expanding "war on terrorism" both by short-changing existing
long-term aid programs in many poor countries and by relying increasingly on the Pentagon and
private contractors to carry out humanitarian and reconstruction missions for which they may be
ill-suited.

"The increasing role of the Defense Department to plan and implement humanitarian relief and
reconstruction in hot spots such as Afghanistan and Iraq, in addition to apparent greater reliance on
private sector contractors there, raises overall costs dramatically, undercuts efforts to lay the
foundation for longer-term development, and ignores the experience of USAID (U.S. Agency for
International Development), its NGO grantees and international organizations," according to the
study.

[DuctapeFatwa]

1. The Crusade is about stopping humanitarian aid, not facilitating it

I understand the concern of the NGO's but at this point I don't see the utility in being so polite about it, I guess they are just hoping to stave off being declared terror orgs like most of the smaller ones, especially non-western ones, have been.