Rumour Has it: What are Donors doing in Pakistan?

Nilofer Qazi January 31 2012

The Capital is overrun by foreign donors trying desperately to spend in a country which is neither poor nor able to absorb the funds.  The politics of Aid requires a lot more attention than given.

The elite of our Capital includes, along with the bureaucrats, politicians, generals, and indenters also the development professionals. What development?  Many of us who can read, speak English, ( Pashto these days is also in demand)  and most importantly, churn out reports, can make a very decent living.

The ‘development’  sector  consists of the following : a donor  agency in line with their country’s  foreign policy, allocates an amount  to ‘assist’ Pakistan, in most probably a ‘social sector area’ because the government of Pakistan has seen fit to allocate less than 5% of its GNP towards the basic necessities’  of its citizens; hence many donors focus on areas of health, education, water and sanitation, public awareness on gender related issues and also disaster management, most recently; Next.   In come the ‘development experts’, both local and international,  who on behalf of the ‘donors’  ‘study’ ‘develop’ ‘implement’ and sometimes ‘monitor’ the various social development programs all over the country . Has it helped Pakistan I ask?  Now if one observes the ‘success’ of these social sector programs over the past 60 years?  You judge.

Whose fault if any is it?  Why do the donors continue to waste there tax payers money in these relatively unsuccessful ventures? Perhaps the funds provided by the international community aren’t sufficient enough to make a dent, given the need?  In addition, the overall social sector budget is unable to absorb these funds towards its intended goals. Both are facts.  

Let’s look at the donors first: Perhaps there is more to the ‘development business’ than meets the eye. Funds are going down the drain relatively, to the results planned to justify the investments.  The donors in Pakistan have tripled their ‘investments’ over the past 3 years in an environment of global recession!   Moreover, Pakistan a UN Reform Pilot country, in which systems of accountability, monitoring, coordination amongst donors/national actors are mandatory, for the very purpose of ensuring that scarce funds towards development SHOW results and are focused towards improving the lives of the poor. There has been a lot of banter and talk about ‘the overhead costs of NGOs, UN and foreign agencies’ which take 40-70% of the funds away from programs. Although this is a little exaggerated, technical expertise costs, and in of itself should be rewarded, but only within a sound and results oriented plan. Thus, if the donors continue to remain uncoordinated, invest in systems, programs which they KNOW   are dysfunctional; this strategy of investment is also tantamount to ‘corruption’ which the government of Pakistan is constantly accused of.

Now the government: why are the governments service delivery mechanisms  unable to absorb and deliver?  The systems in our government departments, the rules of business which govern how government must operate, for example in the procurement areas, the procedures and processes involved are so cumbersome, purchasing  a paper clip would entail  paper work and file movements upwards and downwards that  it would be cheaper and quicker for an individual to go into a market and get it !  In this lock jam environment there is absolutely no incentive or capacity to do anything. Hence the system in of itself ‘encourages’ outsiders such as donor funded consultants to ‘do’ and to ‘purchase’ and as result, practically run functions of government services.  The officials alongside ‘consultants’ achieve little at the expense of the millions in need. The duplication, inefficiency and processes clog delivery systems instead of delivering.

Lets look for a solution then: Pakistan is a public sector dependent country, which means the majority of  souls rely on government; who and how are these services delivered in Pakistan? The government servants which include both the ‘civil service cadres’ and the government officers below grade 12 together constitute the backbone and  the heart of the national system of delivering everything.    Let’s look at our civil service system? What kind of training and hence capacity do our public servants have?  Do they have the wherewithal to handle the volume of the cases they are confronted with, or the capacity to understand the scope of the issues they face; are they trained technically in the sectors they govern? Those who manage the ‘services’ eg DMG officers or senior civil servants have on average a bachelors degree only. Many of the technical areas such as medicine, education, and finance  professionals require a minimum of a phd to be considered an expert. A system which has its policy makers below par cannot possibly attract policy makers or able to deliver.

Why don’t the ‘Friends of Pakistan’ put all their little money, and lobbying muscles’ towards collectively developing a ‘win win ‘strategy for Pakistan and there tax payers. Stop giving money to Pakistan. ONLY provide human resource trainings and technical support within a framework of reform of the entire public service delivery system. The usual mantra of there is no will in this corrupt government and  there are strong  vested interests in the civil service are not strong enough .

Here is the heart of the conundrum? Perhaps the intention is not only the improvement of the lives of the poor ? As long as the ‘development experts’ continue to remain employed both nationally and internationally it supports an economy-an elite economy, in Pakistan and abroad. Some folks are benefiting so that’s good enough I suppose?