Aid organisations are nest featherers in good standing

PHIL FITZPATRICK

WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT, a lot of aid programs, laudable or not, are the invention of the aid organisations.

Let me be clear, in my experience, very few programs come about through a need promulgated outside the aid organisation.

When they represent an actual need, there always seems to have been some sort of connivance in their creation on the part of the donor, usually in the form of a consultancy report.

If this were not the case a lot of money could be spent on more practical things, like infrastructure, as PNG prime minister Peter O'Neill has suggested.

The fact that he recently felt the need to say this in a very public forum in Australia reinforces my view and, coincidentally, increases my respect for him.

Although they would never admit it, the people in aid organisations who invent these programs are primarily interested in feathering their own nests.

Securing funding for a program, no matter how inappropriate or bizarre, reinforces their position, collects kudos and opens up opportunities to create even more programs.

You can pretty much bet that any new research consultancy has been engineered to provide someone within the aid organisation with a launching pad for their ego.

In short, what informs most aid programs is a justification for individual bureaucratic existence rather than a real need.

The success of the aims of aid programs come a very long way down their list of priorities.

There are some exceptions of course.

AusAID is very good at delivering short-term aid packages that produce real results. These are mostly in the area of materiel but seldom have ongoing or sustainable elements.

In worst case scenarios, people have great heaps of stuff delivered to them that they neither know how to use or maintain.

The people who are recruited to carry out aid programs overwhelmingly come from the same country as the donor and very seldom question the need for what they are delivering.

They take this on faith as a given and the thing rolls on, getting bigger and bigger and more and more unwieldy.  They also have their own motives, not least of which is to make money and who can blame them for that.

I recently heard of an aid program which has been developed to teach politicians in the Pacific region the art of media spin.

I've no doubt there is a need there somewhere.  After all, people like Belden Namah need all the help they can get.

But consider what would have happened if he had been trained and had developed effective media nous before the last elections.

He may very well have come across as a reasonably sane and caring politician; and who's to say he isn't, perhaps he was just the victim of bad press.

On the other hand he might actually have become prime minister and PNG could now be rapidly going down the gurgler.  Belden isn't the only fruitloop politician, there are still lots of them out there.

I'm hoping that the candidates for this "teach pollies to talk media spin" program are very, very carefully selected.

Comments

[Charlie Lynn]

The Kokoda Village Livelihoods program generated out of Canberra to help villagers ‘value add’ to the emerging trekking industry is a good example of aid waste.

Trek operators, who bring ‘paying customers’ were not consulted - neither were campsite owners or local villagers.

More than $2 million has been invested in consultants and feel-good programs that have no association with trekkers.

As a result there is not a single, measurable outcome from the program thus far. I am happy to be corrected.

[Peter Kranz]

Phil, come on - what about TB and HIV/AIDS programs?

Some aid programs are a genuine response to a very real need.

By the way, talking about TB, how is the upgrading of Daru hospital going? And have the Torres clinics closed their doors to visitors from PNG?

[Mrs Barbara Short]

Not so long ago, Kerevat National High School in East New Britain Province was on the brink of closure. However, efforts by a lot of people, including the former teachers, to restore the school, are now becoming a reality.

In November, for the first time for many years, the school, which is one of the oldest in the country, restored its lost pride; the institution’s annual cultural show.

The event was last held more than 10 years ago and the recent show coincided with the reopening of renovated buildings at the school, thanks to funding from AusAID and the PNG government.

School principal, Reime Ray Alo, has worked hard to assist in the rebuilding of the school. The staff and students worked hard at preparing the two-day event and the renovated buildings were declared open on 19 November 2012.

The renovated and repaired water reticulation project and the sewerage plant were also celebrated.

Companies such as Lisko Limited, AP Engineering, G-man and Covec Contractors and Treid Pacific Limited have been working since February this year to restore the institution.

I hope that this school will now go on to become one of the new Schools of Excellence.

Many of the ex-students of this school have played a major role in the development of PNG since way back in the 1960s when Ephraim Jubilee was appointed as a member of the Legislative Council in 1961.

But AusAID now must listen to what the educators are saying is needed in PNG.

The idea of extending to Grade 12 at many of the other existing high schools and making the old National High Schools appear redundant, was a bad idea.

Standards in Grade 12 dropped. The other high schools had no way of providing the necessary facilities and highly trained teachers to maintain the high standard for grade 12 students which had been reached in years past in the National High Schools.

The University professors lamented the huge drop in the ability of the Grade 12 students. Many of the Grade 12 students found they could not find employment. The employers were not stupid and could see how these students were not "up to the job".

Something had to be done. Top PNG educationalists have been trying to solve the problem for many years. I think AusAID has not been listening.

Just as in NSW we have top selective schools to train up our future top academics, PNG needs some of the same.

But curricula need to be updated in all subjects. Teachers in these selective Schools of Excellence need help in curriculum development.

PNG teachers of English need help in the teaching of English. Who better than some top teachers from English speaking countries who are willing to offer their help to PNG and spend some time there.

Money will be needed for all of this type of aid. The PNG Education Department have many talented teachers who know what is needed and I'm sure they will welcome some aid.

Let's hope AusAID will continue with the "renovation" of these former National High Schools as they are turned into Schools of Excellence.

But the schools now need talented manpower, not bricks and mortar.