July 30, 2008
Corruption Prevalent In Overseas Aid Work, Report Finds
There’s a lot of confusion among international aid workers about what constitutes corruption, according to a new study cited by Ruth Gidley on ReutersAlertnet.
The study by Transparency International, Tufts University, and the Overseas Development Institute, found that foreign employees with seven large aid groups saw corruption primarily as stealing money, not abusing power.
Many staff members surveyed didn’t consider demanding sexual favors or getting a friend a job corruption. Some, in fact, saw nepotism as a positive thing — ensuring that family members and friends they brought to the job would be honest.
The study also found that many charities abandon strict accounting practices in times of crises. One nonprofit group reported that it lost track of 39 of its 50 satellite phones in the midst of an emergency.
Many large charities fail to end a relationship with a grass-Croots organization after corruption is uncovered because of the difficulty of finding another group to carry out the work, the study says.
“Many aid workers argue that the imperative to save lives is more important than keeping an eye on every penny, but others, including the report’s authors, argue that avoiding corruption should be embedded in relief projects from the start,” writes Ms. Gidley.
What do you think? How widespread is corruption in overseas aid work? What more can be done to prevent graft?
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Q: When is development aid just not worth receiving?
A: When the people delivering it are raping your ten year old daughter.
If this were being perpetrated by a marauding army, the world would be (rightly) inflamed about it, but because it’s being perpetrated by people sent to “help” them, it seems like it’s getting the short end of the news coverage – just like people ignoring it when it was being done by UN “peacekeepers” and “aid workers.” Few bad apples, folks…keep moving, nothing to see here. Truly, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Considering that aid agencies (not disaster relief, mind you) are staffed by overpaid Westerners, corrupt locals, and that there’s a strong correlation between those countries receiving the most aid over the long run and those on the bottom of the development pile, I wonder how these organizations can raise any money at all. Oh, right. Government contracts – sort of like Halliburton, only with more pedophilia.
— Bif Jul 31, 02:57 PM #
I am obviously one of the ‘overpaid Westerners’ to whom you refer in the previous comment (and unfortunately I cannot get back the 2 minutes of my life wasted on reading it). I work in humanitarian assistance managing complex emergency operations in Africa., and you can be darn sure that sexual exploitation an issue taken seriously when it happens by aid workers (or even not by aidworkers – addressing sexual exploitation and violence perpetuated by others is a concern we attempt to address as well).. Do you honestly think we live in war zones with no running water for kicks? That dealing with soldiers and rebels is a fun thing where I myself don’t have to ever be concerned for my safety (or that I might be raped)? That I should be doing this for free rather than actually being a trained, educated professional making $38,000/year?
Also, you’re confounding several issues here. ‘Aid agencies’ is a term that is typically used to encompass donors, NGOs and UN agencies. ‘Aid agencies’ are the ones who implement disaster relief (what, do you think that’s it’s a magical system where ‘poof!’ food shows up in the hands of people who just survived an earthquake!). That we just throw food off a truck and let people sort themselves out? And ‘development aid’ to which you refer in your inane question, is a separate type of assistance.
Finally, to philanthropy.com, this is extraordinarily shoddy reporting, even for a blog-roundup. I’ve read the report referenced here, which no one at your site obviously has, and it certainly didn’t find that ‘corruption prevalent in overseas work.’ Nor did the blog that is the basis of this little blurb ever state that. Thanks for lowering the bar on actually addressing the issue of corruption by opting for a sensationalist headline rather than a serious article. Much appreciated.
— Sarah Aug 8, 09:49 AM #