Aid to Conflict-torn Countries can be Counterproductive - Wendy Chamberlain, Former US Ambassador to Pakistan (2001)
Providing aid to conflict-torn countries may be counterproductive, a former U.S. aid official and now head of a U.S.-based think tank has argued. This is because donors tend to spend the bulk of their aid budget on securing the safety of their development and humanitarian workers in those countries.
Other challenges include rampant corruption in recipient governments and lack of local capacity to implement, oversee and maintain foreign-funded development projects, Wendy Chamberlain said, according to The National. Chamberlain served as regional head of the U.S. Agency for International Development in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region in 2002 and 2004.
“Development aid can actually be counterproductive if you don’t have a number of building blocks already in place. Security is, of course one of them, but also the basic capacity of the people on the ground,” adds Chamberlain, who now heads the Middle East Institute think tank. “There has to be enough rule of law that aid is not subject to gross corruption. There has to be some ability for local government to build upon the systems — if you build a road, it gets repaired.”
Courtesy Devex, Ivy Mungcal
Other challenges include rampant corruption in recipient governments and lack of local capacity to implement, oversee and maintain foreign-funded development projects, Wendy Chamberlain said, according to The National. Chamberlain served as regional head of the U.S. Agency for International Development in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region in 2002 and 2004.
“Development aid can actually be counterproductive if you don’t have a number of building blocks already in place. Security is, of course one of them, but also the basic capacity of the people on the ground,” adds Chamberlain, who now heads the Middle East Institute think tank. “There has to be enough rule of law that aid is not subject to gross corruption. There has to be some ability for local government to build upon the systems — if you build a road, it gets repaired.”
Courtesy Devex, Ivy Mungcal
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