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Contributions from
the Column
Facts and trends
The FAO adopts guidelines
The reality of development aid
IMF evaluation of capital market liberalisation
Kenya produces generic AIDS drugs
UN Report: fewer conflicts in Africa
Computers for the poor
“In Afghanistan, donors must do more
to support the private sector”
Debt relief stays on the agenda
11/2004
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The reality of development aid
In various statements and policy papers the German government acknowledges, that any initiatives to fight terrorism and prevent conflict must rely chiefly on civil remedies. In practical policy terms, however, the military has priority. The aid organisations, terre des hommes and German Agro Action, draw this conclusion in their recent report “The reality of development aid”. The document states that, after September 11, the government significantly widened the scope of development policy, without allocating any more resources. More than ever it has become vital that the departments responsible for crisis prevention work together efficiently. But the aid agencies bemoan a lack of coordination, both in Germany and internationally. Both organisations now demand that the federal government draft cross-functional strategies for hot spots, as it has done for Afghanistan . Today, development programmes in civil-military missions are restricted to the “thankless task of acting as ‘the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff’”.
In its response to the report, the German Development Ministry endorsed the opinion that international spending on the military and development aid is “blatantly disproportionate”. On the other hand the Ministry repudiates criticism leveled at itself. In its view, the aid organisations’ report “clings too tightly to its one-sided understanding of projects” and takes too little consideration of the benefits of a global structural policy. (ell)
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