AFRO-NETS> Development information - accounting and accountability (3)

[John Kiwanuka Ssemakula <jssemakula@medilinks.org>]

Development information - accounting and accountability (3)
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Dear all

This is an interesting topic and one that is asked often but not 
asked enough. I think both parties make valid points, but they don't 
go far enough. So let me put in my two shillings worth.

Just asking how much was spent by whom is important but not enough by 
itself, however you divide the money, north, south, east or west. 
Equally where you spent it while equally as important does not give 
the whole picture. The other questions that should be asked are what 
did you spend the money on and most importantly what outcomes did you 
achieve with the money you spent.

What did you spend the money on, is often quite illuminating, if you 
can ever get hold of the information. You find that a relatively 
large chunk will go on administration and salaries (quite often at 
expatriate rates) even before the project has started, and only part 
of the remainder is devoted to the actual project.

A question that is much harder to answer is what was actually 
achieved. By harder to answer, I mean it is more difficult to get a 
straight answer about what was achieved. Actually more often than not 
the answer is fairly easy, nothing was achieved, apart from we suc-
cessfully spent the whole budget. Or if you are more diplomatic, not 
as much one would like to have achieved. Or we achieved the same re-
sults as the previous study, which was nothing, same as before.

This is of course not true of all development projects and studies, 
but it is true enough for a significant number to make it a legiti-
mate field of study. And so starts another round of multimillion dol-
lar studies on "enhanced evaluation and developmental outcomes" 
(EEDO), which will become the new buzzword to find out why the money 
that was spent in the first place seemed to have no effect. Has any-
one heard this before?


Dr John Kiwanuka Ssemakula (MD, MPH)
CEO Medilinks
420, E54 Street
Suite 29C
New York, 10022
Tel: +1-917-292-5968
Fax: +1-212-688-0223
mailto:jssemakula@medilinks.org
http://medilinks.org
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