[afro-nets] Famine in Niger - Another example of failed development

[Peter Burgess <Profitinafrica@aol.com>]

Famine in Niger - Another example of failed development
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Dear Colleagues

This evening (Tuesday) I have been watching TV. First Bill Moy-
ers "Wide Angle" program on PBS about the Botswana and Zimbabwe
border and the terrible differences between the economic success
of Botswana and the economic and political failure of Zimbabwe.
And then Ted Koppel's "Nightline" on ABC about the famine crisis
in Niger (with images courtesy of Hillary Anderson, a BBC re-
porter).

Bill Moyers had George Ayittey as a guest to give some African
perspective to the interpretation of the economic failure in
Zimbabwe. More than most people, George Ayittey is willing to
point a finger at the African leadership and the huge personal
wealth accumulated by the elite at the expense of African peo-
ple. I always see this from an accountant's perspective and am
disgusted that the transparency and accountability of official
relief and development assistance is so pathetic.

Ted Koppel had the UN's Mark Malloch-Brown as a guest to give
some explanation of the current crisis in Niger. It really is
sad how ineffective the world's official relief and development
assistance (ORDA) community has become. Very few poor countries
have governments that have any capacity at all... even though
they have been key "development partners" for some 30 or 40
years. Obviously something is hugely wrong. The UN and other do-
nors have been doing "capacity building" for a very long time
and at considerable expense, but at the end of the day, what has
been accomplished. Mark Malloch-Brown pointed out that the prob-
lem in Niger had been identified towards the end of 2004... but
that donors had not responded to the UN's appeals. Why not? What
is wrong? There is a big USAID funded project, the Famine Early
Warning System (FEWS) that has been operating for many years
that gives warnings, and it gave warnings. Why did they not get
acted upon? What is wrong? How is it that the UN system is only
now gearing up to help when some million people might now die
because of the famine? It seems that something is fundamentally
wrong with the way the system operates.

I did consulting assignments in the 1980s and early 1990s about
food security in Africa... getting to know about hunger and im-
pending famine is not very difficult. Planning to have security
food stocks, and building food storage facilities is also rela-
tively easy... but getting the funding to keep food stocks in
the right place so that they can be used at the right time is a
big problem... and where the funding has been made available it
does not appear to have been used appropriately.

Mark Malloch-Brown touched on the need to have a fund (of per-
haps $1 billion, or maybe just $100 million) so that the UN
could act on a timely basis... good idea... and originated 20
years ago, if not more... but never acted upon because it would
give the UN more ability to perform (power) than any member gov-
ernment wants it to have. Or is it something else?

I am really distressed that failure to address the chronic prob-
lem of the failed system for official relief and development as-
sistance (ORDA) means that once again untold thousands of Afri-
cans are going to die... it is a horrendous failure of modern
society... and I feel ashamed that the Africa crisis continues
on and on and on.

Sincerely,

Peter Burgess
Tr-Ac-Net in New York
Tel.: +1-212-772-6918
mailto:peterbnyc@gmail.com
The Transparency and Accountability Network
With Kris Dev in Chennai India
and others in South Asia, Africa and Latin America
http://tr-ac-net.blogspot.com