Unspun

The conventional wisdom is that when disasters strike Indonesia, such as the tsunamis in Aceh and Pangadaran and the earthquake in Yogjakarta, the only organizations you can trust to make sure that the aid gets to the people are international aid agencies.

Well, NOT. Not all the time anyway. According to Jane Perlez in today’s edition of the International Herald Tribune. She writes a blistering piece on how some international aid agencies, bloated and drunk, with unprecedented amounts of donations after the Aceh tsunami, became more bent on “paying more attention to advertising their “brands” and releasing self-laudatory reports.

She cited the Tsunami Evaluation Coalition as saying what us long timers who have seen Aceh close up suspected: that many of the agencies acted with “arrogance and ignorance” and were often staffed by “incompetent workers”.

Having worked in Aceh on a project last year I saw first hand the jostling for prominence and publicity among the large international aid agencies, not to mention the many dubiously qualified officers of the agencies. Many of the officers were also living on the lap of luxury in Jakarta. Grand houses, fancy cars, fine dining and wining lifestyles mark some of the executives.

No one is saying that they should live in penury because they are aid workers but when you are spending other people’s money meant for tsunami victims without a decent roof over their heads, one would think that a more restrained lifestyle is called for. Ceasar’s wife and all that.

The report, cited by Perlez, also helps shatter another myth about disasters – that local organizations are not very good or honest in delivering the goods. The success of the international aid agencies in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami in delivering food and shelter to the victims, it says, was “thanks largely to local organizations.”
I’ve always thought that the best thing anyone could do was to set up a body that ranks local NGOs on their effectiveness and efficiency and areas they work with. Local NGOs are extremely effective because they know the culture and they are here to stay. The problem is that there are some rotten apples among them that makes it difficult for people not in Indonesia to know who to trust.

It’s not easy but if something like a NGO Ranking Index can be set up and constantly reviewed and maintained much good can come out of it, not least a faster development of local NGOs.

But who will do it?