THE WESTERN WORLD AND THE DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE

“Changed Attitude Towards Solidarity

More western, especially European countries are facing political changes that mean strengthening the right-wing, also including the strengthening of the extreme right-wing (for instance Austria, Italy, Denmark) and overall move of the political forces towards right (social-democrats move towards the center).

This process is probably the consequence of the increased social insecurity which resulted from the greater competition due to the globalization and the European integration and the flow of foreign labor.

The process itself influences the turning towards ones own social security and decrease of solidarity towards other people.

The political reflection is the increased criticism on the development assistance by the right-wing. There is a danger of reducing the development assistance due to the reduction of private (including church) donations and/or reduction of public funds. Such an example is the recently elected right-wing government in Denmark, country with the relatively largest funds for development assistance. During the pre-electional activities they promised, and now they are realizing the reduction of the country’s budget for development assistance for 12% or about $200 million. It is not known yet where these cuts will reflect, but a decreased support of the multi-lateral organizations (UN system) and ecology, as well as other areas is announced. 

Results and report – two main issues of the criticism  

The increased criticism on the development assistance is not direct, that is, it needs to decrease and the results as well as the reports are being criticized. The criticism on the results or “What difference do the development assistance and the agencies for people on the field make?” is that after many years the condition of the margin groups does not change. This is what the report criticism is related with- that there are abuses and manipulations, that there is no control of the assets and quality financial reports, revisions, etc.  

The response to the criticism  

Some complex activities are directed against the criticism. The response to the criticism consists of measures such as organizational changes and changes of strategies and activities. Organizational changes include “result-guided managing/control” or strengthening the financial control. The basis of the first measure is emphasis on the results (as opposed to the control of inputs or process). The same should also be presented, which needs survey and assessment-quality reports and independent studies. Strengthening the financial control means, for example, introducing obligatory separate accounts or independent revision by international auditor.

In the strategies more emphasis is given to the activities aimed at causes (“rights approach” or “cause approach”) and activities aimed at home as representing and lobbying. The first should demonstrate that the assistance can change the conditions, without creating addicts.

Home activities should raise the awareness of the need of development assistance. For that reason, quality information and presentation are necessary.

Additional measure is “field offices”. They are needed in order to improve the process of information and control and to provide an appropriate interpretation. Similar measure is the reduction on the number of partners. An example policy of ICCO Holland is to decrease the number of countries in which the ICCO will be present (from 82 to 50) and the number of partners (from 844 to about 600) and the programs. It should provide focusing and results, as well as increased control.  

Needs for action in Macedonia

Actions in two directions are needed: information and report. It is necessary to improve the civic associations informing in Macedonia, which apart from the quantity information, should also contain quality information and include “stories”. It will also be necessary to strengthen the representation and lobbying. This is related to the strengthening of reports on micro and macro level. Some of the macro level measures are: obligatory audited annual reports on larger organizations; civic organizations code or an ombudsman.

 

Saso Klekovski