{"id":2564,"date":"2011-06-09T16:48:40","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T16:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=2564"},"modified":"2011-06-09T16:48:40","modified_gmt":"2011-06-09T16:48:40","slug":"putting-donors-out-of-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2011\/06\/09\/putting-donors-out-of-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting Donors Out of Work"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2565\" title=\"4117177474_35207ef40c\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/4117177474_35207ef40c.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"364\" \/>Submitted by <a title=\"View user profile.\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.worldbank.org\/publicsphere\/team\/shanthi-kalathil\">Shanthi Kalathil<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This <a href=\"http:\/\/citizenshift.org\/blogs\/civicus\/2011\/06\/07\/on-development-who-works-their-way-out-of-a-job\/\" target=\"_blank\">post<\/a> on development vs aid effectiveness got me thinking a bit about the  concept of making oneself redundant, to paraphrase blog author Paul  McAdams. &#8220;Is everyone involved in development &#8216;working their way out of a  job&#8217;? Or are some NGOs, CSOs, or donors comfortable in their roles,  entrenched in their positions and unwilling to change, even at the risk  of eliminating their own work? I suspect the answer is not a simple  matter of saying yes or no, but far more nuanced,&#8221; he writes.<\/p>\n<p>It is a nuanced question, and particularly so in the realm of good  governance, where solutions rarely present themselves in the form of  quick fixes. Yet conversations around governance reform effectiveness  sometimes seem to presume a perpetual role for the donor, which in this  idealized model inserts technical assistance with surgical precision to  create reforms out of whole cloth. Civil society, when it is included in  the conversation on governance reform, is typically (if tacitly)  envisioned as either a conduit for donor ideas and action or a &#8216;partner&#8217;  advising on donor and national government policy plans &#8211; rather than  the driving force behind reform itself.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This element &#8211; the importance of local populations coalescing around,  enacting and owning their own governance reforms &#8211; frequently goes  missing from the various conversations around governance reform  effectiveness. The inherent prominence of the p-word &#8211; politics &#8211;\u00a0in  this formulation sometimes pushes its serious consideration off the  table. Yet by helping citizens gain the skills they need to manage their  own complex governance reform processes, donors are likely to wind up  less involved in politics, not more. Moreover, true effectiveness in  governance reform requires the active participation<br \/>\nof the governed.  Donors must recognize that part of their role is to empower local  populations with the skills needed to build coalitions, manage political  and policy processes and consolidate change, and thus put themselves,  eventually, out of business.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Certainly, donors and international assistance NGOs can and do play a  constructive role in supporting good governance. Targeted technical  assistance also has an important role to play. In the end, though, it is  up to the citizens of each country to themselves demand and effect  change. And isn&#8217;t that, ultimately, the essence of good governance?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/oecd\/4117177474\/\" target=\"_blank\">OECD (on Flickr)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Submitted by Shanthi Kalathil This post on development vs aid effectiveness got me thinking a bit about the concept of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[365,716,736,515],"class_list":["post-2564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news","tag-aid","tag-budget","tag-doners","tag-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2564\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}