Date: 2024-04-28 Page is: DBtxt003.php L0913-TVM-MMW-000001
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TrueValueMetrics ... Peter Burgess Manuscript
Making Management Work for Relief and Development |
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Chapter 1
Context. Where We Are. |
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Broad brush ... subject to criticism
I am well aware that what I am writing about is not something that people in the relief and development sector want to hear. I will be criticized for not having the sort of information that allows my writing to be put through a peer review process. But I am not writing to start an academic career, but to make a tangible contribution to relief and development sector performance, and specifically to get a culture of “management information” in play so that better decisions can be made all the time, and value destroying waste and corruption can be eliminated. I am very critical of the Governments, the Breton Woods Institutions (World Bank and IMF), the UN system, the bilateral donors and the international NGOs. They are powerful entities that have failed to get reasonable progress in relief and development. I believe that they should have done a lot better and deserve criticism. I am also critical of a powerful business and political elite that has been willing to embrace unlimited personal wealth creation without much concern about ethics and social responsibility. I am critical of an international corporate culture where anything goes as long as profits grow. Broad generalizations always need caveats. I want to exclude from my broad criticism a big number of staff in the relief and development sector that work hard and exceptionally well in dangerous conditions without much regard to their own safety and do amazing things. But the overall system is so ineffective that the good work being done by good people is offset by an organizational setup that leaves relief and development a disaster. Later I refer to this as deadly dysfunction. Good People Doing Amazing Work Some people do amazing work ... while the organization as a whole does not. I probably respect the UNHCR the most. The people of UNHCR seem to be effectively organized in a way that is rare in the relief and development sector, and as a result they achieve results that are extraordinary. Over the years I worked a good many times with UNHCR, and was never disappointed in their performance. Those that are working around the world to clear land-mines deserve a big thank-you. Land-mines are nasty and clearing them is dangerous. I personally got to know landmine experts in Afghanistan and in the Horn of Africa during my own assignments. When these people make a mistake, it can easily cost them their lives. I have a lot of respect for these people. They know, on the other hand, that a child herding animals should not be in danger from land-mines or unexploded ordnance (UXOs) I respect the staff of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF – Doctors without Borders) who work in dangerous places when human life is in danger. They do not stop when the going gets tough, and they sometimes get kidnapped or killed. They do very good work. I worked for a while with an amazing UN project leader on cross border development in Afghanistan, who kept on going even though some groups had a “price” on his head for his capture or death. I attach tremendous importance to productivity and performance and respect enterprise and the ability of the corporate entity to be efficient, but not to the exclusion of all values except profits. The relief and development sector The relief and development sector is a huge sector. In the course of a year, will disburse more than $50 billion, soon maybe as much as $100 billion a year, not an inconsequential amount of money. However, after the last 30, 40, 50 or 60 years, with poor results. The relief and development sector comprises all the institutions and organizations that are involved with the planning, funding and implementation of relief and development activities around the world. The relief and development sector grew out of the perceived need several decades ago to help less developed countries progress and become more “developed” and prosperous. Some of the better known institutions in the relief and development sector are the World Bank, regional development banks like the Asian Development Bank, the United Nations and its specialized agencies like UNICEF, WHO, FAO, UNDP and UNIDO, the bilateral aid agencies like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and international Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) like CARE, World Vision, Oxfam, Save the Children, and Medecins Sans Frontiere (MSF) also known as Doctors Without Borders. Governments play a big part in the relief and development sector, both as donors and as recipients or beneficiaries. Government donors in the “north” have had a big role in determining the development agenda, and governments in the “south” have had to take it or leave it. The big role of government in the process of development has been a feature of the relief and development sector for more than 50 years. Much less known, but very important, are the thousands and thousands of local NGOs in the “south”. These organizations exist in every country and are engaged in many worthwhile efforts. They vary in size, in degree of organization, in what they do, and in where they operate, but they are important. Examples are The Fantsuam Foundation in Nigeria, AMREF in Kenya. Small community organizations exist everywhere, many doing amazing things with very little, but not much appreciated in the grander international scheme of things. Documented failure Many of the organizations in the relief and development sector publish annual reports that look at the world situation from a variety of perspectives. The World Bank and the regional development banks all research and publish an annual report, as do most of the specialized agencies of the United Nations, UNDP, UNICEF, UNHCR, FAO and all the others. For many years now these reports have documented the tragic failure of the relief and development sector. In particular the UNDP's Human Development Report (HDR) which has been published since around 1990, has a focus on the human condition, and the state of society in satisfying the needs of people. The HDR chronicles the absolutely disastrous state of socio-economic development in a large proportion of the world's countries. It is a tremendous challenge to convey the scale of the failure in the relief and development sector. As many as 3 billion people, probably more, are affected by poverty, hunger and disease, and yet this is not high on the agenda of people in the rich communities in the world, their leadership and their media. Nobody seems to get it. Poverty a bigger killer than terrorism Every American and most of the world knows that more than 3,000 people were killed on 9/11/2001 when planes were crashed into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. Almost nobody knows that the same number of children die every day from malaria in Africa. Every day! And if we think of all children around the world that die every day from disease that can easily be treated and malnutrition that ought not to be, we are talking about 30,000. Yes, 30,000 every day ... of children that die ... needlessly. Where did it all go wrong? In the 1950s it was expected that with the end of colonialism, the newly independent countries would prosper, and the socio-economic gap between the industrialized “north” and the developing “south” would reduce. In fact, over the past 60 years the gap has increased. Most poor countries are poorer today than decades ago, and the rich countries have moved on and are creating wealth on an unprecedented scale. The process of development over the past forty years has ended in failure. Economic value destruction dominates the prevailing development process. As a matter of course, development interventions and investment have removed wealth from developing countries rather than creating wealth in these countries. It is extraordinary that so much of the world is in catastrophic shortage in a world that has the potential for surplus in almost anything. How come there is so much hunger and shortage for so many while there is surplus and excess for others. What is it that stops the free flow of goods around the world? Why so much war and violence? Why so much disease and premature death? The problem of war, violence and terrorism War and violence is a symptom of a something wrong. But what is it that is wrong? The 20th Century was the bloodiest in the whole of history. The two world wars in the first half of the century, and the Holocaust accounted for many millions of deaths, but the second half of the century was worse. It is hard to imagine how many millions of people have died violently in modern times. Though it is common to refer to modern “civilization”, it is “militarization” that really dominates the modern world. The ability to destroy has outpaced society's ability to build. The materials of war are big business. The powerful need to be able to win a violent confrontation in order to maintain their positions, and the powerful keep a close grip on the money. Military procurement is big, always presented as a priority, and usually with a high claim on the available monies. The profits being made because of the prevalence of war and violence is huge. There is a lot of secrecy and, for the most part, the details of military commerce are difficult to see. The profits are huge, but paltry compared to the worldwide value destruction that results from war and violence. The settlement of disputes through violence has been a part of human history. But it has changed in recent times with a lot more destructive power in the hands of the combatants. And terrorism has now become a global affair. Terror is not new, but it has been a growing issue over the past few decades. Terror has been used by citizen groups of all sorts to get the attention of government, in Latin America, in Europe, in Africa, in South Asia but it has achieved a new notoriety since the events of 9/11 in 2001 in the United States. I would argue a major failure in the relief and development sector. The problem of poverty and hunger Poverty is a result of failure, not a cause of failure. The world as a whole has resources, and enough for all to be substantially better off than we are. Depending on the methodology used, it is possible to argue that there is less poverty than a generation ago, but the reality is that the scale of the problem of poverty is far greater than it should be given the production and productivity potential of the modern world. Based on results, it doesn’t even look like anyone’s been trying to solve the problem of global poverty for the last several decades. In past times wealth was constrained by manpower and availability of food. In the old economies, it was impossible not to have poverty. But that has changed in recent times and now the productivity of modern agriculture and industries makes it possible to produce enough material goods and services for all. But, of course, this is not being achieved. Another failure. The problem of disease and premature death There have been epidemics in the past, and little science to help. For some time in the recent past (around 1950 to 1980) it appeared as if the world was making very good progress against disease. UNICEF and WHO successfully coordinated global programs that succeeded in eradicating some critical diseases such as Smallpox, Polio and Diphtheria. Childhood survival improved and expectation of life increased. But the world has failed to become a much healthier place. Hunger and malnutrition is stunting children, and HIV-AIDS has arrived on the scene, and there has been a resurgence of diseases like malaria and TB. What looked like health progress 20 years ago has now morphed into a health disaster of pandemic proportions. It is commonly reported that some 30,000 children die every day from disease that is preventable. Another symptom of failed relief and development. The problem of education Far too many people all around the world are not getting an education , even though education is widely acknowledged to be the door to a better socioeconomic future. More failure. And in addition there is the problem of education in the “north” where several generations of students have been taught a lot about how to do advanced business and economic analysis without much of an ethical foundation, and have little idea of the impact globalization and profit maximization has had on the “south” and people at the “bottom of the pyramid”. So much intolerance Religious intolerance, holy war and terror seem to be on the rise, but taking a long view of history, this is more the norm than a special problem for these times. Because religion has been a critical cause of instability and violence in the past it should be considered a potential flash point today, but it can also be a path to peace and reconciliation and prosperity. The extent of war and violence reflects a failure of too many of the religious community to choose the path of peace. Wealth creation There has been a creation of wealth in the modern world that is, by any standard quite amazing. But beside great wealth there is great poverty. People with all the material goods that can be imagined are sharing space with people who have next to nothing. This is happening in North and South America, in Europe, in South Asia, in East Asia and the countries of the former Soviet Union. And arguably this is increasingly happening also in the “north”. This is a symptom of something that is not right. Nothing wrong with the wealth, but a lot wrong with poverty. |
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