Quality Not Just Quantity Matters When It Comes To Foreign Aid

23 September 2010

“Foreign aid can do more damage than good, if it is directed to the wrong places or delivered in the wrong way,” says Maxim Institute Researcher Jane Silloway-Smith. “We need to not just talk about reaching motivational targets, but we need to concentrate on ensuring that the work that is being done is genuinely effective.”

Hon. Murray McCully is currently in New York, where he is joining world leaders to talk about the Millennium Development Goals. McCully has stated that New Zealand is focussed on working with the Pacific and that along with supporting health and humanitarian programmes, New Zealand is focussed on sustainable economic development.

According to Silloway-Smith, “this is necessary if the Pacific is to develop. We have great initiatives that are already working for the Pacific. Projects like our Seasonal Workers scheme have enormous benefits, even though they are not captured in the 0.7% figure that the UN is pushing. Other programmes may be captured under 0.7%, which have little or no positive impact The figure is less important than the quality of the work being done.”

“All of this highlights the need for serious independent evaluation to be a regular feature of all aid work. Aspirational goals have an important place, but we will all be tragically disappointed if we reach that goal and it doesn’t achieve what we hope it will.”

ENDS

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