Dar seeks elusive cure for donor dependency

Africa will, unfortunately, be one of the fall guys for the financial crisis, increasing cynicism across the continent about the predictability of donor aid. The African press is already full of articles on how the continent will be affected; it is a matter of when and by how much. Judging from a great article last week in THISDAY's Tanzanian edition, the fallout has started. Tanzania's donor dependence is much greater than Kenya's, for example.

" National ownership and leadership of the development process is seen as significantly compromised since a huge chunk of the money funding the construction of roads, schools, hospitals and water projects comes from foreign donors. According to widely-quoted official records, valuable civil service work time is spent penning an average of 2,400 donor reports everyquarter, hosting around 1,000 meetings a year, and preparing some 8,000 audit reports for multilateral development financiers. According to an official with the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), Brian Hammond, the donor deluge has been keeping Tanzanian health workers so busy during office hours that their proper jobs ''vaccinating babies or checking their mothers' well-being'' have to be done during evenings and weekends.
''It's unfair and unsustainable,'' Hammond was quoted as saying in a recent interview with the 'Irish Times' newspaper."

Food for thought...