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Report of the Public Forum held on September 18, 2010
For the International Aid that pours into Somalia every year to have a tangible positive impact on its intended beneficiaries, it should first reach them and have sustainability as a core goal – not just on paper but as a built-in component. The National Civic Forum organized a public forum that brought together individuals and organizations involved in humanitarian work in Somalia, representatives of international and local NGOs, members of the Diaspora, and the Somali media to discuss “The present and future impact of the international aid on the Somali people”.
The lack of documentation and previous records on the effect of international aid makes it difficult to present hard facts on the extent and nature of this impact, and encourages further research into the subject. However, the generally held opinion is that although the international aid has both positive and negative impact on the Somali people, it could be described more as a negative one. The reasons cited by those who hold this point of view are the issues involved in identifying or assessing the needs of the beneficiaries and the fact that only a small fraction of the aid reaches the intended beneficiaries. The NGO sector has now been transformed into a business sector where those involved in it are only concerned about fattening their pockets.
It is a commonly held believe that, had the Somali people been empowered to design and develop their own humanitarian and developmental programs and initiatives, there would have been no issues of community ownership and transparency. Misappropriation of the funds intended for humanitarian aid has its roots in the changing values and the shift away from the traditional and cultural norms that has become a common trend of late. Going back to our cultural values and reviving the Somali traditional norms can eventually become the panacea of all the economic and social miseries of the people.
This report gives an insight into the proceedings of the public forum, and attempts to bring forth some recommendations, most important of which is to make the characteristics and relevant mechanisms of transparency and sustainability built-in features into every humanitarian and development initiative to ensure a positive impact that lasts longer then the availability of the funds. It also suggests that, to create awareness on the ethical responsibilities, the social workers, a group of individuals known for their high moral standards and ethical conduct, be mobilized to campaign against the misappropriation of these funds. It concludes its recommendations with a call for indigenous solutions to local problems.
Introduction
The National Civic Forum (NCF), an independent, politically non-partisan organization established in 2004 by a group of Somali scholars and professionals, organized a public forum that brought together representatives of local and International NGOs, the media and other sectors of the civil society to discuss “The Impact of the International Aid on the Present and Future of the Somalis”.
This forum is part of the organization’s efforts to generate and disseminate creative ideas that address the economic and social development of the Somali people focusing on social integration, the supremacy of the rule of law, respect for human rights and civil liberties, economic recovery and accountability. The organization’s recognition of accountability as a crucial element of its mandates encouraged NCF to facilitate the discussion on the impact of international aid on the Somali people. As highlighted during the discussions, there is limited statistics and documentation on the impact of the aid; and the opinions on how to effectively measure such impact vary a lot. The bottom line is to bring to light the impact of the foreign aid, the issues that hinder its effectiveness and its long-term effect; and produce appropriate recommendations to improve the status quo.
The public forum, which took place at the Meridian Hotel in Nairobi on the 18th of September 2010, saw to the open and frank discussion of the following points:
- What impact does the International Aid have on the Somali people? Is it a positive one or a negative one?
- Do we really need International, foreign aid to ensure sustainability, and develop economically and socially? What effect will its cut-off have on the devastated Somali communities?
- Is this aid, once received, managed properly? What percentage of the aid funds actually reach the target beneficiaries?
- What are the roles of the regional offices of the international aid agencies, local authorities, and NGO consortiums in ensuring the accountability of the implementing NGOs?
- What is the role of the beneficiaries in identifying the needs on the ground that are presented in the grant and funding proposals? What is the nature of the international aid? Is it a strings-attached one with other hidden agendas in play? What need assessment processes are used by the NGOs to identify the actual needs?
- Are there any organizations, institutions and/or consortiums that follow up the impact of the foreign humanitarian aid in Somalia?
- What part does the change in values and morals play in the lack of impact of the international humanitarian aid in Somalia? What can cultural awareness campaigns do to handle this situation?
- What is next? What impact will this trend have on the future of the Somali people and the humanitarian aid work in the country?
This report attempts to present the outcome of this public forum, and give an insight into the proceeding, culminating with a set of recommendations that is hoped, to be the beginning of a positive transformation for the non-profit humanitarian and development sector.
Impact of Foreign Humanitarian Aid
Literature on the impact of foreign humanitarian aid on Somalia seems to be nonexistent or not available on the public domain to corroborate any assumptions that might be made regarding the subject. This raises the question of transparency in the non-profit humanitarian and development sectors that are largely funded through foreign aid.
The ongoing discussions highlighted the opinions held by a majority of the general public. The majority of the participants agree that the international humanitarian aid funneled through layers of organizations and implementers does not always have the expected impact, let alone address the most pressing social and economic issues of the beneficiaries; this group holds the believe that the impact is more of a negative one. To support this view, the following issues were raised:
- The programs and initiatives proposed to the donors are not usually designed to address the real issues on the ground
- The need assessment process is mostly conducted by individuals that have little or no information about the real situation on the ground
- There is no community-involvement in the need assessment process
- The local NGOs and other implementing agents base their assessments on which they base their grant proposals on needs and problems whose solutions will make the highest profit margin for them, and not on the actual needs of the target beneficiaries
- The cluster meetings and other processes international NGOs and donor organizations have designed to identify and assess the needs of the beneficiaries are ineffective, as individuals and organizations with personal (mainly financial) interests hamper the information sharing process
- The civil society organizations (mostly the NGOs) have gradually transformed to business entities, that even identifying the proper needs of the beneficiaries will not stop them from misappropriating the funds
- The programs and initiatives that do address the actual social and economic issues of the beneficiaries lack sustainability, which creates the dependency syndrome.
Those who ascribe to the opinion that the impact of international aid has been and still is a positive one, although largely outnumbered, cite the creation of employment opportunities for the Somali people, especially the youth. Now, employment in the non-profit, NGO sector (both international and local organizations) account for a tangible percentage of the total employment opportunities in Somalia.
A common belief held by both groups is that the international aid does not always address the needs of the beneficiaries as planned. Every issue discussed has a positive and a negative side to it; however, a quick poll conducted during the discussions which asked whether the international aid was more of a negative or a positive one indicated that the majority of the people consider it to be a negative one.
The Need for Foreign Aid
As a follow-up to the question of whether the International Aid has been effective in dealing with the social and economic woes of the Somali people, there was a heated discussion of the need for foreign humanitarian aid. It is obvious that, due to the poor economy of the country, there is always a need for external support; however the main argument of a majority of the participants was that if the International Aid has little positive impact on the economy and serving the interests of a selected group of people, there is no point of having it.
The proponents of this idea presented examples of projects that were implemented with a small fraction of the allotted budget, while the rest have gone into the pockets of a small number of individuals. They reiterated the point that the NGO as a business has become the current trend. It is believed that a number of factors contributed to this trend including but not limited to the following:
- The establishment of NGOs and other non-profit organizations by the wrong people and for the wrong reasons. In reflection, the reasons for establishing NGOs in the developed countries are exactly the opposite of those reasons they are established for in the third world countries. In the case of the former, financially well-accomplished individuals and organizations affiliated with such people take the initiative to deal with the society’s problems; whereas in the latter, NGOs are started by financially-deprived individuals that think of it as a get rich quick scheme.
- The lack of education relevant for the management non-profit organizations which leads to the creation of a network of likeminded individuals at different levels of the humanitarian aid sector. The key factor that leads to the establishment of NGOs as business entities is this partnership network that may sometimes go high up into the international NGOs where a chain of ‘brokers’ claim a percentage of the aid funds.
To emphasize their point that the Somali people can do without the International Aid, they cited recent developments in Bay and Bakol regions. Al-Shabab Group that controls these and other parts of south central Somalia have banned the World Food Program (WFP) from operating in these regions. As a result, the food distribution programs in the two regions have stopped; however, instead of having the expected negative impact of more hunger, the crop production have increased to a level that their traditional storages (known as Bakaar) have been filled up, and the people had to dig up more of these storages for the excess. During the discussion, there was a reference to the traditional ways the Somali communities used to support their own at the time of need; and blamed the current dependence on International Aid on the radical shift away from the cultural values. Some blamed this on the lack of any organizations that specifically work on awareness creation campaigns to resurrect the traditional and cultural values, and the lack of ethical education for the non-profit managers.
Another related issue is that of ownership. It has been observed that the community is more likely to protect, develop and enhance those initiatives that come from them, and these kinds of projects are seen to be more sustainable. The quick poll results also show this trend, as 64 percent of the respondents said that the Somali people can create their own sustainable humanitarian and developmental solutions without the aid of International Aid.
The Management of the Aid Funds
The participants of the public forum shared their common knowledge of the number of layers of organizations and individuals involved in the humanitarian activities in Somalia. From securing the funds from the donors to implementing the projects on the ground, this increased number of administrative layers is held together by a certain group of individuals that have been working together for almost a decade and have mutual interests in the aid funds.
Although there might be clear guidelines and strategies for managing the aid funds, the participants felt that there is limited follow up on where and how the funds are allocated and spent. This pitfall calls for a new approach to ensure transparency and monitoring and evaluation of the projects. There seems to be a need to revisit, not the rules and regulations that have been established for this core purpose, but how these rules and regulations are implemented at the various levels of aid management. To clarify this point, the participants gave an end-to-end scenario. The donor communities develop the proposals and secure the funds which are given to preselected partners International NGOs, the international NGOs develop the call-for-proposals to meet the formality requirements and select a predetermined partner Local NGO. It is believed that, unless this “supply chain” is broken, the funded projects will never achieve their intended goals of alleviating the economic and social hardships of the beneficiary communities.
The existence of consortiums and other bodies that have been created to identify the needs, prioritize them, and ensure transparency was raised. However, the need to establish a baseline code of conduct and establish committees with representation from the beneficiary communities and the local authorities that enforce it has become obvious. Another issue of concern raised by the participants (and an opinion held by the public at large) is that many of the humanitarian aid funds always have the inbuilt goal of creating more job opportunities for the Somali people; although these goals might have been met to a certain level, many of the implementation activities that are to be subcontracted to locally-based Somali companies that would create more employment opportunities for the people and thus empower their self-sustainability , go to foreign subcontractors and companies. Even those given to local companies do not aim at holding these companies accountable for employing a certain agreed number of skilled individuals – a trend that encourages the educated and skilled youth in the country to consider migration or startup NGOs that have become commercial enterprises.
The notion that there is always a string attached to the international aid pushes certain local authorities and organizations into its rejection or mostly its misappropriation. It is the same reason that international NGOs such as WFP and others have been banned from working in certain parts of the country.
It is, however, the obligation of anyone that has to judge how many of these organizations work to acknowledge those successful NGOs that have stuck to their mandate and use the funds they receive from international donors only for the specified goals of these projects.
The Roles of the Key Players in the Humanitarian Aid
A majority of the participants described the role of the local authorities in the areas in which the projects are implemented as ineffective. Sometimes these authorities will not allow any projects to be implemented if they do not have a stake (mostly financial) in the outcomes; in most cases they play the role of the key decision-maker as to who will benefit from the project and who to employ. This is a key contributing factor to the ineffectiveness of the international aid.
The existing local and international NGO consortiums have no influence on enforcing any measures to safeguard the integrity of the aid, and merely serve as a networking and introduction ground for the small NGOs that seem to be in a 12-month breeding season.
These two and other players in the humanitarian aid sector, had they played their required roles, could have transformed not only the sector into an effective one that achieves its humanitarian ambitions but also the opinions of the other stakeholders.
Conclusion
The public forum’s goal was to investigate the impact of the international humanitarian aid and bring to light any issues that might be hampering this sector from bringing about the expected positive effect on the social and economic situation of the beneficiary communities. Although the topic is a vast, and could not be exhausted in a one-day session, it is believed that these discussions will serve as a starting point for a new approach to handling international aid.
The discussions also took upon the issue of sustainability and emphasized the lack of accounting for sustainability in the international aid-funded projects. It was noted that words such as transparency, accountability and sustainability are only put on paper; and that the design of the projects and programs does not reflect their necessity. There usually lacks community-centeredness of these initiatives where the beneficiary communities are not involved in the need assessment, implementation and monitoring process although these may be eloquently written in the proposals and project terms of references. As a result, the international aid does not achieve its intended impact.
Starting non-profit organizations as is a business enterprise that attracts partners from the various levels of the international aid ‘supply chain’ always results in a small fraction of the allotted funds reaching the target beneficiary communities. The radical change in values and the shift away from the Somali tradition is to blame. It has been observed that there are no organizations or consortiums that work in creating awareness of the moral and ethical responsibilities involved in signing up for humanitarian work.
Recommendations
The following recommendations have been set forth by the participants of the forum, and the National Civic Forum welcomes further dialog on the subject.
- Stepping up the research into the effectiveness of International humanitarian and development aid by identifying the existing gaps and issues
- Designing developmental and humanitarian programs and initiatives with inbuilt mechanisms to ensure their long term sustainability, eliminating any chance of dependence on the continued provision of funds and empowering the beneficiaries to develop self-reliance
- Involving the beneficiaries in the need assessment process, and building need assessment teams comprised of local people with the requisite knowledge of the land and the people
- Putting in place effective monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to ensure that the international aid funds go where they are supposed to go, and cutting down on the number of layers these funds go through
- Promoting the establishment of organizations to create and promote ethical awareness in humanitarian work
- Reviving the traditional Somali culture and building any humanitarian and development programs and initiatives on the historical cultural foundations that have since long been abused and misused, and replaced by the paralyzing dependency on external help
- Basing any external international aid programs on the premise that developing the ownership of the target community will contribute to its long term sustainability
- Encouraging and empowering the key players in this sector to play their expected roles through campaigns, and demanding transparency from the local and international NGOs including making their financial statements and relevant reports available publicly
- Enforcing the rules and regulations already in place to promote transparency and accountability to the donors and the beneficiaries
- Developing tools and mechanisms for measuring the actual impact of international aid on the beneficiary communities.