A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO ACCRA.
By Carol Gachui

Will Africans win their economic liberation at the tables of Northern INGO’s and their local partners in Northern agendas?

Absolutely NOT .And the reasons are simple, Northern
NGO’s are here with us to promote Northern agendas and support Northern
consultants and Southern Partners to say what the North says

They have nothing to do with the ordinary mwananchi.

Now that Aid is internationalized, now that the
business of Aid is a global industry, aid has little to do with the
concerns of the ordinary. The ordinary citizen or ordinary idea or
ordinary activity is not the point unless it coincides with what the
INGO wants.

But occasionally in conference rooms at which the South
is told what to do and how to do it, the ordinary everyday walks in.
The ordinary everyday asks “Why this way?”
And we are told, “This way because we said so, because the Northern
INGOs said so, because we have worked on this for years ,so you go
along with and do not challenge.”

Such statements are not an answer. They are not an
answer to anything; least of all the question .Where is all this Aid
getting us?

Let us unpack how ordinary people’s concerns suffer by
comparison with those of the Northerners, their allies and their
partners. Earlier this year ActionAid undertook a Macro economic
Literacy Training prior to the High Level Forum Accra September 2008
.Itself a process in building citizens and civil society positions
prior to the IFI meeting on Aid Effectiveness at Doha in December 2008.

At the Training citizens and community activists
enjoyed a week of Action Aid hospitality while learning about how the
abomination that is the world financial and economic system is managed,
and the place of the IFIs s within it. The plenary spoke as one. We
spoke clearly for the poorest of the poor, the most marginalized. Human
Rights , we said , our human rights are being destroyed commodified and
sold .We must do away with IMF policy conditionalities and reclaim each
and every one of these rights .It is an abuse of human rights to deny
us access a support of life like water except we pay , to deny teachers
and nurses salaries commensurate with their training and
responsibilities, to deny our children adequate textbooks and instead
offer overcrowded classrooms and overworked teachers because the IMF
say so .
When the poorest live with poor healthcare and education, they are
being denied rights to livelihood, and so to life. We must reclaim our
policy autonomy so that government is beholden to us the people, not
the North. When we regain policy autonomy, we are a step closer to
legitimate government.

And so the plenary agreed that a Working Group be
formed to deepen and further the trainings findings. And the Working
Group as Kenya IFIWatchNet set itself stated objective to be a resource
for training and influencing and policy.

At the Kenya IFIWatchNet, the Health Workers were
represented by a young Northerner who had already done much work on
effects of IMF conditionalities in the Health Sector. Her programme was
70 – 80 students strong and well funded directly from the North .Well
funded enough to take their work a step further with little or no extra
funding. . She graciously suggested that such funds as may have been
used to train the health sector be used to train teachers.

Discussions then went on to raising awareness in public
fora. A suggestion that a well funded concert preceded by musicians
training would serve as a head start on enlivening the agenda and
putting it clearly into young people’s consciousness was immediately
slapped away.

What? Why? NO! There was to be a soccer match. The
writer spends little time mixing it up at football matches or INGO
conference tables and the soccer proposer was a senior ally and partner
to Action Aid , so the suggestion was passed. How a soccer match was an
educational tool was beyond the writer .The matter of gender at
football matches was not discussed.

At the third meeting the teacher’s representative was
asked to prepare a training budget for WG to review in a week’s time.
Finally something really useful.
Much time was given over to a discussion of the number of teachers to
be trained whether we should include teachers in training, unemployed
teachers, the Head Teachers and representatives of Boards of Governors.

The meeting was to reconvene a week later to discuss
Teachers Budgets one to include upcountry teachers and one that limited
training to Nairobi Teachers.

The appointed day arrived but as it happened there were
just 2 members in attendance .The writer and the Teachers
representative.

ActionAid as convener joined us to say that yes they
had asked for a teachers training budget to be prepared but that this
did not matter as there was no money. We were then instructed that we
could not expect money for teachers training because the Steering Group
that had commissioned the Training “had not, did not, would not and did
not intend to and it was never a stated deliverable” – to train
teachers.

What?
This was more than a little dissembling, only 7 days ago a budget had
been asked for.
All WG was to now offer was a training for a day or half day if and
then only if and when invited to a meeting that the teachers were
holding anyway.
Indeed we were not to attend KIFIW in other than the spirit of unpaid
volunteers and our people were expected to provide ventures on which
this ActionAid agenda could piggy back. Perhaps even make money from.
Ludicrous.. That poor people are being asked to make money for
ActionAid/ KIFIW.

And if there is money to be made surely a concert could
make a fair amount for many different people. From broadcasters and ad
agencies to T-shirts.
Bob Geldof is certainly doing well promoting poverty.

ActionAids convener then went on .We are informed that
in any case and it was by reason of oversight only that we had not been
told all this , the deliverables as far as the training was concerned,
extended to the Training itself and the preparation of a training
manual by a Northern Consultant who was a WG member . So no money? How
so? The budget of 3 million shillings 1.5 Million had already been
spent on the Training we were told. And Shs. 1 million was already
allocated to prepare and print a training manual and the rest 0.5
million for activities KIDW WG suggested.

Teacher and I were shocked and indignant. ActionAid had
never offered to even reimburse our bus fares and they spoke to us of
not expecting anything “just be volunteers ! . “ Teacher was facing
real embarrassment with his people. What would he say to them ?

The writer was simply astounded. Such hyper sensitive
willingness to pay a Northern Consultant for something that was not
asked for . Such insensitivity to what our own Kenyan people actually
asked for which was TRAINING ,not a training manual.

So ActionAid and other INGOs ,is this what you do ?
Is this “the real and substantive , not token consultation process “pre
Accra ? Is this” respecting real ownership of the development process
?”Does this “support participation ?”When such fine words are spoken
insisting that the IFIs “be transparent in documentation and processes”
does that not extend to ActionAid? Yet these INGO are donors that our
taxpayer’s money will pay for , for goodness sake.
Are these” the highest standards of openness and transparency” of which
your own papers speak.. Is this how aid is “allocated in a fair and
transparent manner?” Or is this simply supplier driven technical
assistance?

The KIFW WG did not ask that one third of a budget
undisclosed to it is allocated to the writing of a training manual by a
Northern Consultant or that any manual at all be written .. The KIFW WG
asked for TRAINING .
In due course collective skills at KIFW WG could easily be employed to
write a manual and instead spend money commissioning translations into
our languages.

And speaking of languages , it was almost comical to
listen to yet another Northerner at WG suggest that films filmed in the
South by the North , exposing the IFIs for what they are be shown at
the French German Italian Cultural Centers in Nairobi.
When the writer pleaded that this was of no proper use to the sufferers
, as they would be turned away at the door while expatriates and their
hangers on nattered about them, I was rudely ignored . “Well .”Said my
neighbour Mama Julius “tell them to use the money to make a short low
budget film for TV , that will also bring back some money to our
communities ” Some hope !
The idea is brought to the table .. Laughed off.
Maybe next year or after that . Northerners are in charge here they do
not want to listen, they want to say . AND TELL . AND COMMAND .

A suggestion that while television current affairs
shows are all very well, Kiswahili radio programmes serve our people
better was ignored . Yet radio reaches many more people than TV . It
was not until the idea of a traveling film road show into gathering
places and community centers in villages and slums was raised again by
a Kenyan activist that the idea taken seriously enough to organise.
Disconsolate and discouraged , I wonder what I am doing there, fellow
activists say to me .”Ngonyo . What did you expect ? They are all the
same .. These are vampires” they say ..” feeding on the poor mans
suffering. “
“ And woman “ I add.
One young woman tells of her horror when, as an intern with ActionAid
Mombasa she observed gross corruption all around .

So who got what?
Answer that question and it will show what KIFIW Net is for . Each and
every Northerner got something ,No Northerner was denied .One got a
minimal sum for her health workers training ,another Northerner got
films at the overseas cultural institutes , the consultant got his fees
.An ActionAid ally and Partner ,got a soccer match . But the teachers
got nil , ordinary peoples ideas radio concerts T-shirts got nil .
Youth training or awareness training Nil .
Or are we to be grateful that some films will be shown in Huruma , Baba
Dogo and one venue outside Nairobi ?

So ActionAid and other INGOs ,is this what YOU REALLY
do ?
Is this “the real and substantive , not token consultation process “pre
Accra ? Is this” respecting real ownership of the development process
?”Does this “support participation ?”When such fine words are spoken
insisting that the IFIs “be transparent in documentation and processes”
does that not extend to ActionAid? Yet these INGO are donors that our
taxpayer’s money will pay for , for goodness sake.
Are these” the highest standards of openness and transparency” of which
your own papers speak.. Is this how aid is “allocated in a fair and
transparent manner?” Or is this simply supplier driven technical
assistance?

ActionAid and the INGOs will have to be pushed back .
Right back .Back and out.
The real discussions should be:

Do we need so called aid at all or do we need to get
serious on reparations causes and building alternatives in our
livelihoods ?
Reparations cannot be bought and sold in the Aid market place and for
that reason they are the cause that will conquer any amount of aid
agendas .

Do we need aid at all or is it simply a way of keeping
the African supplicant , begging the haughty who stole from us to
“please sir, if you don’t mind sir ,give us back what you stole and
continue to steal from us, Please? ”
On bended knee … ?

Do we not need to be interrogating and auditing these INGO programs and projects ?

The real question is when will we get rid of these INGOs ? When ?