Comments

Thanks for this great review: I look forward to reading MMMM. A good novel on the havoc caused by political interference is Paul Torday's "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen". The film version made a couple of years ago was OK, but the book is wittier and wiser. Well worth reading.

To have a better life and a better world is to fight corruption for everyone and all beneficiaries for resources in the land, not some individuals who think of themselves. A honest and faithful servant who can commit his/her time like Sam Koim is the best thing a person can do for the people of that nation. Wish we had more like him.

Thanks Ian for an interesting post on an important issue. One point I'd like to add is that the idea that the rich are the 'fat' ones because they are eating too much while the poor are under-nourished is an overly simplistic representation of reality. The relationship between nutritional status, health and poverty is complex. For example, obesity is a significant issue amongst many poor, urban households across the world (as is micronutrient deficiency). One of the reasons for this is the cheapest foods are the highly-refined, high-calorie, low-nutrient type that fill people up quickly. Also, it is possible to find in the same household an overweight mother with an under-nourished child. So the 'starved vs stuffed' dichotomy doesn't work. It seems to me that what is an issue of international justice is that all people, everywhere are able to eat nutritious foods. As you argue, this is most definitely about taking concerted action against undernutrition. But it is also about ensuring poor people live in environments that make nutritious food choices accessible and affordable, and that political and food-corporatation leaders make decisions to eradicate malnutrition in all its forms, across the world.

Thankyou for fighting corruption Sir.

Thanks Ashlee, And thanks for the Tidwell suggestion. I can imagine great travel writing / memoir around aid work. Interestingly I read "Emergency Sex..." and was kind of irritated by it. It seemed wrong to focus so much on their (the authors') own hardships amidst the much greater sorrows of the people in the countries they were working. And all the UN bashing bugged me for being unaccompanied by any real analysis of why the UN was that way. Yet oddly enough MMMM, which is more analytic, but also still mostly about the travails of aid workers not aid recipients, didn't bug me at all. Perhaps because it was fiction? Or possibly because I was just generally annoyed with all the UN bashing going on at the time I read ES? Or maybe J. just does a better job of getting the tone right? I confess I'm not sure. One thing I'll say in favour of MMMM is it's easy reading and the pages kept turning, which is why it overtook all the other books on my "really must read" list.

Thanks for the review Terence. MMMM is on my Kindle wish list so I can download it when I have a connection.

Hi Ashlee, Great piece and it is critical that we respond to these suggestions before they get too much momentum. Some colleagues did some analysis of this in the African context and found that US food aid (buying US grain/maize, shipping on US carriers, paying for US NGOs to distribute) cost US$670 per ton. Local purchasing (in neighbouring countries or regions) cost US$240 per ton and supporting farmers with seed and fertiliser to grow their own food cost about US$77 per ton. So there is a strong cost-effectiveness/wastage argument as well as the others you have made. Joel

Great review Terence -- I really want to read this now, whenever I find the time! While not fiction, a book in the aid 'storytelling' genre that I enjoyed was 'The Ponds of Kalambayi' by Mike Tidwell. It's basically a Peace Corps memoir (there's a few around in this genre) but it really reflects the challenges of community development and making sustainable change. There's also 'Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures' -- once again not fiction, but certainly an interesting insight into the UN system and working in fragile environments.

Sina Retzlaff is a great leader, she did a very good job when dealing with a private sector, something that every leader should do. During her leadership, she had made some major changes.

Yes ratio is important. In a shared taxi after a meeting I once heard the representative of one of the current contractors suggest that government contracts are all about banging numbers into place and taking the money without concern for the quality "bullshit" we had been discussing that day. It was a while ago, and I thought things may have changed, but perhaps not. It may also be about the age of the volunteer and perhaps we might be led to believe that the idea Alexander Downer apparently had in the shower one morning has never been properly assessed. Maybe it's time to really consider how many Australian youth actually have the maturity to manage being ambassadors in cultures and communities so vastly different from their own. And if they don't have the maturity are we not just a little irresponsible thinking it can be done with minimal preparation?

I don’t think this blog goes far enough. I am a mid-level manager with strong experience and credentials in project management. I was in Timor for most of 2012 as a volunteer on the AVID program. From my perspective, Austraining’s implementation of AVID was possibly negligent due to changing ICM’s and a lack of support staff. I should start by saying, I like the mission, vision and values of Austraining and I never met a person who worked for them that I didn’t like or respect. While I was there, the ICM ratio to volunteer was three times the ratio of any other volunteer organisation. At the same time, they had less staff than the other volunteer organisations. Contributing to this overloading, the ICM position had split responsibilities and in general AYAD’s have more issues than volunteers in other organisations. For example, I’m a middle aged and average looking, yet, I had 3 security incidents linked to unwanted male attention during my year assignment. I think that 25 year old blonds generally have more. When I say that I don’t think Austraining had enough support staff, I’m not talking about holding hands, I’m talking about the ability to support their volunteers in emergency situations and ensure that their volunteers were okay. I think they are lucky the did not have to evacuate during the elections. Because the couldn't satisfy the above, I don’t think they had the bandwidth to make sure that volunteers were working well with their host organisations and host country and that their roles were useful and defined. I’m sure that there were successful volunteer assignments during this period but I think that is due to luck and the perseverance of the individual volunteers, rather than good management. I just don’t believe they look after their people enough. Caring for staff is not mentioned in any of their key statements. I think the AVID program is a brilliant initiative by Australia and I have seen it implemented very well by AVI and Red Cross. I’ve seen some amazing things with lasting impact delivered by volunteers from all the providers. I was part of AVI on this assignment and believe I was effective. I also believe that the staff in the Austraining Timor office worked themselves to exhaustion. It was not from lack of will and intent from the people in that office but the ratio of volunteers to staff was against them. I've thought long on this and I wonder if the overall culture of Austraining lends itself to being a bit too proud at running so many volunteers on the smell of an oily rag. I think risk management and the effectiveness of their volunteers got lost during 2012 in Timor. Less volunteers to ‘in country’ staff, better risk management and more effective implementation of assignments is the way forward.

As a dedicated reader of the Development Policy Website and, perhaps more usefully, as the former Vice President for the East Asia Region in the World Bank (from 2007 through 2011), I felt I should comment on the Fiji debate. To begin, I would underline the Bank's note that a range of Bank work on Fiji continued throughout my tenure and until today. My comments will be limited, however, to the time I was working on Fiji. During my tenure a regular dialogue was conducted on economic developments in Fiji and the Government's efforts to develop more effective economic policies. It was the position of the Bank during my period as Vice President that improved economic policies would be essential to facilitate higher economic growth and achieve meaningful poverty reduction in the country. In all the discussions with the Government we noted that a sensible macroeconomic framework would be central to making serious inroads on poverty and that agreement on appropriate policies would be essential to return to an active Bank lending program. While there were times when progress on reform appeared possible, I regret that during my time the Government was not able to endorse a set of economic policies that offered a credible prospect for sustained growth and meaningful poverty reduction. Second, while the Board member for your region was certainly interested in and briefed on the work we were doing in Fiji, I would underline the comments that others have made - no single constituency can determine Bank decisions on lending. Interestingly, I would add that the East Asia Region had the support of your Board member for all the efforts we undertook on working with the Government to improve economic policies in Fiji. Jim Adams Thanks again for the interesting and informative website.