First world aid and development agencies often fail to help people in developing countries to help themselves, a conference in Dublin on development aid was told yesterday.
Outside agencies were often reluctant to support efforts to make local organisations viable in the long term, said Dr John Makumbe, senior lecturer in political science at the University of Zimbabwe. Northern non-governmental organisations often only funded specific activities which they themselves wished to undertake, he added.
"For example, most northern NGOs and donors are not willing to provide institutional support in the form of funds for the acquisition of buildings or office space by southern NGOs. They are also reluctant to provide funding for the payment of staff salaries, purchase of vehicles, office furniture and other institutional necessities."
This attitude meant civic groups and NGOs in developing countries could not become institutionally strong, making it difficult to create conditions for long-term development.
He also criticised many outside NGOs for being "reluctant to support activities that may be viewed as political or unacceptable to the ruling party in a given country". For such agencies "the question of what is causing poverty and lack of opportunities for self-development is never asked".
Dr Makumbe urged northern NGOs to end their reluctance to meet the administrative costs of local civic groups, and to focus more on the causes of poverty.
Many northern NGOs, he said, would find these suggestions repugnant because "the truth is that if these suggestions were followed religiously, [they] would find themselves out of a job in a few years in some parts of the developing world".
The executive director of Oxfam International, Mr Ernst Ligteringen, said the fundamental issue in development was poverty and its eradication, and this was a matter of political will.
"While the various technical aspects of development are extremely important," he said, "this political will to change the injustice of poverty is the central question and it concerns us all, north and south."
The guiding principle behind the concept of capacity-building was "one of seeking to strengthen the ability of today's losers to create a better world for their children and their grandchildren".
He said much of the activity of northern NGOs did not support the building of sustainable capacity in developing countries. In supporting others, NGOs had to ensure they enhanced and did not displace local capacity and did not foster dependency.