Madam, - Ted Mooney's view that development aid should be directed from the ground up is entirely right (December 19th). For the past 30 years, Goal has continually called on the Government to deliver its aid in this manner, but we have been ignored time and again. Irish money continues to be routed through some of the world's most corrupt governments.
This is a particular worry, considering that Ireland's aid budget has been steadily rising in line with the UN millennium development goal of spending 0.7 percent of GDP on overseas aid. Following an increase of €84 million in the last budget, Irish Aid will spend €914 million in the developing world next year. In the years to come that figure will almost certainly top €1 billion.
When such large sums of money are involved the question has to be asked - where is the evidence that this approach works? The African continent has received billions in development aid in the past 40 years and yet, according to respected commentator Martin Meredith, only two countries are now better off than they were since gaining independence: Botswana and South Africa. Surely it is obvious that there is a serious hole in the bucket.
David Adams's column of December 7th, calling on the media to scrutinise where the Government sends its money, should serve as a wake-up call for the Government. It cannot keep throwing money at Africa's problems in this risky fashion. The Government needs radically to rethink the way it approaches African development, as Mr Mooney suggests. Bilaterally funding programmes has been proved to be critically ineffective. Only an entrepreneurial approach can deliver relief for those in greatest need. -
Yours, etc,
JOHN O'SHEA, Goal, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.