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Geldof: fighting corruption fights poverty |
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Written by Alex Singleton
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Wednesday, 15 February 2006 |
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Bob Geldof has joined up with Transparency International to head a study group looking at aid delivery and how to tackle corruption. He says: "It will not be possible to beat poverty without fighting corruption." He's right. The Make Poverty History campaign’s push on aid was not just for more aid, but for better aid, too. Better aid, of course, means different things to different people. Critics of old-style aid conditionality had a point that it was too inflexible and prescriptive, but one should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Aid should still be safeguarded. After all voters and taxpayers are entitled to assurance that aid is utilised most effectively. Bad government is the enemy of good aid, but challenging recipient governments to meet minimum criteria will lead to improvements in governance being encouraged. Greater emphasis needs to be made in using non-governmental delivery mechanisms. Channelling aid through the Kenyan government is not likely to deliver best results, given that a 20% of public funds are being siphoned off, and the country is ranked 122nd most corrupt out of 133 countries. Delivering help more locally, and greater use of non-governmental organisations, is surely a better approach. Conversely, donors have less to worry about when supporting well-governed developing countries, like Botswana and Ghana.
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