Why are aid donations lagging despite Aussies being richer?
October 25th 2006 23:51
A SMH report yesterday by Matt Wade throws light on Australians and donor fatigue. "Aussie households spent $573 billion last year but we gave less than one-500th of that to organisations helping the world's poorest people. Despite the public response early last year to help victims of the tsunami we still spent about twice as much on chocolate than on overseas aid last year."
Wade quoted from a Washington DC think tank called Centre for Global Development, which rated Australia sixth in aid spending and trade, investment, migration, environment and security issues - behind Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and New Zealand per capita.
Australia's ranking fell three places since 2003. See the full SMH report.
Aid tragedy in the making
Donor fatigue takes the blame alongside government inaction for the latest aid tragedy in the making - some 800,000 Javanese still without a roof after the 27 May 06 Yogyakarta earthquake as the heavy November rains are about to start.
There are worries this could create a health crisis if many medical groups leave, says Voice of America (VOA) reporter, Chad Bouchard, in his locally researched report "Indonesian Earthquake Survivors Still Lack Shelter as Rainy Season Approaches".
His report says the rate of acute respiratory infection in worst-affected Bantul is five to six times higher than normal. As the wet season approaches, health officials expect that number to rise. Dengue fever and malaria also thrive in rainy conditions.
Bouchard quotes locals disillusioned about Indonesian Government delay in acting on world donations to the 27 May earthquake. He also talked to aid organisation and UN people on the ground, who told him that donor fatigue by first world people has left aid organisations with a shortfall in the funding.
Wade quoted from a Washington DC think tank called Centre for Global Development, which rated Australia sixth in aid spending and trade, investment, migration, environment and security issues - behind Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and New Zealand per capita.
Australia's ranking fell three places since 2003. See the full SMH report.
Aid tragedy in the making
Donor fatigue takes the blame alongside government inaction for the latest aid tragedy in the making - some 800,000 Javanese still without a roof after the 27 May 06 Yogyakarta earthquake as the heavy November rains are about to start.
There are worries this could create a health crisis if many medical groups leave, says Voice of America (VOA) reporter, Chad Bouchard, in his locally researched report "Indonesian Earthquake Survivors Still Lack Shelter as Rainy Season Approaches".
His report says the rate of acute respiratory infection in worst-affected Bantul is five to six times higher than normal. As the wet season approaches, health officials expect that number to rise. Dengue fever and malaria also thrive in rainy conditions.
- Pic from VOA report -
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Comment by Nina
Being a student, I can't afford to donate a lot to charity. I choose to donate to the Queensland Institute of Medical Research. None of the money donated goes to administration costs, and the work they are doing will aid all the world's people.
Comment by Big Cat
Chatterpillar
Too many charities causes problems on the ground too. The Tsunami Evaluation Committee with Bill Clinton as UN special envoy talked about a fragmented approach due to the proliferation of international agencies and their insistence on distinct programmes.
But Australia's aid organisations are at least trying - have a look at the site of their association ACFID.
Their Dec 05 NGO Report on the Asian Tsunami addresses things like the percent spending on admin.
Or see my summary in ACknowledge.
Comment by Milly
Travel Adventures
The questioning mind
What I think we need is a new international body to oversee aid through centralised planning, because often these orgs double-up on care. This new body (NOT THE UN) could oversee the provision of aid and make the orgs accountable.
Comment by Big Cat
Chatterpillar
I certainly concur that the UN is not the overseer of choice. Myself, I'd like to see aid orgs go through the same kind of hoops as equity raisers have to, with well-researched prospectuses saying how the money is intended to be used, including stated benchmarks for later evaluation. That would make them accountable to donors like listed companies are to shareholders. Instead of a dividend as incentive to invest more, the donor motivation would be in seeing good, audited results. The aid orgs that did this best would attract a bigger share of total donors' funds, until they would all have to do it.
Whadaya think? The prospectus writing would of course be done by trained journo-researchers like yourself.
Comment by Milly
Travel Adventures
The questioning mind
Comment by Big Cat
Chatterpillar
Equity funding is via the stock exchange, debt funding via the banks. Aid funding is most comparable to equity funding because ordinary mums and dads can easily participate. (Obvious difference is aid funds don't pay a dividend or any return back in money.)
I think aid orgs that make a prospectus with aims and benchmark figures like a share equity raising ought to be better regarded for a particular appeal than charities that appeal by knocking on your door or stop you on the street.
Tsunami donations to aid orgs/NGOs averaged a lot more than the $2 needed for tax deductibility. Donors poured funds into the NGOs even before the NGOs had put their appeals on their websites. The Boxing Day 2004 Asian tsunami caused the most amazing donations ever, something like US$8 billion world-wide including Mums and Dads, corporations and governments. Australia Fed Govt authorised A$1 billion for Indonesia alone, later topped up to A$1.7bn (but adjusted for Indonesia-wide use, not just tsunami-affected Aceh and Nias). I doubt that there will be another such donor outpouring for decades to come.