From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

5 THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM AIDIn foreign aid, Planners announce good intentions but don’tmotivate anyone to carry them out; Searchers find things that workand get some reward. Planners raise expectations but take noresponsibility for meeting them; Searchers accept responsibility fortheir actions. Planners determine what to supply; Searchers findout what is in demand. Planners apply global blueprints; Searchersadapt to local conditions. Planners at the Top lack knowledge of theBottom; Searchers find out what the reality is at the Bottom.Planners never hear whether the Planned got what they needed;Searchers find out if the customer is satisfied. Will Gordon Brownbe held accountable if the new wave of aid still does not get 12-centmedicines to children with malaria? Indeed, the two key elementsthat make searches work, and the absence of which is fatal to plans,are feedback and accountability. 163Easterly is onto something: the absence of accountability lies at theheart of the problem; effective aid has to be tailored to local cultures,politics, and institutions and must avoid the curse of blueprintsdesigned in Washington, Brussels, or London. Many of the problemareas discussed above arise precisely from this mistaken top-downPlanners’ approach. But Easterly’s proposed cure – a naïve faith inmarkets – conveniently ignores the realities of powerlessness andmarginalisation in the lives of many poor women and men, and thevital importance of building an effective, accountable state.There is a fundamental inequality about the way that internationalaid works. Recipients are accountable to donors, and they must filehundreds of reports and host dozens of ‘donor missions’ to prove it.Accountability rarely operates in the opposite direction. Some poorcountries make the attempt – Afghanistan, for example, decided in2002 to set the ground rules for donor engagement in its reconstruction164 – but most have neither leverage nor recourse to sanctionsagainst donors if advice is poor or if projects are damaging. A newarchitecture is needed that makes donors accountable to recipients.Part of the answer ought to lie in a good-faith implementation ofthe Paris Declaration, but the Paris commitments are themselves weakin some areas, lacking specific targets on issues such as reducing tiedaid, counting debt relief as aid, or moving to long-term aid. Aiddonors should accept that developing-country governments must375