Gib Bulloch argues that attacks on the aid sector will hurt those who need help the most
Last week saw the long awaited report by the Commons Select Committee on sexual exploitation and abuse in the aid sector bring this vexed issue back into the media spotlight.
The usual suspects adopted their all too familiar positions – the anti-aid ideologues seized upon the opportunity to highlight the waste and apparent lack of accountability in the charity sector.
Even The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) put the boot in, grandstanding to an electorate which seems to have fallen out of love with the underlying rationale for aid and development.
Ironic, given the report was critical of DFID’s ineffective role on the issue over successive governments.
My hope is that the report can form the basis of a grown up conversation on why international aid and the system that delivers it is more vital today than ever before.
Staff training, world class IT and safeguarding all cost money, but are not as photogenic as starving kids and the aid porn we’ve become hooked upon
Gib Bulloch
The bottom line is that if we want aid institutions that are efficient, accountable and free of all forms of abuse then we need to accept that this costs money. We, the giving public, are somewhat naïve in our demands for every penny of every pound to go to frontline services.
We hate overheads and many charities are culpable in competing with one another on whose overhead percentage is the lowest.
Staff training, world class IT and of course safeguarding all cost money, but admittedly are not as photogenic as starving kids and the aid porn we’ve become hooked upon.
Either we accept that a proportion of our hard earned donations go into strengthening the organisations that deliver the aid, or accept a lower level of transparency, accountability and undoubtedly more scandals in the future.
I welcome the fact that the report doesn’t single out any one organisation for criticism and recognises the systemic nature of the problem – issues of abuse and predatory behaviour are not unique to Oxfam or indeed to international NGOs.
It is now clear that some of the worst examples of abuse are caused by local militia, government soldiers or indeed UN institutions.
However, by suggesting that such abuse is endemic in the sector, the report does a disservice to the vast majority of aid workers who work tirelessly in some of the harshest environments in the world, providing an outlet for that most basic of human instincts – to give to those who have the greatest need.
They’ll feel tarred by the same brush due to the actions of a small minority – priests, TV celebs and film directors will no doubt feel some empathy for their predicament.
The report will provide plenty of ammunition to those who would prefer that our spend on aid and development to be significantly reduced or even scrapped altogether.
However, if we withdraw our trust in the sector and more importantly, the crucial funding our aid agencies depend on, then the only people this will hurt are those who are most vulnerable and whom we are seeking to protect.
Every crisis is too good an opportunity to miss. Now is the time to invest in transforming the aid sector – not to destroy it.
Gib Bulloch is the former executive director of Accenture Development Partnerships and author of The Intrapreneur: Confessions of a corporate insurgent.
