Films > Life Films > The Donor Circus
The Donor Circus
Zambia, in southern African, is one of the poorest countries in the world. Forty per cent of its national budget is provided by foreign donors, 
who until recently decided just where and how it was spent. As a result, to try to meet the pledges it's signed up to on the Millennium Development Goals, the Zambian government has had to deal with a 'donor circus' of over a dozen separate country donors - each with their own lengthy and detailed reporting requirements. But now there's a new move to coordinate aid, and cut back on bureaucracy.
Zambia's Finance Minister Peter Ng'andu Magande says donors must help Zambia's government draw up its own development 
policy - "if it shows willingness to be accountable, if it shows willingness to be transparent in its operations. help them do those things." But US and Japanese aid agencies still prefer to fund their own chosen projects, arguing the Zambians are not yet sufficiently accountable.
Others argue that aid harmonization itself is an essential part of building good government, "because so many people have been lost," Unicef representative Stella Goings claims. "We've had a brain drain that's been ongoing in this region for decades now; we also have a terrible problem with HIV/AIDS which has cost us many of our most talented professionals in Zambia. The partners have to put themselves in a position where they provide the resources - technical, financial - to help strengthen government's capacity to guide the development process, without taking it over." Life looks at the arguments for and against harmonizing aid.
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'The MDGs in Focus' was made in association with:
The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
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