How Do We Help?: The Free Market in Development Aid

A fourth pillar on the market

161 A fourth pillar on the market In addition to official bilateral development cooperation (the first pillar), the international institutions (the second pillar) and the NGDOs (the third pillar ), a fourth pillar is rapidly developing. The mainstreaming and localisation of development cooperation represent an unstoppable sociological process. A succession of new individuals and groups are taking short-term or more institutionalised initiatives which they themselves regard as development aid (Develtere, 2008; Develtere & De Bruyn, 2009). Such ‘decentralised cooperation’ can assume many forms. Professional groups set up their ‘without Borders’ organisations (Architects without Borders , Journalists without Borders, Lawyers without Borders, etc.) or their ‘without Holidays’ organisations (Doctors without Holidays, Architects without Holidays, etc.). Students and former students get together for joint projects. Businesses or businesspeople venture into their own development projects. Western service clubs network with service clubs in Africa, Asia or Latin America. Schools and colleges network over the Web with schools in developing countries or organise exchanges. Northern youth movements interact with southern youth movements. Feminist organisations mobilise support against women-unfriendly or degrading practices such as female circumcision and purdah (the isolation of women). Trade union federations invite unionists from the Third World and work together within multinationals. Sports clubs recruit talent from the South and invest in local clubs in Ghana or Liberia. Environmental NGOs buy up tropical forest in order to protect natural fauna and flora. The term ‘fourth pillar’ which is applied to this highly heterogeneous group of initiatives (as well as the term ‘private initiatives’ used in the Netherlands or the French ‘coopération décentralisée’) suggests that this is a kind of left-over category, or at least an alternative form of aid. We can regard it as a fourth institutional group which is positioned alongside the three traditional pillars. A glance at the key players among these new development workers can tell us a great deal about their various characteristics and the consequences of their actions. This is where we will start, but such an institutional analysis is not How do we help? 162 enough. We can learn more by also adding generational, domain-specific and methodological dimensions. This will make it clear that there is more going on: development cooperation is being mainstreamed and de-specialised. At lightning speed. The key players of the fourth pillar In order to gain recognition from one of the three traditional pillars of development cooperation, one needs the fiat of one’s peers. For example, the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee determines what counts as ‘official aid’. In fact, though, the official development agencies regard only their own work as development aid. They attempt to dismiss the work of their colleagues at the ministry of employment or health as ‘not proper’ or ‘not as good’ or ‘not as correct’ aid. We see a similar situation among international organisations and NGDOs. Some newcomers are admitted to the community; others are viewed askance. However, there are not many means of keeping specific institutions outside the club. All you can do is use gentle compulsion to encourage them to take part in processes such as the UN’s ‘Deliver as One’ which we mentioned earlier, or encourage national governments to give subsidies only to NGDOs and organisations that meet certain criteria. One of the basic tenets of this book is thus that we are seeing a significant increase in the number of institutions, within governments, the UN and civil society, that are not regarded as belonging to the club of development specialists . Some of them do not even want to belong. They do not want to be development workers: rather, they want to do some good in the South because it ‘works for them’, as well as working for certain people in the South. Yet this new, fourth pillar has injected considerable dynamism. We will take a look at the big eight: the missions, the trade unions, the farmers’ organisations, the health funds, the businesses, the cooperatives, the migrants’ communities and, finally, the foundations and philanthropists. The missions: the fourth pillar avant la lettre The Catholic Bretons, Basques and Flemings are well-known in many Third World countries for the work of their missionaries. The same goes for Protestant missionaries from the USA or the Scandinavian countries. In all donor countries, the religious have remained pivotal figures in international solidar- A fourth pillar on the market 163 ity. Many have forged temporary or lasting ties with...