Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) has channelled over £30 million of its aid through an institution designed to pay consultants to push privatisation in poor countries according to a report released today (Sunday 26 November 2006) by the World Development Movement. This compares, for example, to the £3.5 million DFID has pledged to spend over four years to help establish a new programme of support for higher education in Africa.
Why do I blog this?
Well, I have (nearly) first hand experience of observing the privatisation pressure policies of the World bank and IMF. I don't want to delve into a discussion of the pros and cons of privatisation. I want to talk about the appalling (IMHO) practice of patronising (possibly corrupt) countries and their governments. In most cases they are heavily in debt and have their arms twisted into submission, so they need to follow the theories of the luminaries of IMF and WB. While those people might be competent, they usually have very little interest in the people of the indebted countries, their wellbeing, poverty, conditions of life, etc... They do care about introducing 'elegant' monetary policies and economic 'discipline'.
It is not only third world countries which are subject to these aggressive politics. Most of the Eastern European countries were or are still subjected to this treatment. And to top that all this waste of funds... It would have been allright if they were really invested in infrastructure, but establishing a quango? Thank you very much. Paperpushers are an interesting breed indeed.
