NGOs unite against attack on NZAID

Jason Brown


DON’T CORRUPT AID. EIGHTEEN top aid organisations have laid out that blunt message in a New Zealand-based website after a minister was accused of making “misleading” statements against NZAID.
New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully dropped a bomb on the aid sector by announcing two reviews into NZAID and attacking the agency for a “handout” mentality under an official policy of “poverty elimination”.
“You could ride around in a helicopter pushing hundred-dollar notes out the door and call that poverty elimination.”
Reaction was immediate.
“This statement is incorrect and misleading,” said Oxfam New Zealand’s Executive Director, Barry Coates.
Aid organisations were “deeply concerned” at threats to bring NZAID directly back under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, meaning the aid agency is set to lose its semi-independent status.
World Vision compared NZAID with a similarly semi-autonomous body in Australia, AusAID, and the stand-alone UK Department for International Development.
“If anything, we should look to move towards the British model, rather than reabsorb NZAID back into MFAT,” said World Vision New Zealand CEO, Lisa Cescon.
Aid organisations combined just days later to build a dedicated website as part of a NZAID campaign—complete with a logo that some Facebook users copied as their profile picture.
Within a week, there were some 312 Facebook users signed up to the Don’t Corrupt Aid campaign.
Commentary critical of McCully’s decision became one of the 10 most read stories on Scoop, a leading New Zealand news agency. Editors made the opinion piece one of their top picks. It was an extraordinary response to unprecedented ministerial interference.
Mainstream media were disapproving, with the New Zealand Herald accusing McCully of being “out of order”.
Council for International Development executive director David Culverhouse said the move risked exposing NZAID to “whatever” political agenda held sway with governments of the day.
“New Zealanders footing the bill for our development assistance expect to see it helping the poor, not being used as a political football,” says Culverhouse.
Isabelle Duff, programme director at Leprosy Mission, described McCully’s comments as “cavalier at best and ignorant at worst”.
NZAID was set up in 2002, near the start of the nine-year Labour administration, after a public review recommended aid be separated from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
By comparison, the McCully review is not being released as a draft, does not involve public feedback, nor sector consultation, not even with NZAID.
Effective aid: Given that McCully has already outlined two key objectives, reintegration and realignment, many view the internal review as a done deed.
In calling for New Zealand aid to be realigned to economic development rather than poverty elimination, however, the John Key administration risks being seen by international peers as turning their back on years of international aid negotiations, particularly the 2005 Paris Declaration on effective aid.

NGOs protest The 18 NGOs behind the “Don’t Corrupt Aid” campaign: Amnesty International Anglican Social Justice Commission Child Fund Christian Blind Mission Christian World Service International Family Planning Leprosy Mission Missions Interlink Oxfam Peace Foundation Rotary Salvation Army Save The Children Surf Aid International Tear Fund UNICEF UNIFEM World Vision

Surprising then, that the NGO campaign was allowed as a discussion topic on Key’s Facebook page. Or perhaps not so surprising.
The McCully comments overshadowed a visit by Key to Australia, where he was co-announcing a review on Pacific economies in global crisis, next to counterpart Kevin Rudd, when the scandal broke.
Nicknamed “the Dark Prince” by caucus members years ago, McCully is renown as a leading political strategist for the ruling National Party, with the Dominion Post applying the “Machiavelli” label in an article headlined: “Coming out of the shadows”.
Now McCully is casting a long shadow of his own. Cuts to New Zealand aid make for good politics at a time when the global crisis is biting hard, the party campaigning on a promise to reduce state spending.
Any doubts McCully means business were dispelled the week after his shock “helicopter” comments, when an opposition MP leaked news that the minister had ordered a NZ$1.95 million cut to a single NGO, the Foundation of the South Pacific International.
Influential National Party supporter, Kiwiblog founder David Farrar criticised the campaign by NGOs saying their “inflammatory language” is counter-productive. But he agreed NZAID should stay independent.
Oxfam New Zealand was not swayed, attacking the policy changes.
“Funds spent on promoting economic growth are all too easily captured by powerful elites in developing countries,” said Coates
“For example, instead of supporting a road to get produce from impoverished farmers to the market, aid money is spent on a road to the prime minister’s house. Without a poverty reduction aim, aid is more likely to be spent to gain political favours and fuel corruption.”