Aid to war-torn countries may be counterproductive, former diplomat says

A US diplomat says it may be counterproductive to send aid to countries that are torn by war and that struggle to provide basic services.

SHARJAH // Giving aid to war-torn countries that struggle to provide basic services may be counterproductive, a former US senior aid official and diplomat said this week.

Wendy Chamberlin oversaw development efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan as a regional head of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2002 and 2004. Before that, she served as ambassador to Pakistan, handling the tense relationship between the two countries in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Now the head of the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank, Ms Chamberlin is giving lectures and workshops this week as a visiting fellow at the American University of Sharjah.

She declined to say whether sending development workers to Iraq in the midst of heavy fighting was a decision she had opposed at the time or that she now regretted.

"That's history now," she said on Monday.

But in general, she said, doing development work in struggling countries posed serious challenges. The donor nation might end up spending most of its aid budget to protect workers. Also, the recipient nation might be too corrupt to channel the aid properly. The receiving country might also be too ineffective to make sure projects were maintained.

"Development aid can actually be counterproductive if you don't have a number of building blocks already in place. Security is, of course one of them, but also the basic capacity of the people on the ground," she said.

"There has to be enough rule of law that aid is not subject to gross corruption. There has to be some ability for local government to build upon the systems - if you build a road, it gets repaired," she said.

While overseeing aid efforts in dangerous spots like Iraq, she said, she had insisted that workers go with protection, despite the cost.

In general, however, she said, "If you spend 80 per cent of your aid budget on security, at some point that doesn't make dollars and sense."

Ms Chamberlin served in the US foreign service for nearly three decades. In 2004, she was appointed deputy high commissioner for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and in 2007 she joined her current think tank.