We appreciate support from the outside, but it should be support for what we intend to achieve ourselves. No one should pretend that they care about our nations more than we do; or assume that they know what is good for us better than we do ourselves. They should, in fact, respect us for wanting to decide our own fate.
Says Kagame in his op-ed last week in the Financial Times.
While I am concerned that certain individuals high up in the echelons of power actually care about themselves far more than their nations, I agree wholeheartedly with Kagame’s sentiment. Especially the bit about supporting a country’s own priorities, whether they be in health, education, infrastructure, etc., and not simply making up your own.
I wrote about donor distortions to Uganda’s health sector in this week’s Independent. I don’t think many U.S. taxpayers, for example, realise that they are contributing more to fighting HIV/AIDS in Uganda than the Ugandan government is contributing to Uganda’s health sector in its entirety. This is unacceptable on a number of levels. The current state of affairs is not the fault of only one party, but the donor/recipient relationship will never be equal and those involved should act/think accordingly, political correctness of “partnership” notwithstanding.
Melina Raquel Platas 
It is a delicate dance between donor/recipient, one that can have total destabilising effects but also positive results if well managed. In Africa, the former is more prevalent.
If Aid is fed to an underperforming incompetent cast of actors, then it is likely to leave the situation worse than what justified the intervention in the first place.
If Aid is targeted towards beefing up real local capacities, then up to a point, the benefits exceed the cost, but in the overall picture, the benefits are marginal. Why? because mechanisms to wean the recipients off of the Aid are non existent in many instances.
Therefore, the winning formula might be one where the destructive effects are counter-balanced by the constructive ones, leaving room for marginal forward improvement, a generational issue.
Dont ask me how this can be done. It is far more complex than the Aid/donor relationship.
Thanks Melina….
I reported renectly that Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee Chair Stephen Tashobya was unsure if the bill would come up. In light of the New Vision report, I asked him if the bill might now make the agenda. He told me that the Parliament would indeed reconvene on March 22 but that the agenda had not yet been decided. He said, What I can say is that we have a lot of work to get done and if there isa0time to get to that bill (the Anti-Homosexuality Bill) then we will look at it, but if there is no time, then we won’t be able to this session. Tashobya added that the agenda would not be worked out until Parliament reconvenes and that he could not confirm anything at this point.
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KamiHow heart wrenching A long while ago I atednetd a meeting on how to get more involved with Humanitarian Aid through the church and felt the Spirit so strong. I really never acted on this. 😦 I’ve thought about becoming more organized and trying to set a goal of doing something each month to help. If there were a group of us, it might get me more committed and accountable. How can you read stories like this, and NOT do something? I wondered where you heard about this woman. Are you wanting to focus on helping her organization at this point or do you want to organize efforts elsewhere as well? I would love to get my children involved in this effort as well.