On air: Are NGOs too powerful in Haiti?
| 14:29 UK time, Monday, 27 December 2010
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This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on 27 December 2010. Listen to the programme here.
The Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive has given an interview to the 91Èȱ¬, and two of his comments are raising eyebrows.
Firstly, he says that NGOs helping with the aid effort need to consult more and take instruction more. 'I need to have control over what they do in my country,' is the quote.
(I can think back to WHYS in Port-au-Prince in April where some of the residents of a temporary camp told a government representative that they didn't trust him and his colleagues to deliver the help they needed. So clearly, the counter argument is that NGOs need to take control otherwise things won't be done properly.)
Secondly, he says that only 20% of promised aid has been given to Haiti. To which the obvious question is why?
We've discussed sovereignty recently on WHYS (after the ICC charges in Kenya, and UN involvement in Ivory Coast), and this argument over NGOs in Haiti returns us to it.
At what point does a country's government lose the right to insist to have the final say on everything an NGO does? Obviously we'll speak to some of you in or with an interest in Haiti.
I'm also curious to hear from those of you in sub-Saharan Africa where thousands of NGO staff work. Do the comments from PM Bellerive ring true for you? Do NGOs have too much power in your country?
