The problem with donor money

A fellow peace corps volunteer in the Gambia wrote a blog post about the problem of sustainability and how most Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) work. It explains many of my frustrations with donors giving money to villages. The villagers then think money will be given to them whether they work hard or not. I have learned throwing money at a problem does not help the situation and usually makes it worse.

Here is the first paragraph she wrote:

A lot of volunteers, NGOs, etc. will roll into a village spend a couple days there and declare "You need a ______ (school/library/garden/clinic)!" This sort of situation is the WORST IDEA EVER and not sustainable AT ALL! For example, an NGO walks into a village and says, "You need a garden and we're going to build you one," and all the village people, if you will, are all super excited. The NGO then proceeds to build the garden using all expensive materials instead of local ones, ie. steel poles instead of wooden ones, chain-link instead of live fencing, pumps instead of wells. And the villagers love it and they start gardening. Fast-forward one year to when the pump breaks. Who's going to fix it? Well, no one has the money to fix a pump and since none of the villagers feel any ownership over the garden, it's not anyone's responsibility. So the pump never gets fixed. And the garden ceases to be used and just sits there. Fast forward 5 years, another NGO comes and says, oh, here's this garden just sitting here being unused, let us fix it for you and/or build you a better one. And on and on it goes.

Please read the rest of her blog post.
"The problem with sustainability and the way 99% of NGOs function".

It gives a more detailed picture of the situation -

http://marniesaur.blogspot.com/