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Burgess Manuscript
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Hundreds of Issues
From the book 'Hundreds of Issues that Impact Relief and Development'
Section LLL
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Issue
LFA
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Basic observation
Local Fund Agent (LFA) is a creation of the GFATM to give the fund a way of being accountable on the ground
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Prevailing response
The Global Fund (GFATM) has contracted with a number of well known organizations to do oversight on the ground regarding use of GFATM resources. While the LFA may be doing an adequate job from the perspective of the GFATM, there is not much transparency for the interested public.
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A better response
The LFA is an interesting approach and could have been used as a way to get simple clear management information into the public domain so that there is an accountability to the public about the use of scarce GFATM resources. The simple need is to have a clear understanding of money disbursed and value realized ... and explanations where the results are not strong.
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Issue
Land
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Basic observation
Land is a very limited resource, and the basis for security and cause of mayhem.
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Prevailing response
Land is the source of much power and wealth, and a reason for significant abuses. Land reform has been attempted in many places over the years, and the issues around land still remain contentious. The rule of law has a lot to say about property rights, which include importantly laws related to land.
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A better response
Land remains one of the most worrisome aspects of law and human rights. Traditional owners of land should not be dispossessed because of law that ignores history ... and clever law should never override what is fair and just. The critical issue about land is more that is is used well for social good of the community than it is used merely for private profit at the expense of anything and everything else.
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Issue
Land degradation
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Basic observation
Land degradation is caused more than anything else by people.
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Prevailing response
The relief and development sector has done surprisingly little to help address the land degradation that is going on around the world. Most poor countries have had massive land degradation over the past 50 years, and not much intervention to stop it.
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A better response
Land quality is a part of the value equation that should be used in a comprehensive community centric value analysis system. Actors in the relief and development sector and in the corporate community should be held accountable for the impact they are having on the quality of the land.
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Issue
Land ownership
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Basic observation
Land ownership is contentious, and the subject of great historical abuse.
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Prevailing response
The relief and development sector has encouraged initiatives related to land ownership, but in the main the initiatives have been more mechanical than anything else, and have tended to support an elite establishment and centralization of power over community centric initiatives.
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A better response
Land is a critical and limited scarce resource. The key is to use land in the best possible way, no matter who is the owner. An owner with a legitimate provenance should be fairly rewarded for use of land, but at the limit, land should be used so that there is the maximum of common and community good.
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Issue
Land-mines
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Basic observation
Land-mines are dangerous. In war they have a role, but they continue to be a terrible danger as long as they are in the ground.
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Prevailing response
The relief and development sector has a small and very committed community of people and organizations that are doing wonderful work, but it is far smaller than it should be. As a result ordinary innocent people are being maimed and killed every day, usually in poor communities.
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A better response
A community centric management information system would include community impact relating to land-mines ... and show how much more needs to be done. The rich world has been quick to deploy land mines when it was in their interest, and it should be as concerned to remove them when there is no more need.
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Issue
Latrines
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Basic observation
Basic sanitation improves health significantly.
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Prevailing response
There has been a lot of relief and development sector work on latrines and sanitation, but probably not enough.
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A better response
Community centric management information would included the state of sanitation and latrines ... and address the issue of why it is that local people and organizations cannot do latrine development themselves.
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Issue
Lessons learned
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Basic observation
Lessons learned is one of the key differentiators between good and poor organizations.
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Prevailing response
Most organizations in the relief and development sector are very weak at learning lessons. Individuals learn a lot, but the poor feedback systems and the lack of institutional memory means that the vast bulk of the lessons are never learned.
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A better response
A good management information and decision making system forces lessons to be learned, and for errors to be corrected. This is new in most of the relief and development sector, though it is common in good corporate organizations. UNHCR is the one organization in the RDS that has had a strong lessons learned and feedback culture for decades.
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Issue
Leverage
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Basic observation
Leverage is a technique used in corporate financial engineering ... derived from a well known physical concept that lets a small force move anything.
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Prevailing response
The relief and development sector does not use financial thinking very much, if at all, and as a result the rather small resources available for relief and development have rarely been used to leverage socio-economic progress. In fact, because leverage works both positively and negatively, RDS initiatives have often resulted in strengthening constraints rather than catalyzing progress.
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A better response
The relief and development sector could make use of leverage to catalyze development, but it will only be able to do this when it better understands the dynamics of relief and development and has the critical management information needed for good decision making. Because relief and development is largely failing because of constraints, removing constraints can give a strong leverage for success.
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Issue
Liberty
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Basic observation
Liberty is a tremendous value, and one of the most important in quality of life. Liberty is fragile, and needs to be constantly protected.
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Prevailing response
The relief and development sector has a broad commitment to liberty, and to human rights, but in spite of this there are far too many places where liberty is severely compromised. This is constantly documented by a variety of organizations, but progress to expanding the area where liberty is normal is slow.
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A better response
Liberty should be a part of the value of a community, and be part of management information about community ... and liberty should be a metric in almost everything that is done. But liberty needs to be encouraged not only as it relates to what one says, but also as it relates to what one is allowed to know. Both government and the private corporate sector lack transparency and much of importance is kept hidden.
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Issue
License fees
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Basic observation
License fees are a way to remunerate owners of intellectual property and rights.
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Prevailing response
The relief and development sector has not had a big role in the challenge of deploying intellectual property so that the most value is achieved, as well as fairness for all.
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A better response
There are probably many opportunities for license fees to work not only for the benefit of organizations in the “north” but arguably also for organizations in the “south”. Much of the natural “property” needed for pharmaceutical progress is located in the “south” ... and should be fairly remunerated.
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Issue
Life cycle analysis
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Basic observation
Life cycle analysis has always been a feature of good accounting and analysis.
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Prevailing response
The accounting in the relief and development sector is generally weak and analysis rarely based on accountancy.
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A better response
Life cycle analysis is one of the components of a good management information system for the relief and development sector. Many interventions of the RDS should be changed based on good management analysis, including life cycle analysis.
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Issue
Linkage
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Basic observation
Linkage in socio-economic development has long been recognized as critical.
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Prevailing response
But linkage has rarely been a strong feature of relief and development sector support by the international community. Rather the RDS has moved in the direction of sub-sector focus with very limited thinking about linkage.
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A better response
Community centric analysis shows above all else that linkage is critical and makes a huge difference to the outcomes. A good management information system for community centric analysis makes it possible to encourage linkage so that progress and the creation of socio-economic value is maximized.
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Issue
Literacy
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Basic observation
Literacy is a big factor in communication, and the ability to learn efficiently.
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Prevailing response
While the relief and development sector understands the importance of literacy and education, a large population of children still does not have the opportunity to go to school and learn.
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A better response
Community centric metrics will show where it is that there are educational deficits, and where help is needed. Education at the basic level does not need to be an international effort, but it can be a local effort with modest external support, and deliver great value.
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Issue
Lobbying
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Basic observation
Lobbying has become altogether too powerful in modern government
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Prevailing response
In poor countries, making payments to government officials and legislators is considered to be corruption, but something called lobbying that has many of the same characteristics in rich countries is legal. The ethics of this are dubious at best.
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A better response
Creating public awareness of issues, and building a governance environment so that legislators response to public concerns is one thing, and to be encouraged. An environment where the making of public law is influenced by the rich and powerful and is done for private benefit is a travesty of good democracy.
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Issue
Local Law
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Basic observation
Local law, and traditional law are found almost everywhere and are the default when national law does not reach the area.
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Prevailing response
Local law and traditional law have been heavily discounted by international experts working in the relief and development sector, but in poor and remote areas they become important as the prevailing law.
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A better response
The value of local law and traditional law was a feature of British jurisprudence, and helps a lot where the resources are not available to have a more formal system of law, and courts and regulation. The key, after all, is to have justice that is fair and equitable.
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Issue
Logical framework
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Basic observation
Logical framework is the name given to an approach to project analysis used by USAID
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Prevailing response
The concept of the logical framework was to try to formalize the linkages that connected inputs with outputs and to get some numerical metrics to facilitate the assessment of progress.
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A better response
The logical framework has not proved to be a effective way of maximizing the performance of relief and development. While it introduced a lot more numerical metrics, they were often easy measures more than being measures that were founded on the value of the outputs.
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From 'HUNDREDS OF ISSUES THAT IMPACT RELIEF AND DEVELOPMENT'
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