Why so many bad decisions?

How has ORDA failed? Bluntly put, the wrong people have been in charge. Too much of the decision making has been made with a political agenda, and rather little of the ORDA decision making has been made by people with the interest of the poor and needy foremost in mind.

I was really disappointed when I attended a program of Bread for the World in New York and the presenter made it very clear that we should advocate for more development assistance in part because very little of it actually left the country, and it was very good for the US economy to have more ORDA resources. This is a ridiculous argument that suggests little or no understanding of the crisis and what needs to be done.

In the beneficiary countries the people in charge are the country's leadership which would work if the leadership agenda was primarily the efficient use of relief and development resources. This is far from the case. Resources are allocated for local priorities and there is very little that donors can do about it. Donors and funding organizations are faced with legitimate questions of “sovereignty” and they have caved in for years over the equally legitimate question of transparency and accountability.

People that truly have the interests of needy people in poor communities have rarely been part of the mainstream of ORDA programs and fund flows. It is apparent that very little ORDA funding finds its way to remote poor communities, or even to nearby poor urban communities.

Few have much interest in getting resources to poor communities where the resources are needed and can do a lot of good.