ATCnet
The Accountability Project

Project for Universal Accountability E-List Conversations ... Subj: DotForce Objective Universal Accountability

COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

ATCnet ... Project for Universal Accountability E-List Conversations

Canadian DotForce Ciivil Society Consultation

Subj: DotForce Objective Universal Accountability
Date: 1/17/02 10:15:36 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: Profitinafrica
To: dotciv@lyris.bellanet.org (Canadian dot force Civil Society Consultation)

Dear DotForce Colleagues

Thank you for getting a DotForce follow up dialog active. The history of development, especially for Africa, is almost all talk and no action. The amount of talk about Africa and its development problems is inversely proportional to the amount of material action that takes place. As they say ' Talk is Cheap'. I think a similar concept from Texas is 'Money talks, Bullshit walks'. The conferences and workshops and summits and studies and study tours do not really add up to very much in term of delivery of development benefit on the ground. The series of 'this day', and the 'year of this' and the 'decade of that' serve little more than to document and publicize the fact the development industry has failed and continues to do so. The annual publications from all the big development institutions also do little more than to document the failure of the prevailing development paradigm, and make arguments today that were already argued 5 and 10 and 20 years ago.

Many of the development organizations have a well established 'project cycle'. But the NORTH development community spends its resources on the first 20% of the project cycle 5 times, before it runs out of money. Daaa ...... as Jay Leno on the Tonight Show would say. It would be better to put 20% of the resources into each of the five stages of the project cycle and actually deliver some development benefits to the SOUTH.

That is not to say that the development industry is totally bad. In fact the vast majority of the people involved in development, and even more so in the emergency sub-sector of development, are incredible individuals, many who are prepared to put themselves in harms way to help people. But from a systemic point of view the development industry is totally dysfunctional. Non of the good people in the industry can change it. Most change that is initiated ends up added even further constraints to an already terribly snarled up system.

The development industry needs massive reform. This cannot come from inside the industry. It must come from outside the industry. And this can happen. There is widespread dissatisfaction with the performance of development. The PUBLIC in the SOUTH know that development is not working. Much of the PUBLIC in the NORTH thinks that it is, because the promotion and propaganda has been very effective. When the PUBLIC in the NORTH has information about development performance that is based on sound principles of universal accountability, the pressure for change will mount. Some organizations will rise to the occasion, and will change to deliver high performance development assistance. Other organizations will not.

The DotForce initiative can either be a great success and really deliver something of value, or it will be merely another footnote in the annals of development.

The questions are simple.

• .......How much is being spent on the dot force process?
• .......Where and what is it being spent on?
• .......What are the planned outputs and outcomes that will be realized?
• .......What are the actual outputs and outcomes being realized?
• .......Exactly who are the beneficiaries?

On the other hand objective independent accountability will be supported by the PUBLIC and the professionals of the SOUTH. The poor in the SOUTH know that not too much of the world’s wealth reaches them. Some know what is happening to the resources.

Objective independent accountability will also be supported by many professional individuals and development experts in the NORTH. These groups already find the current levels of poverty in much of the world and the performance of development totally unacceptable, but have no way of making material changes.

The ATCnet Project for Universal Accountability is a starting point for objective universal accountability. Information from 'outsiders' about project performance in development is being compiled and is being organized in a relational database environment so that patterns of performance can be identified. In an ideal world the database information would be making it possible for people eailyt to see just how well development has been done. The database should be able to highlight excellence in development. Sadly, when the outsider view of development is tabulated, the impression is 'failure' rather than excellence.

It is time for change. The possibility for change is present.

______________
T. Peter Burgess
VP and CFO ATCnet
New York USA
Tel 212 772 6918 Fax 707 371 7805
website: www.atcnet.org
email: profitinafrica@aol.com / hivaidsstories@aol.com
----------------------------
ATCnet Project for Universal Accountability
ATCnet Community Cyber Network
ATCnet Database on African Development and Enterprise
ATCnet Database on the African Health and HIV-AIDS Crisis
----------------------------
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Subj: [dotciv] RE: Status of the DotForce consultation on the eve of G8 Digital Divide meetings
Date: 1/17/02 9:07:26 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: sbazilli@look.ca (Susan Bazilli)
Reply-to: dotciv@lyris.bellanet.org (Canadian dot force Civil Society Consultation)
To: dotciv@lyris.bellanet.org (Canadian dot force Civil Society Consultation)

Hello all:

Thanks for starting up this discussion, especially for those of us who long ago gave up the hope of ever getting any information from Dot Force.... We have a very specific question - the Canadian government's rhetoric about more aid money for Africa, the G8's supposed commitment to more aid for Africa, the Dot Force's acknowledgement of digital divide's impact in Africa, the 'gender digital divide', and the need for women in Africa to have access to IT - adds up to - what? - for women and IT in Africa?....

Where is the money?