Place comments on the Facebook page 'The Poor-Poor Divide'
I've been hearing endless rubbish being spoken by donors about 'value for money' ever since 1987. They talk about this concept as though it is entirely neutral and objective when what they mean is that they decide (and nobody else) what the value is. It's just an another exercise in control, couched in terms that justify themselves to their supporters.
It's not even something the donors pay any attention to anyway, as inconvenient truths about their own programmes and real objectives are merely wrapped up in language designed to show how much 'value for money' the agency is getting.
So next time you hear the phrase, roll your eyes, then roll over, wag your tail, then figure out how to manipulate your outputs and outcomes to fit into the values you are told you must find. Go on. Fetch, boy! But while you're biting your tongue and following the donor's wishes, you can still use the opportunity of funding for doing some real learning -- as is intimated in the essays on the rest of the site. It doesn't cost much if anything to do some real probing of your own. And just occasionally you'll come across a project willing to explore just a bit further and put the learning to wider use. There's a good example of this in the essay on The Poor-Poor Divide in Northern Nigeria. It took me 30 years to put the learning I had about distribution of mortality into that project -- but it really paid off (though not for the donors, who totally ignored the results).
Here's a little patter song (or rap if you prefer) that I wrote to amuse colleagues on a recent project when the hypocrisy of the donor was just too sickening to say anything of sense:
Here is another chest-beating, brow-beating patter
Digging up angst to defy all the clatter
Of hard done-by orgs claiming so fruitlessly
That they're distributing funds totally losslessly.
Now DFID with diffidence claims from the steeple
The outcomes they seek belong to the people
"The money we give you is utterly selfless:
All that we seek is to help people's prowess
(To talk of empowerment now is so outré
Any such jargon will go to the out tray).
If you bring us the goods we really won't quibble
Just make sure it's cheap -- and cheerful if possible!
Ignore all the log frames and agreements we've made
(though we'll certainly measure them just as we said)
We'll pile things on as they come to our thinking --
Only make sure you do them and keep up without sinking.
The evaluation we do is only to show
The people at home that we’re in the know
So make us look good whilst scratching our back --
We’ll be sure to scratch yours if you adopt our tack.”
Tony Klouda