Best Aid Intervention - What is it?

Best Aid Intervention. Is there such a thing as the best aid intervention? And if there is, what is it? Can we define it as a development approach that is equally successful, cost-effective, and sustainable when implemented in any country or region of the world?

Girls Education

First thing that comes to mind is girls' education, on which I wrote before in Girls and Education-Why Do They Matter? Yet despite my own devotion to the cause and many great studies on the subject(check out "Because I am a Girl" by Plan International thanks to @KeshetBachan for the link), we have to acknowledge that girls education is NOT the most cost-effective tool. Nicholas Kristof, one of the most prominent supporters of girls education, states: "While we argue that educating girls does stimulate economic growth and foster stability, for example, it is also true that one of the most educated parts of rural India is the state of Kerala, which has stagnated economically." The example of the former USSR republics (almost all of which have literacy ratings around 90%) also proves that education is not always the key to economic development and high per-capita incomes. Therefore, girls' education is not a panacea(but oh how I wish it were!)and not the best aid intervention.

Microfinance

Is it microfinance that has gained huge numbers of supporters since the beginning of the new millennia with the help of its main champion, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus? Probably not. Not because of the SKS IPO controversy, Andhra Pradesh crisis, or the infamous Norwegian documentary, but simply because microloans do not fit the needs of all the poor people. Believe it or not, poor people are not equally poor and have different needs! To me, out of all the criticism that microfinance industry has received recently, the not-everybody-wants/can-(to)-be-an-entrepreneur seems to be the most viable. In addition, there hasn't been enough research on microfinance effectiveness, while some of the few researches that came out had actually come up with negative results.

On the other hand, there is an undeniable need for financial tools developed specifically for the poor, which is strongly supported by the research summarized in the brilliant "Portfolios of the Poor." Thus, microfinance still has a shot at becoming the most effective development tool... with two big "ifs". If the industry continues working on the diversification of its products, a prerequisite stressed in the latest CGAP report. And if microfinance shifts its focus back to its poor clients, away from the wealthy investors.

Seasonal Migration (of people)
Would you be surprised if I told you that seasonal migration is a more effective development tool than microfinance, deworming (one of the cheapest aid interventions!), or conditional cash transfers? That's exactly what this article states!



But does the success of a seasonal migration from Tonga to New Zealand mean that this approach will be equally effective in raising incomes elsewhere? Probably not. The article itself states that this type of policy will be most effective for small island nations and its results will depend on governments and international organizations. (Knowing these limitations, we can take seasonal migration down from the "best aid interventions" list right away.) Moreover, the article's daring conclusion is nothing but a suggestion based on very few one-sided researches.

Does it mean that there is no such thing as the best aid intervention, a perfect development approach creating miracles all over the world? Well, miracles do happen all over the world (look at Kenyan M-PESA for example!), it's just that they are brought about by different forces and different aid interventions.

The world and its people are simply too diverse for one aid intervention to be equally effective everywhere. There will ALWAYS be exceptions to the rule. As I see it, the best aid intervention, is actually a combination of all of the above + many more great development approaches implemented at the right time in the right place.( Concerning the last 2 points, i.e. "at the right time at the right place", I recommned to check out this great post on World Bank blog: Revisiting the "country-specific solution"

I am very interested in your opinion. Do you think best aid intervention actually exists? Maybe you have a different definition of it or would have used different examples? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Girls' Education: Successful Grassroots Campaigns

Before I start listing NGOs that are promoting the cause of women's education, I should note that the programs that all these nonprofits support almost always transcend the formal educational process, addressing other women's needs and problems as well. These issues include sex trafficking, female genital cutting, maternal health & family planning, economic empowerment, AIDS/HIV prevention, and women's rights. The reason is that, as many of these problems have cultural roots, education turned out to be the key element in resolving all of them.

For example, one of the most effective ways of preventing girls from being sex trafficked is to keep them in school. Two great ways to achieve this is building schools in rural areas and "bribing" parents for the perfect school attendance of their daughters. Rural School Projects have been implemented around the world. In Cambodia, for example, where many girls end up being trafficked to brothels in Thailand, Rural School Project is supported by American Assistance for Cambodia/Japan Relief for Cambodia (AAfC). The project has built 470 schools all around the country. Donors pay $13,000 and the funds are matched by World Bank and Asian Development Bank; after the schools (with the donors' name on it!) are constructed donors are encouraged to support students by funding improvements for their school, such as computers, Internet access, a water well, or a vegetable garden.

While it is clear that not everybody can afford donating $13,000, this sum is very achievable if the ones who care unite their forces! One of the schools in Cambodia, for example, was fully funded by the Overlake School in America, whose students not only funded the school, but also visited and established life-long relationships with their Cambodian counterparts. Think about how easy and enriching it would be for (a) collegiate student organization(s) to raise this money! The importance of having a school in a village simply cannot be overstated, because a school is the only opportunity that these rural girls have for changing their lives for the better.

American Assistance to Cambodia has established another program, Girls Be Ambitious, that provides families with $10/month if their daughters have perfect school attendance. The logic behind this is that girls in poor rural communities usually have to abandon education and help their family survive by taking jobs far from home or even abroad, often ending up as sex slaves. This way, for $120/month you can fight sex trafficking and save one girls' life.

Tostan is another successful grassroots campaign that concentrates on education, but whose main objective is to stop female genital cutting and promote women's human rights. Cultural awareness of the founder and leadership of African women helped Tostan achieve what no international or governmental organization managed to do- create cultural acceptance of the notion that female genital cutting is damaging for women's health and that an "uncut" woman is no worse and deserves to be married as any woman who has been cut. Tostan was launched in Senegal in 1991 and slowly but surely achieved such results- 2600 villages announced that they had ceased cutting between 2002-2006 - that Senegalese government itself decided to adopt Tostan's approach on the national level. Now Tostan is trying to establish itself in Somalia, Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia, and Central African Republic.

The last two NGOs that I would like to note are:

Afghan Institute of Learning managed to hold classes for girls and boys even during Taliban regime (!) and now provides education, vocational training, and medical help for 350,000 women and children around the country.

CAMFED is a nonprofit that supports girls' education in Africa. Started by a Welsh woman, striving to help girls in Zimbabwe, it now helps girls and boys attend and stay in school, get college scholarships, learn basic economic skills, and start small businesses. Since 1993 Camfed improved the school environment for 1,065,710 children in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Ghana. (The picture is CAMFED's "get involved" banner, so I suppose I can use it here.)

As usual most of the information, inspiration, and knowledge I found in "Half The Sky." Let me know, if you would like me to list more similar organizations or maybe NGOs working in specific countries or for a different cause. In my next post I will concentrate on microfinance and how it changes lives all around the developing world.