Critique of USAID Governance - Essay Example

Critique of USAID Governance Introduction Since the end of WWII, Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have been instrumental in the global development especially in the least developed countries. Nevertheless, since the facets of development revolve around many factors such as political, social, and economic activities, NGOs have been involved in these activities in one way or another. In this regard, their involvement in these activities has not been embraced without criticism especially due to the influence of internal management, external influence and finances (Oakley 1991). In the last two decades, some countries have come out strongly to criticize NGOs for what they term to be political interference of the countries. This comes as a result of some of the NGOs favouring one side of political affiliation thus rendering to conflict of interest. In another dimension, lack of accountability and transparency has been cited to be among the biggest challenges facing NGOs. Bryant and White 1982 argued that good governance is key to the development of organisations. In light of this, when there is bad governance, it translates to poor performance of the organisation. Delivery of services becomes problematic. Corruption is one of the characteristics of bad governance, lack of accountability and transparency. Since NGOs relies on foreign donations and financing, corruption reaps off these funding thus lack of execution of services mandated. In regard to external relations, since NGOs looks at all facets of development including political, donors may at some point decide to help the country that the NGO is operating by bringing political stability. When this happens, dictation of the operations of such an NGO depends on the donors. This brings problems in regard to the management of the NGO. The USAID USAID is a NGO mandated to oversee development of least developed countries across the globe. The objective of USAID is to support these countries to have good grounds on which developmental activities can take place. USAID argues that Africans are the architects of their development and not just beneficiaries. USAID’s model of development entails supporting entrepreneurs, leaders and innovators in their efforts to transform their societies. This model is aimed at supporting developing countries to alleviate poverty and create sustainability for the future generations. In this regard, USAID advocate for good governance, education, human rights, improve health, food security, gender equity and protection of the environment. Challenges facing USAID Year in year out, USAID’s office of inspector general evaluates management challenges facing the organisation in the delivery of services. Among the challenges facing USAID is the challenges in implementing organisation’s programs in some of the countries it operates. Some of the indentified challenges include security issues, weak governance, and corruption (U.S Department of State 2012). External challenges Corruption comes in different forms in the management of USAID funds. First, USAID works directly with host country institutions. Some of these institutions lack accountability and are marred with corrupt officials. In countries with poor governance, corruption is taken as a form of business where people in power or in the office use corrupt means for their own gains. In fact, Mudacumura and Haque 2004 noted that countries with poor governance policies encourages corruption in the sense that clear laws and guidelines of dealing with corruption lacks. Therefore, corrupt officers go scot flee. Most of these countries fail to reform their institutions such as judiciary in order to favour political agendas. For instance, corruption helps corrupt individuals to get money that they use during elections. The money is mostly used for voter bribery and other kinds of corrupt deals that lead to election irregularity. In this regard, USAID is unable to account for the development in such countries. Since USAID works directly with the governments’ institution, individuals involved in embezzlement of USAID funds hinder investigations of corruption because they are representation of corrupt governments. Security concerns come in as an external challenge that faces USAID. For instance, the South Sudan’s political violence has been detrimental in regard to execution of USAID’s development projects. Since the political violence was as a result of disagreement between the president and his deputy, the government got torn into two. This means that the USAID’s development projects could not be successfully implemented. In other situations, insecurity becomes a threat to foreigners operating in such countries. It even becomes difficult for the organisation to feel encouraged to continue working with insecure countries. Internal management challenges In 2011, the office of the inspector general conducted a performance audit and indentified problems with assistance planning. One of these problems was lack of program performance indicators as well as clear identification of targets. According to Chambers 1983, management entails overseeing that the organisation performs as required. This includes assigning individuals tasks that are clearly spelt out for top results. In light of the lack of identification of targets, it is apparent that the organisation failed to have a clear outline of its projects. This can lead to lack of utilisation of funds allocated for various projects. In fact, Chambers 2002 argued that lack of proper preparation can lead to poor performance of an organisation. In situations where the organisation had identified the target, it was difficult to have performance indicator. This is an indication of failure by the management to perform their duties as expected. Every project requires step by step strategic plan including the end results. If there is no end result that can be identified, then the project can be termed as a fail. Hulme and Turner 1990 pointed out that some organisations have devised ways of performance indicator, and which every employee has to be involved in. Such a program requires that all employees sign a performance contract. The program details employee performance in regard to the plan of their work, execution of the project and the end result of the project. This ensures that the organisation’s operations are productive and helps in maintenance of competitive advantage. Lack of program performance indicators by USAID is an indication of incompetence and other management wrangles within the organisation. Some projects were found to be inconsistence with the contracts and grants (U.S Department of State 2012). Some of them were not appropriate. With these problems, it becomes difficult for the implementation of USAID programs. Incompetence by employees can lead to inappropriate results. This is detrimental to the general performance of the organisation. This trend is an indication of lack of training of the employees. In another dimension, this is attributable to lack by the management to have proficient employees. Managers are supposed to coordinate with other employees to have projects done in the right way. The failure of some projects was also cited to have been contributed by contractors and other project stakeholders. Although contractors are not counted as part of the organisation, coordination between the organisation and the contractors is critical in that it helps in identifying problems related to the project execution and implementation (Pieterse 2010). Many contractors are known to engage in irregularities when carrying their activities in order to have personal gains from the contracts. This can also be termed as a different form of corruption that is mostly coordinated by the organisation management and the contractors. To some extent, the government receiving grants from USAID irregularly give contracts to their favourable contractors in order to execute their corrupt deals with minimal problems. This is also the case to some of the managers in the organisation. In this regard, it is apparent that USAID lack the right programs that should oversee implementation of projects. Allen and Thomas 2000 argued that there a need to have clear rules and regulations that govern contracts with well spelt out terms and conditions for contracting with individuals and other organisations. This way, dubious deals that result in poor performance or fail by the contractor to perform their duties as expected is eliminated. One of the steps devised by the organisation to end these impediments is the creation of Bureau for Policy Planning and Learning (PPL). The bureau helps in enhancing programs planning and implementation as well as evaluating and monitoring programs. However, PPL has not fully been implemented and is slowly being integrated in the management of USAID since 2011. Lack of proper coordination of program execution is one of the problems that USAID will continue to face as long as no clear guidelines are set as far as project planning and implementation, monitoring and evaluation processes are concerned. USAID staff should be educated on their roles in regard to implementing programs. A clear guideline of the roles and responsibilities of each and every USAID staff should be indentified and the same communicated to the staff. This would help in resolving confusion that engulfs projects processes. Evans 2008 argued that every organisation has to have clear guidelines of what employees are supposed to do if the organisation has to maintain competitive advantage. Lack of specialisation can lead to confusion that makes delivery of services hard. Well coordinated staffs have the opportunity of delivering to results compared to staff without good coordination. A large portion of programs audited in 2011 showed lack of inadequate program management (U.S Department of State 2012). This led to these programs lagging behind. When this happens, the intended purpose of such programs is eventually not met or may create problems related to program implementation (Mathur 1986). However, the organisation has engaged in training of some of its staff for a program it calls managing for results. The program aims at equipping the staff with skills of program development. However, training a portion of the staff cannot be argued to be a comprehensive way of dealing with program management problems. It is indispensable that the organisation considers enrolling all its employees into the program in order to foster their managerial skills. Kothari and Minogue 2002 argued that an organisation with competent employees stands a chance of developing and delivery of quality services. This is arguably correct because it means that the organisation will build a culture of best quality denoted by qualified employees. Having a portion of qualified employees while the others are not qualified or under qualified does not solve the managerial problem. Every employee should have the knowledge and skills of executing their duties according to the work requirements. Inaccurate program reports (U.S Department of State 2012) has also been identified. These include misstated, not supported or not validated data. Having inaccurate program reports can lead to many problems including false picture of program as well as wastage of resources. For instance, inaccurate report can lead to the organisation going to the drawing board to correct the report. This leads to wastage of resources. Inaccurate program report is an indication of the failure of the program. Program report should be consistent with the project itself. Inaccurate report can be an indication of concealed agendas regarding the program. This comes in terms of poor results, corruption and other related ills. Sustainability has also been identified as another challenge facing USAID (U.S Department of State 2012). In some countries, the organisation has not been able to achieve long-term success in regard to serving the people. NGO’s should have the capacity to have long-term success without reducing the quality of services. Zafarullah and Huque 2012 noted that NGOs should work in such a way that even after they leave their counties of operation, the country should continue developing especially on the line that the NGO was involved in. In other words, projects sustainability should be a factor to be considered by organisations when entering into a country for development purposes (Elliott 2000). However, the organisation through forward reform program has focused on strengthening the capacity of the host country. This involves contracting with more varied local partners with the intent of creating conditions where aid is no longer necessary. Although this could be termed as a good move by the organisation, there is a need to have a comprehensive approach towards ensuring sustainability of its projects to host countries. For instance, the argument that removal of aid to these countries is intended to create sustainability could be considered as vague and could actually lead to lack of sustainability. Some of the host countries have been argued to have the capacity to have development, but lack finances to execute their developmental agenda. In such a case, withdrawing aid could be a failure by the organisation to empower such a host country in its developmental activities. Hettne 1990 noted that many people fail to develop because of failure to have managerial and entrepreneurial knowledge. Therefore, it would be of help if the organisation considered supporting the host countries by both the funds and the managerial information to help them manage the funds. For instance, some developing countries have good agricultural products, but lack the capacity to turn these products into business or profitable products. In some instances, purchase of processing machines is too expensive for farmers thus their agricultural produce just goes to waste. In such a situation, the organisation can consider purchasing such machines to the farmers and then educate them on how to manage the machines. In this regard, the tenets of sustainability should involve every aspect of assistance including aid and capacity building training. Strategic procurement challenge has also been a challenge to USAID. In order to have efficient programs, USAID is compelled to partnering with the host country’s systems. This is in regard to functions such as procurement and other logistic activities. Dreze and Sen 1989 argued that organisations must establish a risk assessment strategy that helps in indentifying risks that might hinder driving the intended agenda. There has been misunderstandings between USAID and some host countries due to difference in procurement procedures when they contradict those of the organisation (Henderson and Dwivedi 1999). In some instances, USAID follows the U.S auditing standards, and this may differ with the standards of the host country. Having risk assessment strategy does not only help organisation in indentifying risks, but also helps organisations in devising or coming up with mechanisms of avoiding the risk or even put mechanisms of dealing with the risks when they occur. This is very instrumental when it comes to the success of an organisation. A challenge in complying with the U.S government a directive has also been indentified (U.S Department of State 2012). For instance, the organisation is unable to implement the homeland security presidential directive that allows access of buildings and information systems. This directive aims at ensuring transparency and accountability by the organisation. The organisation argues that it lacks the resources and capacity to comply with the directive. Lack of consolidating IT personnel with the infrastructure has also been a challenge to the organisation (U.S Department of State 2012). Although the organisation has started consolidating the IT with the infrastructure in Afghanistan, the organisation is yet to put the system in totality and in all its locations. However, the organisation argues that there have been fears of risks involved such as weakening of the system security and lack of resources to support the initiative. In the contemporary world, Eason 2005 argued that IT is critical in the development or organisation. It has made organisations more efficient with improved service provision. Any barrier to the implementation of IT should be overcome by all means. This is because IT has become part of organisation’s success tool. In fact, Eason 2005 noted that IT has helped many organisations in the fight against corruption and other businesses related irregularities. IT ensures that the staff members of a given organisation are up to date and are innovative. This makes their work easier and more efficient. For instance, IT enables storage of data and crucial information easier. Therefore, access of information becomes easy while other operations within the organisation are enhanced. In light of this, USAID has a challenge of catching up with the rest of the world in terms of IT implementation. Rationale for NGOs governance and development processes With the role of being involved in development processes, NGOs have to ensure that good governance drives the organisations towards attaining their objectives. Bad governance has been found to foster lack of transparency and accountability among other critical concerns. Although some of the challenges facing NGOs are external, there is a need to have a clear framework on how such challenges can be overcome. For instance, host countries that encourage corruption or undermines the activities of the NGOs should be supported in terms of reforming its institutions. In matters regarding internal management, organisations have to ensure that precise operational mechanisms are devised in order to foster good governance, professionalism and accountability. Organisations that have bad governance have higher chances of failure than those with good governance. With bad governance, NGOs cannot have the capacity to drive their agendas through. This leads to conflicts with the host countries and a total failure of the projects initiated. Conclusion NGOs have significantly contributed to global development especially in the least developed countries. Bad governance and lack of accountability and transparency has been cited to be among the biggest challenges facing NGOs. In addition, external influences have also played a part in making the work of NGOs difficult. Bad governance leads to poor performance of an organisation. Corruption is one of the characteristics of bad governance and which heavily determines success of NGOs. USAID is an NGO mandated to oversee development of least developed countries across the globe. The objective of USAID is to support these countries to have good grounds on which developmental activities can take place. One of the many challenges facing USAID is the challenges in implementing organisation’s programs in some of the countries it operates. However, this is contributed by several reasons. Some of the institutions that USAID works with lack accountability and are marred with corrupt officials. Security concerns come in as another external challenge that faces USAID. Lack of program performance indicators as well as clear identification of targets is one of the internal management problems facing USAID. Inconsistency of contracts with the grants has also been a problem to the organisation. Lack of proper coordination of program execution has also been identified as an internal problem facing the organisation. A large portion of programs audited in 2011 showed lack of inadequate program management. The office of the inspector general has also indentified inaccurate program reports. Sustainability has also been identified as another challenge facing USAID. Strategic procurement challenge has also been a challenge to USAID. Lack of consolidating IT personnel with the infrastructure has also been a challenge to the organisation. If NGOs have to stay in the right course, they have to ensure that good governance drives the organisations towards attaining their objectives. In this regard, NGOs have to ensure that precise operational mechanisms are devised in order to foster good governance, professionalism and accountability. Bibliography: Top of Form Top of Form Allen, T. and A. Thomas (eds.), 2000. Poverty and Development in the 21st Century, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bryant, C. and White L.G., 1982. Managing Development in the Third World, Westview Press, 1982. Chambers, R., 1983. Rural Development: Putting the Last First, Longman Scientific & Technical Chambers, R., 2002. Ideas for Development, Routledge. Dreze, J. and Sen, A., 1989. Hunger and Public Action, Oxford: Clarenden Press. Eason, K.D., 2005. Information Technology And Organisational Change. New York: CRC Press. Elliott, J.A., 2000. An Introduction to Sustainable Development, Routledge. Evans, J. R., 2008. Quality and performance excellence: management, organization, and strategy. Mason, OH, Thomson Business and Economics. Henderson, K.M. and Dwivedi, O.P., 1999. Bureaucracy and the Alternatives in World Perspective, Macmillan. Hettne, B., 1990. Development Theory and the Three Worlds. London: Longman. Hulme, D. and Turner, M., 1990. Sociology and Development, London: Harvester Wheatshef, Kothari, U. and M. Minogue (eds.), 2002. Development Theory and Practice: Critical Perspectives, Palgrave. Mathur, H.M., 1986. Administering Development in Third World, Sage Publications. Mudacumura, G. M. and Haque, M.S., 2004. Handbook of Development Policy Studies, NY: Marcel Dekker, Inc. Oakley, P., 1991. Projects with People, ILO; Geneva. Pieterse, J. N., 2010. Development Theory. Los Angeles: Sage. U.S Department of State, 2012. Management Challenges – USAID. Accessed on 15th Oct 2014 from: http://www.state.gov/s/d/rm/rls/perfrpt/2011performancesummary/html/191459.htm Zafarullah, H. and Huque, A.S., 2012. Managing Development in a Globalised World: Concepts, Processes and Institutions, Boca Ratan: CRC Press. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More