Source: The News
Date: September 01, 2010
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani has charged that international NGOs consume about 80 per cent of their funds for flood-relief work in Pakistan on their administrative costs. In other words, only 20 per cent of the funds are spent on the relief and rehabilitation of the flood victims.
His comments in Multan on Sunday are a sweeping repudiation of all NGOs, international or national, and regardless of which particular category of work they carry out. The comments are inappropriate, ill-timed and untrue, even though they were probably not intended to convey an incorrect impression. He normally makes balanced, restrained comments and has a constructive, conciliatory approach. But what he said has disappointed and distressed many people, including this writer.
Perhaps the following elements will help in clarifying the matter and put things in their proper context.
The prime minister specifically referred to "international NGOs" which have recently arrived in Pakistan to work in the post-flood situation. But possibly his comment is also meant to refer to international NGOs whose work is long-established in Pakistan. For example, Oxfam, Save the Children, ActionAid, Plan International and Care.
He said that a conditionality attached to the funds being given by overseas donors to the United Nations for flood relief is that the UN channel 80 per cent of the funds through international NGOs. The "80 per cent" in this context is, thus, an entirely different dimension from the reference to the "80 per cent being used up for their own administrative expenses," as the prime minister has stated.
For more details please visit website: http://thenews.com.pk/01-09-2010/ethenews/e-2270.htm
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