Perception of Aid and Stakeholder’s say on how it is used – Julian Parr

Posted by Fausto Aarya De Santis on May 16, 2010 under Interviews, News, Video | Be the First to Comment

What is your perception of aid coming from an other culture an an other country?

It’s a challenge, isn’t it. You have to be very sensitive on how much you challenge and how much you assist countries to achieve MDGs. I think it is how you approach… is about dialogue, about communication, it is certainly not taking a dictatorial or accusatory attitude towards any country or colture.

Do you think that local communities have say in how the aid is used?

That is one of the biggest challenge, i would say. We get it badly wrong in occasion… because if you want to be inclusive and genuine then you need to work at very grass root level and you need to do you over a very long period of time because you want to include the voices of the most disfranchised. To get that authentic voice takes trust, takes time, takes investment… and very often agencies don’t have that length of time to achieve the scope of goals they want to. The challenge of listening and being inclusive of community voices means that you have a much stronger solution to their problem… and i genuinely believe that all communities can actually find their own solution if you create the right space around them, the enabling environment and create the resources to make change, they can often come up with the right answers.