Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.90.980709174438.18757B-100000@ns1> Date: Thu, 9 Jul 1998 17:59:57 -0800 From: CHRIS KWAN <mailto:h1kwan@NS1.UMCSD.UM.EDU.MY> Subject: Re: BAD EXPERIENCES etc.. To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
> elsewhere; it always rotates around a)consultants are overpaid b)their
> 'advice' is either incompetent or corrupt. This could easily be true in
> more than one case, however it can also be a matter of perceptions:
>
> - the judgment on remuneration is passed by badly UNDERpaid local
> professionals and intellectuals, who see a genuine injustice, only in a
> 'reversed' light...
> - advice sharply contrasting with prevailing local wisdom is sometimes
> seen as incompetent, while this was precisely the reason for bringing
> external consultants: local experts, no matter how talented, cannot
> detach themselves from biased and single-sided views of the picture.
> External experts (are supposed to) have seen more than one country in a
> similar situation, have exposure to historical experience and would know
> what works, even if it sounds suicidal to local people.
l just want to add my small contribution to this. l have worked for one such organisation and yes l do believe that l was overpaid when compare to local consultants in fact by as much as the exchange rate dollar per dollar. About the quality of local consultants, l find them to be rather good as they definately have more local experience than any foreign consultants which l include language and custom particularly in economic and legal aspects. They may be 'slow' but then who likes to be answerable to someone who just got off the plane. l believe as we are mostly dealing with devlopment issues, conditions such thing as poverty, living in a huge hotel room seems somehow innapropriate and as far as l am concerned, l try to miggle around the places where l have to do my work to have a feel of real issues. For example, instead of using an official car, l took the bus, absorb the culture and feel as one before attempting to judge my own experience with theirs.
At the end of the day, and many times, l do have to revise my report too, l feel perhaps other consultants wanting to work there, they should be paid under local conditions equivalent to their local equivalent, learn the lingo first etc. For example, l have meet a french guy who can't even speak anything other than french but he is not incompetent just that he can't get his message across....which defeats the purpose as to why he is there in the first place. There was a translator but she was not in the medical field and many of the words were either jumble up or doesn't make sense. The locals just nod politely but at the end of the day who knows. The meeting was held at a posh hotel, some of the benefits could have gone to the locals that needed them the most, which l am sure is not smoke salmon.
l have asked some of my other consultants would they come under local conditions pay, 90 % say no. Those who said yes are mostly volunteers looking for some pocket money and good points on their resume. So perhaps money is the factor here afterall.
Anyway these are my two cents worth. Hope big donors see some sense.
>
> In any case, it is not serious to refer generically to 'travelogues'; if
> you wasted everyone's on-line time and disk space with your posting,
> please give a concrete example of such a 'travelogue', or of a donor
> agency 'conspiring with poor leaders'. Then, given some evidence,
> members of this list could expose the culprits, fight for competent,
> honest and cost-efficient consultancy and thus make some real
> contribution to DEVELOPMENT.
>
> Pardon, what was the subject of this list?
>
> ... ... ... ... ...
>
> Abdus Samad wrote:
>
> > I have no specific experiences of world learning but
> > plenty of experience with bad donor assistance.
> >
> > 1. For example, when poor quality consultants arrive
> > to live in super first class comfort at inflated
> > salaries and pick local brains to write a poor
> > travelogue.
> >
> > 2. For example, when missions from international
> > agencies tell policymakers to default on domestic
> > debt while treating external creditors with deference.
> >
> > 2. When the donors through their financing prop up
> > corrupt leaders, dictators and those who violate
> > human rights.
> >
> > 3. When donors conspire with poor leadership to
> > develop poorly concieved policies with no
> > responsibility for those policies and the domestic
> > talent is left with only one opportunity: to migrate.
> >
> > if you do not see all this happening, you must be one
> > of the high paid cosultant or employee of one of these.
> > I can find hundereds of these examples.
>
Chris Kwan
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