The Season of Good Intentions
So, it's that time of the year again when people and companies compete in gift-giving. A few decades ago, this litterally meant "keeping up with the Joneses" in a race where the computer games should be funkier than your neighbours' and the jewels should shimmer more. Nowadays, the race is on to give clean water, books, cereal, venture capital, crops, goats, syringes and medicine to the place recently referred to as "The Third World". In a modern version of Medieval indulgences, people want to ensure that their halo shines the brightest this holiday season. There are a number of problems with this trend. Before I go into them, a small recap of how we got there might be in order.
Once upon a time, foreign aid was handled by government agencies. Large, faceless organizations who, supposedly, doled out money left and right. The rumour then was that most of the money was wasted. Who cared if the rumour was true? It sounded plausible. After all, governments have wasted tax money in many other cases. Looming in the wings were the NGO's. The real NGO's. The Red Cross. Amnesty International. Greenpeace. And so on. Their weapon of choice became the media. "Look at this image of a starving child - now, do something!". Then came the rock stars. Band Aid. Live Aid. USA for Africa. From another direction came three simple letters. C. S. R. Originally an American concept designed for an American tax system wherein companies pay less tax but are expected to "contribute" more to the society in which they operate, Corporate Social Responsibility quickly gained traction in Europe. Having seemingly forgotten that the higher tax rates of Europe are designed to outsource "contributions" to the government, everyone started raving about the importance of CSR. Few knew what it meant. Or rather, most people had their own definition of what these three letters really meant. Many consultants and conference organizers later, we seemed to have an answer. CSR meant that everyone should "contribute". In his or her own way. Instead of putting pressure on government aid agencies, we should all chip in a few dollars every now and then on top of our tax bill. Whom to give it to is a personal choice reflecting our media habits and our personality. People in the know pick arcane causes and countries. The default choice is something agricultural to someone in Africa. This is where the problems occur. Many larger NGO's and Aid Agenices today face a much more fragmented climate wherein large-scale, coordinated operations are increasingly harder to undertake. In some cases, the tsunami disaster of 2004, there is too much ear-marked money lying around with nobody to give it to. In other, more frequent, cases, there is neither money nor infrastructure since the project hasn't been "hip" enough to sponsor and/or generated the media attention needed.
For all the goats and syringes we give away this Christmas, it would have been better to shop away and made sure the money entered the tax system as VAT, profit tax and employee salaries. At least in Europe. That way, the funds would have reached the necessary knowledge, experience and contacts to create real, long-term change.
Or we should abolish the "benevolent" side of government all togheter. Or make contributions tax-deductable.
Whatever you think, have a Happy Holiday season!
