Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Still, the prospect of the private sector serving as a primary engine of growth for development indicators is, for some, a controversial premise. Janet Redman, for instance, notes that the reports findings are predicated on a potentially dangerous narrative problem. She also cautions against adopting a system in which development institutions are designed to function more like companies, at the expense of meeting the needs of people who stand to benefit the most from foreign assistance. Ensuring access to, for instance, health care, water and education should not be profit-driven enterprises, she stressed, because doing so would set up a dynamic where companies looking for an investment may need to see a particular rate of return for them to invest. Redman continued: The danger lies in pretending that gross domestic product and foreign direct investment is the same as making economies more sustainable and enabling them to meet the needs of their citizens. Private sector funds often dont trickle down to the poorest members of a host country, a finding supported by a 2011 report published by the Independent Evaluation Group, the internal watchdog for the International Finance Corporation, the World Banks private-sector arm. The link from growth to poverty reduction is not automatic, that report found, particularly in situations where market failures and other inefficiencies limit participation of the poor. According to the auditors findings, less than a quarter of the IFC projects that generated satisfactory returns also generated identifiable benefits to the poor. U.S. weariness Of course, there are major challenges to any such dramatic overhaul of the United States development assistance model. Many, for instance, refer to an increasing gap between how companies, federal agencies and NGOs function and communicate with each other. Business and NGO leaders at the event also attested to notable deficiencies in trust between the public and private sectors. There is not a system in place that would allow for cooperation on this scale between the different actors, Sam Worthington, president of InterAction, a coalition of U.S. -based NGOs, told IPS. Developing such a system may be a task for the donor countries, he added. Meanwhile, the challenge of U.S. public opinion looms large in any current discussion of foreign aid. As the Mar. 1 budget cuts are phased in, and as the United State withdraws from more than a decade of military involvement in the Middle East, many here are eying any kind of international engagement more warily than ever. Experts on the issue are urging a shift in public opinion, warning against allowing war-weariness to translate into weariness with international engagement in general. Originally appeared in: http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/03/u-s-austerity-ripples-outward/