Will the real Africa, please stand up!

[Blessed]

Stories featuring aid projects often rely on dubious numbers provided by the organizations. Take Kibera, a poor neighborhood in Nairobi. A Nexis search of major world publications found Kibera described as the “biggest” or “largest” slum in Africa at least thirty-four times in 2004; in the first ten months of 2010 the claim appeared eighty-three times. Many of those stories focused on the work of one of the estimated 6,000 or more local and international NGOs working there, and cited population figures that ranged as high as one million residents. Recently, however, the results of Kenya’s 2009 census were released: according to the official tally, Kibera has just 194,269 residents. In 2010, Rasna Warah wrote in the Daily Nation, a Kenyan paper, that while working for the Worldwatch Institute, an NGO, she had published inflated population estimates using UN-Habitat data, despite knowing there was no consensus on the numbers among her former colleagues at the organization. Sometime after 2004, she wrote, population estimates for Kibera started to rise, and “Before we knew it, the figure spread like a virus.” She added, “The inflated figures were not challenged, perhaps because they were useful to various actors…. They were particularly useful to NGOs, which used them to ‘shock’ charities and other do-gooders into donating more money to their projects in Kibera.” Questionable figures of another sort are to be found in reports on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, a series of targets on poverty reduction and other measures of well-being. UN and NGO officials routinely describe Africa as failing to meet the goals, and the press routinely writes up this failure.

 

But some experts, among them Jan Vandemoortele, one of the architects of the MDGS, have expressed concern that the goals are being misused. He wrote in 2009 that the MDGS were intended as global targets, but have been improperly applied to individual countries and regions. “It is a real tragedy when respectable progress in Africa is reported as a failure by international organizations and external observers,” Vandemoortele wrote, voicing the suspicion that particular measurements have been selected “so as to present Africa as a failure, solely to gain support for a particular agenda, strategy, or argument.”

 

http://www.cjr.org/reports/hiding_the_real_africa.php?page=all

[burahadeer]

It's get rich quick scheme for NGOs/ UN...their employees neva bother look for job back in Europe or America.

 

 

 

 

Kenyans earn up to Nine millions dollars in Somaliland[1]

 

This study is about Kenyans working for International Organizations in Somaliland and looks at how much Kenyans earn from employment opportunities in Somaliland on the cost of Somaliland people. The study also explores who is responsible for such loss of opportunities and weighs arguments for and against this practice. It presents possible options open to Somaliland Government and national professionals, whom are the real victims of such practice. This study was carried out with data and information from Department of Labour of Min. of Health & Labour and Immigration Department of Min. of Interior. In additions, interviews were made with some of Kenyans working in Hargeisa.

 

Facts and Figures;

 

There are about 200 Kenyans working for more than 50 international agencies (both UN and NGOs) that are currently operating in Somaliland. In addition, more than 50 Kenyan Consultants are monthly hired from Nairobi to undertake short-to-medium employment services for the international agencies in Hargeisa. More than 80% of Kenyans work for the international NGOs that have got offices in Hargeisa and Nairobi, while the other 20% works for UN agencies in Somaliland.

 

The Kenyan staffs have got regular job contracts and as such are considered as expatriate staff working in Somaliland. They are, therefore, paid much higher than the local staff and little lower than expatriates from other countries. Interviews with some of these Kenyans indicate that they earn a monthly salary range from US$2000 to US$5000, while consultants earn upto US$9000 per month. In addition, air tickets, accommodation, transport within Somaliland and "danger' allowance are all paid from the Kenyan staff by the international agencies. These other expense roughly amounts US$ 3000 per month per staff.

 

If, for instance, about 250 Kenyans are regularly working in Somaliland, and the average person earns about US$ 3000 per month, all Kenyans in Somaliland earn an amount of US$750,000 per month, which is equivalent to 9000,000 (nine million) US dollars per year.

 

 

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=un%20%26%20ngo%20costs%20in%20somaliland&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CFcQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsagalgroup.webs.com%2Fkenyansinsomaliland.htm&ei=BZHST__dHI-s0AHFvIiXAw&usg=AFQjCNHP_Qb7sNd9sF3JmlYtePjs-Pi10g

[Blessed]

Have seen them in Maan Soor, sow dhiigu kumuu dhaqaaqin. What annoys the most is how even the African despite knowing the truths of the NGOs allow themselves to be continually manipulated with lies and myths about our continent and advocate for more of the useless interventions which enrich everyone but the Africans it was meant to 'empower'.

[Mario B]

No nation got rich through aid. Africa has 60% of world's arable land...it probably cultivates less than 10% of it. Africa shouldn't be starving, it should be feeding the world.

[burahadeer]

*Blessed;840141 wrote:

Have seen them in Maan Soor, sow dhiigu kumuu dhaqaaqin. What annoys the most is how even the African despite knowing the truths of the NGOs allow themselves to be continually manipulated with lies and myths about our continent and advocate for more of the useless interventions which enrich everyone but the Africans it was meant to 'empower'.

 

because the elite have shares in the spoil albeit peanuts.Best way to go around is ban them totally.I haven't seen anything tangible or visible they did in somaliland, not even one building.Immunization yes did see which was suspect, like every month.