{"id":392490,"date":"2010-03-05T08:01:34","date_gmt":"2010-03-05T13:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oxfam.org.uk\/applications\/blogs\/pressoffice\/?p=11346"},"modified":"2010-03-05T08:01:34","modified_gmt":"2010-03-05T13:01:34","slug":"live-aid-money-used-to-buy-weapons-in-ethiopia-is-aid-worth-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/392490","title":{"rendered":"Live Aid money used to buy weapons in Ethiopia: is aid worth it?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\"Adele-in<\/a><\/p>\n
Adele-in one of the Kebeles of Aysha woreda at-a food-fair. Oxfam has organized food fairs, where local traders brought the food items to the kebeles and people claimed the food items using food vouchers. Oxfam paid the traders after getting the vouchers back. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Twenty five years ago\u00a0I listened for the first time to\u00a0Bono singing the\u00a0words\u00a0“Well, tonight, thank God it\u2019s them instead of you”<\/em> . Those\u00a0words \u00a0captured the mood of the time and before long the Band Aid single “Do they know it\u2019s Christmas?”<\/em> was number one in the charts and raising cash in a unique way. The following summer I joined the millions who stayed up all night to watch some of the biggest bands in the World perform back to back. I really felt like I was watching something \u2013 if only from a distance \u2013 that was special. It was a bit like an armchair Glastonbury. I donated less than a fiver I think (I was a teenager after all) by calling the free phone number \u2013 no online or text donations then \u2013 and sat back feeling good about myself and fully deserving of some free Madonna and Sting.Now I work as a Campaigner for Oxfam, and this week I\u2019ve seen the BBC story about how some of that money allegedly found its way into the hands of rebel forces in Ethiopia<\/a>. Of course the story jumps on Live Aid to grab our attention,\u00a0although\u00a0the money was from different sources.<\/p>\n

Getting money to the people who need it and for whom it was intended, must always be the priority for organisations involved in overseas development. Not just \u2018more\u2019 but also \u2018better\u2019 aid has become the mantra for groups delivering that service. However, reaching people in poor countries where civil conflict exists is even harder. Money like this is most often intended for things like schools and hospitals \u2013 essential services \u2013 and these are usually the first to go during unrest. People in need in conflict zones are the ones who need aid money the most.\u00a0Can we turn our backs\u00a0on \u00a0them?<\/p>\n

As I see it, and I\u2019m not an aid worker, when you have decided which country to work in, you have to be realistic about routes for delivering aid. You have to reduce the risk by working with established groups, ones that the locals know and trust. Then you need to be able to see results. It\u2019s not easy but its necessary.<\/p>\n

Today, millions in Ethiopia and across East Africa are facing severe food and water shortages after years of poor rains.<\/a> It is estimated that drought costs Ethiopia $1.1bn a year \u2013 almost eclipsing the total annual overseas assistance to the country. You could be tempted to say that aid doesn\u2019t work. But this is simply not true.<\/a>The aid provided over the past 25 years has saved countless people from starvation and chronic hunger. In the recent Global Hunger Index <\/a>of all developing countries, Ethiopia was shown to be in the top five performers in alleviating hunger since 1990 in absolute terms. The proportion of children completing primary school has more than doubled since 2000. Of course this can be further improved. A lot has been learned in the last 25 years; there are great programmes going on in Ethiopia right now that help communities prepare for years when the rains fail.<\/p>\n

For example in Adiha in Tigray region, Oxfam has been working with a community of farmers used to face food shortages year after year. <\/a>By providing food in exchange for work on an irrigation project, people have developed and diversified their farming. Now can sell on their surplus to pay for schooling and health care.<\/p>\n

Change can happen and does happen. What we need to do is learn\u00a0 from what really works and see donors and agencies like the World Food Programme shifting the weight of their support to back these kinds of initiatives.\u00a0What we can’t\u00a0forget is that in developing countries loopholes in the arms trade, unfair trade rules, climate change and lack of government investment in healthcare and education services are huge real issues that stampede\u00a0on communties fighting to get back on their own feet in developing countries .\u00a0For me stories like the Live Aid money one prove once again that long lasting change requires hard\u00a0campaigning work on all these issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adele-in one of the Kebeles of Aysha woreda at-a food-fair. Oxfam has organized food fairs, where local traders brought the food items to the kebeles and people claimed the food items using food vouchers. Oxfam paid the traders after getting the vouchers back. Twenty five years ago\u00a0I listened for the first time to\u00a0Bono singing the\u00a0words\u00a0“Well, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6073,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-392490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6073"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=392490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392490\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}