« The Challenge of Being Relevant When Giving… » - 中欧社会论坛 - China Europa Forum

« The Challenge of Being Relevant When Giving… »

A contribution to the China-Europa Forum – 4-7 october 2007

Authors: Françoise Astier

Date: 15 septembre 2007

One of the problems of philanthropy is that it is difficult to give…

Giving in an efficient way requires to give people what they feel they need…

Reflection needs to be carried out on : do we « give » to help / do we give to soothe our conscience in front of unfair disparities ? how can we make sure we respond to the true necessities and not to our whims ? are there recipies on how to be more efficient ?

Food for thought : this statement by Agnès Binagwaho, head of the Rwandan national AIDS programme (P.36 Alliance Magazine – n° 12 june 2007 ) :

« The objectives of incoming foundations do not dovetail completely with those of the national government. When they come, you just put on the table : ‘those are our needs in the field of agriculture’. Sometimes it’s a bit frustrating because they say ‘your priority doesn’t interest us. We want to do this’. But you know, you cannot oblige people who are coming on a voluntary basis to do what you want when they want to do something different because it is their mandate and that’s what they have to report on ».

Sadly the whole story of help is told ; and also the reasons for so many failures ?

The necessities of such questionning were made clear in a 1999 report on European cooperation ;

A report commissionned by the European commission / cooperation bureau

Attached : introduction to the 1999 report.

Introduction to the 1999 report on Europe and international cooperation .

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