Chris Blattman

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Notes from the field: Vanity projects versus development

Approximate cost of the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (NUSAF), the principal development program for the 30% of the country affected by conflict: $300 million

Approximate cost of hosting CHOGM, the 4-day Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala in November 2007: $180 million

This sort of thing makes me ill.

CHOGM, which sounds like something you cough up (and seems about as useful) turned Kampala upside down this year. In the past six months the capital has been polished and groomed. Every road a delegate could pass on was paved and flowered. Five-star hotels have blossomed. Hundreds of luxury sedans were rented and (minus about thirty or so) handed back after the meetings.

To place nearly as much emphasis and money on a 4-day vanity project as on the development of the war-torn region should give enthusiastic donors (like the US and UK) some pause.

Explain to me again how this happened when bilateral and multilateral donors supply half of the government budget? Instead of question the decision, they’re simply asking for accountability.

And yet here we are still trying to find $1 million for our women’s livelihoods program…

3 Responses

  1. Here’s the semi-conspiracy-ish explanation:

    Some of the donors have a strategic/ideological alliance with Uganda. Increasing the political clout of Uganda would increase their political clout.

    The CHOGM increases Uganda’s political clout so the expense is not viewed as a vanity one by those donors.

    Makes sense ?

  2. The OAS meeting in Freetown in the early 1980s is held largely responsible for decimating the public finances and ultimately contributing to the civil war in the late 1980s.

    I’m sure there’s a quote about history repeating itself first as tragedy, then as farce…

  3. Chris,

    Do you not think that hosting CHOGM might pay dividends in the longrun? I say that because I think the new vision stated that one of the advantages of hosting it would be that Uganda would be somewhat opened up to the rest of the world. But then again the paper’s pro-government so what can I say?

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