Dirk-Jan Koch bites into the international NGOs:

The aid budget of World Vision International, for example, exceeds that of Italy. Plan International spends more than Greece and the Save the Children Alliance more than Finland. These sums warrant a closer look at how the money is spent. […]

In some developing countries, a myriad of NGOs overburdens the weak administrative capacities of local organisations. Ethiopia, for example, hosts five separate affiliates of World Vision, seven of Oxfam’s agencies, six of Care International’s and twelve of Save the Children, many of which even open separate offices in the country.

I always feel sorry for the poor sap in OCHA or ECHO (or another UN acronym) who’s job it is to coordinate aid in a region. That has to be the most disheartening, fruitless job in the world. Makes herding cats look easy.

What needs a serious look are the organizational and financial incentives facing international NGOs. Their peculiar dysfunction is unlikely to be chance.

It’s an excellent dissertation topic for someone in a business or management school.

(Hat tip to the new aidinfo blog.)