| Extremely well done first report by Fred de Sam Lazaro on the NewsHour on an issue that predates the Brian Atwood tenure. Unfortunately the United States has not covered itself with glory in handling its aid programs. Measuring outflows instead of targeted and verifiable outcomes. In the 1970s Dr Lotfi Abdelazim, then Editor in Chief of Ahram Al Iktissadi was removed by Hosni Mobarak under US direction after he published a series showing only 10 percent of US AID reached the Egyptian people. I knew Dr. Abdelazim as Chief Editor of our joint Arabic edition of Finance & Development, the quarterly of the IMF and World Bank that I managed at that time. Same story in Pakistan over the years. US officials were forced to stayed in Fortress Islamabad for security reasons while funds went to US based consultants, and to friends and relatives of government aid officials who set up local consultancies to benefit from the trickle that escaped the so-called Beltway Bandits. There was another model available. UNDP set up a consultants’ roster that funded my advisor slot in 1982 to assist Mahbub ul Haq with the launch of Pakistan’s Sixth Five Year Plan. It was called TOKTEN i. e. transfer of know how through expatriate nationals. Saved time and money because we could hit the ground running. Foreign experts had to be hand held throughout their tenures and given exorbitant payments in salaries and benefits. But UNDP doesn’t have the clout that USAID does. I was given leave by the IMF. UNDP only covered direct costs of my stay. I am sure other examples are available from around the world. Looking forward to the other reports. Sent from my iPhone On Jan 7, 2025, at 2:25 PM, Chas Freeman via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:
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