Getting poor people access to clean drinking water means reforming U.S. foreign assistance. Really.
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There’s been a lot of great momentum lately about providing clean water for the nearly one billion people in the world without it. In 2005, Congress passed the Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act, and from 2007 to 2008, US funding for water, sanitation, and hygiene programs went up 45%.
So what’s missing from this picture, you ask? The system to implement it. If we want to make a difference in helping poor families around the world access clean water, we need a modern and efficient aid agency to deliver on our promises. USAID needs an overall plan for fighting poverty in order to get the most out of this amazing infusion of resources for providing clean water. The best way to make a long-term difference in water and sanitation is to integrate water – and all other the other life-saving assistance that ONE members fight for – into a single strategy for fighting global poverty.
The current system is broken. There’s not even a single place in the US government to find out what the US is currently spending on water & sanitation and in what countries. In the Water for the Poor Act of 2005, Congress mandated an annual report on the government’s progress. But because there are fifteen different US agencies implementing water or sanitation programs overseas, the report does not capture all our efforts. The Millennium Challenge Corporation provided $429 million to help countries upgrade their water delivery systems and connect more households to clean water last year. But that investment is not even reflected in the Water for the Poor Act Report country data, which only reports USAID and State Department activities.
A scattered bureaucracy may not sound like such an urgent problem, but lives hang in the balance: without a clear direction, our water and sanitation assistance simply isn’t going where it’s needed the most. In 2008,
- Jordan received over $41 million from USAID for water and sanitation programs in FY 2008, even though 98% of its population already has access to improved drinking water.
- Niger, where only 42% of the population has access to improved drinking water, received only one-fiftieth that amount.
Learn more about why lending your voice to the fight for foreign assistance reform can also mean improving access to clean drinking water and improved sanitation for the world’s poorest.
-Porter McConnell, Aid Reform Campaign, Oxfam America
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September 16, 2009 at 11:49 pm
Thank you, Porter, for one of the most important ONE Blog posts in a very long time. We simply need to muster more support in Congress for the Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act – it’s that important for the sustainable development of the world’s poorest people.
I hope that we’ll succeed in this endeavor.
AS ONE, debbie
http://www.mpwn-uganda.org
September 17, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Greetings, Porter!
Thanks for the informative post. If you have a list of all those 15 agencies, would you please email it to me or post it here?
Joni Seeber,
Master’s Candidate for International Policy Studies,
The Monterey Institute of International Studies.
September 17, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Hi Joni! If you click on the learn more hyperlink above, it will take you to our factsheet on the subject. The 15 agencies are listed in a little box on page 3. Best of luck!
September 17, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Before we invest a lot of time trying to change the way the US Government operates, shouldn’t we ask ourselves what the prognosis for success is? The US is among the stingiest of the world’s wealthy countries when it comes to allocating a proportion of its national budget to international aid. To add insult to injury, we attach the most strings to that aid. The meager amount of aid that we do allocate generally has geopolitical objectives in mind. The number one recipient of aid has consistently been Isreal, not exactly a nation with the demographic characteristics of Bangladesh or Burundi. The facts point to the conclusion that our leaders allocate money to help voters. The world’s poorest never vote for US leaders, so they get very little from us. US aid also passes through the governments of the recipient nations. Those governments have their own motivational factors that play into the allocation of the funding. Rarely is the well being of the poorest among them a high priority of those governments. When money is passed through this complex array of decision makers with disparate motivational factors influencing their choices, is it any wonder that very little actually trickles down to the world’s poorest? Is the system one that can be fixed or is it one we should bypass?
Let’s focus our efforts on direct actions with needy communities. Our organization (Water 1st) and others are out there doing that. I would encourage those who want to see some change to support an NGO that is specifically dedicated to water, sanitation, and hygiene education projects in poor communities. Those of you who do will have the satisfaction of seeing poor people’s lives transformed tomorrow.
September 20, 2009 at 11:11 pm
This was very informative Porter. Those stats of Jordan and Niger are a wake up call of how much direction needs to be taken.
Kirk, you are spot on – the money is never truly allocated to the people it’s intended for. People hear USAID and think everything will be fine – but they need to restructure how they distribute the money – get people there from America that will be the recieving parties of that money (such as lawyers or trust executives and have them be the oversight to make sure the money is used for exactly who it is allocated for).
I have really steered away from the ‘big agencies’ a lot more over the past year – and look for the smaller companies/non profit’s that are making a difference much quicker.
Maybe one day there can be a stronger accountability, reporting to make sure dollars go where necessary, but I don’t think us spending time to fix this will happen within this term, there are more pressing issues being handled. Maybe it will be part of a new agenda for a new president or for Obama to strive for in his 2nd term.
September 21, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Regarding the need to reform USAID and foreign aid in general, be sure to check out ONE’s “Upgrade Aid” campaign:
http://one.org/call/signup.html?cpn_id=66&mode=senate&trk=1
We completely agree that reform is needed, and are working with our friends in the Senate to help make sure both the Water for the World Act and the Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act are passed and implemented. The latter would increase accountability and reporting to make absolutely sure our aid dollars go as far as they can and to the places they are most needed. It’s definitely something we could see addressed before the new year — if we can demonstrate to the Senate that there is momentum behind both of these bills.
September 23, 2009 at 4:01 am
I agree with Kirk Anderson. We should focus our efforts with needy communities on global scale. Our organisation has already constructed and builded a water configuration for school kids in Gambia. This is our first step with a global community showing that together we can create a better world. Our aim is to involve everyone who cares about the world and it issues, participating our online interactive charity platform called Pifworld.
You might know the movie called ” Pay it Forward “, our organisation is based on that concept. Each person forwards a message to 3 persons and so on. Impossible is nothing.
If you are interested i suggest you to take a look at our project ( http://www.pifworld.com/#/project/Freshwatersupplyforschoolchildren/5/overview ). People all over the world have donated an amount of 8500 euro’s ! You can also become an ambassador too.