£ 1 for the deserving poor

I came across this article and it got me thinking about the whole notion of the deserving poor. As a Social Housing Practioner, this is a term I have come across many a times in books and articles that chart the history of social Housing in Great Britain.

The philanthropists referred to in this article are all too familiar, Octavia Hill, William Sutton etc are some of the pioneers of social housing for the deserving poor. If you walk through areas of Marylebone in London signs of Octavia Hill’s philanthropic activities are still visible today.

I must admit that, this notion of the “deserving poor” has left me a little unsettled in far as my own views are concerned and I couldn’t help but wonder whether I too practice according to that notion.

In my time a Housing Manager I looked after a traveller’s site owned by the local authority I worked for at the time. I visited the site one afternoon and on my way out I found a £1 on the through road. I put it in my pocket and went back to the office. As I left the office that evening I came across one of our tenants who regularly sat on the bench outside our office and consumed can after can of beer or cider. I remembered the £1 I had found on the Travellers site and I wondered whether I should give it to him, Christmas was only two days away and I thought he probably needed this pound more than I did. I however very quickly changed my mind as I thought he will only go and buy more alcohol!

I greeted him and walked on. I drove to my local supermarket and found an Eastern European woman at the entry selling the “Big Issue” magazine. I promptly reached into my pocket and gave her the pound I had found. I decided that she deserved this pound more than the man outside our offices because she was doing something to help herself.

This is the same concept I employ at Ethnic Supplies, seek out women who are doing something to help themselves out of poverty and help them access world wide markets with their wares.

Is wrong therefore for international donors to insist on good governance in those countries that Aid is given?

Although I wholly subscribe to the idea of good governance in African countries and in fact fully believe that some of the challenges the continent faces today are down to bad/poor governance, I had not entirely considered the link between, International Aid, the notion of good governance.

In my mind it does make sense that unless there are structures in place to ensure that the Aid goes to the people for whom it is intended then the poor of the developing world will continue to miss out. These structures are part of good governance/administration.

This raises another question for me, how realistic is it for donor countries to insist on good governance as a condition of Aid, and what exactly is meant by good governance in this respect? My understanding of good governance, in this respect amounts to accountability and openness, both of which are routed in trust, trust by the people of those charged with administering the Aid.

How then can good governance be achieved? A quick short answer is “with great difficulty” This is due to that word again “Trust”, in his book Being Afrikan Mandivamba Rukuni puts forward an often overlooked view of why this Trust may elude many African nations. The scramble and partition of Africa displaced peoples from areas of origin and brought together people that for instance do not speak the same language and differ in culture; an example of this is seen in North and southern Sudan, North and Southern Uganda etc.

In my mind this created a form of prejudice “tribalism” and this is a huge contributing factor to the lack of good governance. Different tribes with nothing in common per se other than belonging to a border created by imperialism where thrown together, which makes it near impossible for trust and harmony to exist.

One would argue that, that is a long time ago and surely it is time to move on. I would agree with that point of view entirely as it is unlikely that history can be reversed, but it is not up to me and I suspect I am in the minority with this point view as was evidenced in the aftermath of the Kenyan elections earlier this year.

We as Africans can certainly work on unity and trust if we are committed to and I strongly believe that would go a long way in resolving some of the challenges the continent faces. Trust in each other, trust in our governments etc? Could this also be the answer to the “brain Drain” touched on by the article?