DT e-Paper 06 April 2017

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14 THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2017 DT Opinion The aid system isn’t working Humanitarian aid should not bail out those who caused the famine in the first place • Azeem Ibrahim After much encouraging news coming out of Africa in the last decade on the development front, the continent is back in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Stephen O’Brien, the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, has warned that as many as 20 million face famine in Africa, in South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, as well as nearby Yemen -- the worst humanitarian crisis the UN has faced since its foundation in 1945. To be clear, famine is not the same thing as starvation. Famine is a technical term employed by the UN. It is declared when 20% of a population have no access to food or don’t know where they will get their next meal from, when 30% of children under five in that population are severely malnourished, and when you have mortality rates of over two per 10,000 per day, as a consequence. Put another way, to say that 20 million face famine is to say that we already have 4,000 people dying of hunger every day. And the total amount of aid required to “avert a catastrophe” would run to $4.4 billion by July. What makes the situation particularly galling is that this situation is primarily a consequence of war. But in Africa itself, the conflicts which fuel the situations in South Sudan, Somalia, and Nigeria are internal, and the result of decades of poor management and neglect, and an entrenched culture of corruption. Nevertheless, we in the international community are left to pick up the tab. And of course we will. We must. We cannot allow so many people, usually the most innocent and vulnerable in those countries, to suffer for the follies of their overlords, or of foreign powers. But, it is also unreasonable that these countries and their leaders expect us to step in and bail them out, while many of the very same leaders continue to reign over organised systems of corruption, happily plunder the wealth of their countries, and fight any civil society efforts to improve governance, and hold them accountable for their actions. Make no mistake. What we have here are some of the richest countries in the world in terms of natural resources, which are being wrecked because of corruption and incompetence. On the verge of catastrophe? Feeding those in need is the immediate, short-term priority. But making sure that those who caused the situation are held accountable for it is equally important as a longer-term priority Immediate priority That is why we must make sure that the humanitarian aid we provide is a bail-out for those suffering from starvation, but not also a bail-out for those who have caused these problems in the first place. Feeding those in need is the immediate, short-term priority. But making sure that those who caused the situation are held accountable for it is equally important as a longer-term priority if we are going to reduce the recurrence of these problems in the future. The first and most obvious thing to do is for the international community to focus their aid budgets more on promoting good governance and tackling corruption. Tony Blair’s Africa Governance Initiative is a good model on how to approach this issue. But we can and should go much further than that. Take, for example, the money spirited away in secretive bank accounts in the West by these leaders. We already have national and global anti-corruption and anti-moneylaundering powers to investigate accounts linked to criminal activity. There is no reason why we could not expand those powers to recoup, form the accounts of the relevant leaders, the cost of feeding the starving. It makes moral, financial, and political sense to invoice and forcefully debit the accounts of past and present corrupt Nigerian leaders to feed Nigerians. Just as it makes sense to invoice South Sudanese accounts linked to the state to feed the opposition they are fighting. What is broken about the current model of international aid is the lack of accountability. The poor and vulnerable suffer, Western people and governments bear the financial costs for alleviating that suffering, and the perpetrators get to laugh all the way to the bank. The way to make international aid work is to make the perpetrators accountable. First of all, target the systems which allow them to plunder their countries as they so often do, and secondly, in all events serve them directly, as individuals, the bill for the consequences of their choices and actions. • Azeem Ibrahim is Senior Fellow at the Centre for Global Policy and Adj Research Professor at the Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College. He tweets @AzeemIbrahim. This article previously appeared in Al-Arabiya News. REUTERS
Opinion 15 Why Pakistan stayed away Bangladesh is still waiting for Pakistan to show some respect DT THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2017 Pakistan was not missed • Nadeem Qadir The 136th Inter- Parliamentary Union (IPU) assembly has just taken place in Dhaka amid fanfare and congregation of top parliamentarians, despite a last minute abstention by Pakistan citing “hostile environment” in Bangladesh. Pakistan has made a blunder as it is the only country that stayed away, and has made the situation more hostile vis-a-vis Dhaka- Islamabad ties. It does not take a genius to understand that it was Pakistan’s tit-for-tat for Bangladesh as it did not join the Saarc summit in Islamabad. Also, it wanted to jeopardise the mega conference by pulling out at the last moment. The world did not pay any heed to them and has joined the conference, a major achievement for Bangladesh. The militant attacks just before the conference may also be linked to pro-Pakistani elements or that country’s agents to scare the participants. I am glad that the world has realised that whatever “hostile” situation Pakistan wanted to point out was rational for Bangladesh, and a bilateral matter. The Saarc summit was a different matter, as many other countries pulled out as well. I am also glad that the world community has understood that terrorism is not a single-country affair, but a global issue, and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s “zero telerance” is proven and her government has been able to provide fool-proof security. “Terrorism and militancy are trans-national problems. We all will have to face the challenge collectively,” Hasina told delegates at her five-day conference being held at Bangladesh’s heart of democracy, the National Parliament House. A total of 1,348 delegates -- including 650 parliament members, 53 speakers, deputy speakers, and 209 women parliamentarians of 131 countries -- are attending the mega event. Dhaka has not lost anything, but gained more as the world community agrees that the interference of Islamabad in Bangladesh’s internal affairs had crossed all limits. Every time a 1971 war criminal is executed, Islamabad went as far as taking the issue to its parliament. It has only given more merit to the issue of war criminals and the genocide they carried out in 1971. Pakistan’s actions have proven that those who have been executed were indeed “important, celebrity collaborators” of the Pakistani army. My experience in Pakistan says the majority now know the true history of 1971, thanks to the internet, and Islamabad should respect the voice of its own people The visit to the National Martyrs’ memorial or the Bangabandhu Museum may have been another reason for Pakistan to stay away. Even though former president Parvez Musharraf had laid wreaths at the Savar memorial and had “regretted” the “incidents” of 1971, the military and top politicians felt embarrassed. And going to our founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s DHAKA TRIBUNE residence, where their compatriots killed him in 1975, was possibly an important factor too. I have written before that Pakistan can fix the tension if its leadership listens to its general people, who want them to seek forgiveness for their crimes against humanity in 1971, and stop patronising anti-liberation forces like Jamaat-e-Islami and pro- Pakistani political elements. You kill my people, you kill my father, you kill my mother, kill my brother, and rape my sisters, just because they were Bengalis and wanted an independent Bangladesh. A lot has happened, and without repentance, you cannot ever have anything but a “hostile” environment. My experience in Pakistan says the majority now know the true history of 1971, thanks to the internet, and Islamabad should respect the voice of its own people. • Nadeem Qadir is the Press Minister of Bangladesh High Commission in London.
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Page 5 and 6: Bangladesh shares 139th spot in Hum
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Page 9 and 10: EU Parliament adopts Brexit red lin
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Page 13: Opinion 13 DT THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 20
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Page 23 and 24: Showtime 23 THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2017

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