NGOs are the new missionaries to the Third World. The original missionaries carried messages of Christianity and capitalism. Many of the new missionaries whether Christian or not, are decidedly anti-capitalist. Many are given unwarranted legitimacy in international forums.
Oxfam/ Community Aid Abroad has been active for many years, seeking a reduction in the debt owed by the most heavily indebted poor countries to multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and IMF. A nice thought, except that the successive forgiveness of debt provides an incentive to continue Third World practices that created the debt in the first place.
Guilt, wrongly attributed, and altruism, can raise money for transfers of wealth between the First World and the Third, it has succeeded in capturing the minds of international bureaucrats in the UN, and at times unfortunately in the World Bank, though less so at the IMF. Guilt, however, is no substitute for the message of economic development based on sound political and economic institutions.
Take one very prominent example, the Jubilee 2000 campaign to forgive the debt of poor countries. Oxfam and the churches, with the Pope and the Dalai Lama and stars like Bono of rock group U2 pressed Western governments to forgive the debt of the poorest countries. The argument was to let them start afresh without the burden placed on them by the West.
A former World Bank economist, William Easterly, has tested the incentives in debt forgiveness. He found that the big problem is that debt forgiveness is not new. The World Bank/ IMF Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, now running at $27 billion, stands on the shoulders of decades of previous rounds of debt forgiveness.
The promise of Jubilee 2000 was no different to all of those that have gone before. "The debt campaigners treated debt as a natural disaster that just happened to strike poor countries". The truth is not so charitable. Countries that borrowed heavily did so because they were willing to mortgage their future. They were irresponsible, they sold productive assets into unproductive hands, they built unproductive infrastructure, they favoured one ethnic group above another, or one region above another, they ran inflated economies, they were corrupt, they waged war, they allowed black markets to develop because they controlled exchange rates and interest rates.
How many "progressive" NGOs would sign up for Easterly's remedies? "Does the government of each nation face incentives to create private sector growth, or does it face incentives to steal from private business? In a polarised and undemocratic society, where class-based or ethnically based interest groups are in a vicious competition for loot, the answer is probably the latter ... In a democratic society with institutions that protect the right of minority interest groups, institutions that protect the right of private property and individual economic freedoms, governments face the right incentives to create private sector growth".
Environmental NGOs have bought into the trade, aid and development game as well. The Australian Conservation Foundation is active in Papua New Guinea, supporting local NGOs pressing its line on "ecologically sustainable development" and "management of natural resources". Green NGOs will cite the Ok Tedi mine as an example of poor exploitation practices. Ok Tedi experienced wash from a tailings dam escaping into the local river and affecting the amenity of the residents downstream on the Fly river. The action brought by Slater & Gordon in Australia was the straw that broke the camel's back in terms of BHP's involvement with OTML in the mine. They walked away from the mine, agreeing to pay compensation to certain groups. They were already paying compensation to others, already paying for infrastructure and development costs in the immediate region, they were already subject to an Act of the PNG legislature requiring specific performance in all matters associated with the mine, including environmental management.
The mine continues, in the hands of the PNG government, but with a significant and skilled partner, BHP absent. The chance for PNG citizens to break out of the primitive existence is diminished. The Greens wants to keep the PNG villagers in the Stone Age.
A contrast in the Pacific, where the progressive NGOs are conspicuously absent, or at least ineffectual, is New Caledonia. Rather than opt for the liberation path of the post-colonial so disastrous for their neighbours, such as the Solomons, New Caledonia is "still lucky to have France". New Caledonia has a First World standard of living, high literacy rates and long life expectancy. The careful and long-term devolution of power from the colonial power to the locals, contrasts with the Anglo experience in the Pacific, where the liberationists have reaped the dividend of poverty and mayhem.
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