Publication
Omar Shaban Ismail · Sama News Agency · 2021
Omar Shaban argues that there is no funding without conditions, and that the 11 September attacks led donors to tighten control over funding from North to South. He classifies conditions as administrative and methodological, technical, and others that may be seen as touching on sovereignty: selecting beneficiaries, barring work in Area C or infrastructure projects in refugee camps, requiring partnerships with organisations from donor countries or with Israeli organisations, and ignoring national development priorities. He notes that Arab and Islamic funding is conditional too, mostly limited to relief, food parcels and construction, and that recipients' weakness turns recommendations into conditions. He concludes that conditional funding can serve society where there is a strong government, a development plan involving all three sectors, competent implementers and transparency.
Omar Shaban, February 2021: no international funding comes without conditions, but a strong government and transparency can make it serve society.
The issue of conditional and unconditional international funding is an old one, arising with the beginning of relations of commercial and cultural exchange among the peoples of the earth. The events of September 11 had the greatest impact in tightening control and monitoring over funding from the North to the countries and peoples of the South in particular, as donor countries began to implement a policy of “deploying grants and loans with the aim of preventing them from reaching those they consider their enemies and with the aim of influencing the collective consciousness of recipient peoples.” It can be said that there is no funding from one party to another without conditions. Some of these conditions serve the better use of funding, while some conditions aim to influence and change the culture of the recipient and alter its position toward certain issues and concepts.
## Sources of funding:-
The relationship between sources of funding and channels of receipt is not linear, as it may appear at first glance; rather, it is intertwined and overlapping. Governments, which are usually the largest funders, typically finance all channels of receipt: “government, NGOs, the private sector, and individuals.” While NGOs do not usually finance governments, the wealthy private sector and transnational corporations can finance not only NGOs, the private sector, and individuals, but governments as well, with the aim of achieving their own special interests.
## Funding conditions:-
Certainly, there is no funding without conditions; whoever owns the money owns the decision. It may be the funder’s right to impose its conditions. But it is wrong to place all conditions in one basket. Some conditions aim to ensure the proper implementation of the project, strengthen standards of transparency and accountability, and ensure that the service reaches the intended beneficiary. Others aim to modify and change the values of society so that they conform to the culture of the funder, which is not necessarily harmful or contrary to the values of the recipient society. The conditions that any funder may impose can be grouped into the following categories:
1. Administrative and methodological conditions:-
These are those represented in imposing a specific template for writing the project proposal, a methodology for recruitment, the use of certain forms, and the like. They are not conditions in the political sense that affect the sovereignty of the recipient; rather, they aim to create a common language between the funder and the recipient in a way that unifies the method and system of work. International institutions usually give necessary attention to these administrative aspects.
2. Technical conditions:-
By these are meant those conditions that the funder requires to be present in the good or service provided to the final beneficiary. These are usually scientific conditions, such as requiring that kindergartens have an appropriate area according to specifications, or specifying the colors used in paint because they are more suitable for the atmosphere of children’s learning; preventing the use of chemical pesticides in agriculture; or packaging the product in a specific way, etc.
3. Other conditions:-
These are all other conditions not falling within the previous two groups, and they are those around which a calm or heated debate may arise. These conditions can initially be interpreted as non-objective and may be viewed as an infringement on the sovereignty and independence of the recipient entity. Among these conditions, by way of example and not limitation, and on whose underlying objective we may differ, are:-
- Allocating and specifying beneficiaries, in number and type, of the funded program based on criteria that may appear to some to be non-objective and may in fact be so, such as: color, gender, age, race, geography, and political affiliation.
- Specifying fields and areas of work to the exclusion of others: whereby the institution or funding entity declares that it funds certain projects and activities but not others. For example, funding for activities and projects in Area C in the governorates of the West Bank may be prohibited, or the establishment of infrastructure projects in refugee camps may be barred.
- Requiring cooperation with international institutions working in the same field and of the nationality of the donor entities, and requiring partnership with Israeli institutions, or requiring the use of experts from donor countries, thereby exhausting a large proportion of the granted budgets.
- The donor’s failure to take national development priorities into consideration and the imposition of projects and activities that may appear to some less important than other needs, such as projects to promote concepts of democracy, concepts of good governance, and support for women.
## Important observations requiring further discussion:-
- All funders—individuals, governments, institutions, and companies—have their own conditions. Some declare them, as in the document of the United States Agency for International Development, while others do not declare them, such as Arab and Islamic funding in particular, which imposes its own agenda with regard to the persons receiving the funding. Thus, while European and American funding has a clear methodology that we may not agree with, Arab and Islamic funding depends more on the standing of the recipient persons or institutions and their relationship with them. Even local funding, whether from individuals or bodies, usually has its own special conditions, such as when an awards ceremony for secondary school students is funded by a monopolistic and corrupt local company on the condition that the ceremony be organized under its sponsorship and supervision, with the aim of legitimizing its money and buying the approval of society.
- Conditional funding directed to governments in their capacity as the governing authority usually entails political understandings whose danger exceeds that of funding directed to NGOs.
- One of the reasons for the dispute over international funding is the absence of clearly defined priorities among recipient entities. How can it be agreed, among segments of the same society, that combating poverty takes precedence over promoting democracy? And what is to be done if part of this society believes that encouraging theater should command the funder’s attention? Then what theater are we talking about? Is it liberal theater, nationalist theater, Arab theater, or Islamic theater, etc.? And how do we reconcile a funded program that requires mixing between the sexes with another funded program that requires their separation?
- Arab and Islamic funding is, for the most part, confined to financing relief assistance, the distribution of food parcels, and construction projects, and we rarely find Arab funding for theater, culture, the promotion of democratization, the development of research studies, and development. Is this not funding conditioned by the culture of the funder? Can a non-elected government fund a program to promote democracy, democratic elections, and the enhancement of the role of civil society?
- Some “funding conditions” are formulated through cooperation between the funder and the recipient entity in the early stages of designing the project idea. Here a major responsibility falls on the recipient entity to determine development needs and priorities in the local community in a way that ensures the consistency of funding conditions with the requirements for the successful implementation of the project.
- Some of these conditions are framed as advice and recommendations and are not binding on the recipient entity. But the weakness of the recipient entity in financial and administrative aspects makes it unable to discuss these conditions with the funder, and thus they become as though they were imposed conditions from which there is no escape in implementation.
- It must be emphasized that some funding, regardless of its source, is not innocent, in that it is employed to influence the culture of the funding recipient. There is funding aimed at creating and deepening a culture of begging and a rentier economy, and at making individuals dependent, lazy, and uncreative. However, it is possible to employ conditional funding in a way that truly serves society and does not achieve the hidden objectives of the funder. This depends greatly on the internal sources of strength of any society, namely:-
· The strength of the official government, the extent of its readiness, and the extent of its support for creative national initiatives and the equitable distribution of resources.
· The existence of a development plan in which the three sectors of society participate: the governmental, civil, and private sectors.
· The extent of the efficiency of the individuals and institutions implementing them.
· The application of the foundations and standards of transparency, oversight, and disclosure.
Topic: Palestinian Economy — international aid · conditional funding · aid politicisation · civil society — Text © Sama News Agency — archived here with attribution to the source. — Original source