DevEx's Rolf Rosenkranz Blogs About CIDC: 'Believe in contracts'
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 02:11PM Believe in contracts
By Rolf Rosenkranz, January 19, 2012
DevEx Development Buzz
Two years ago, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton caused a stir when, during a speech in Washington, she indicated that the administration was eager to rein in large contractors. It’s a theme that has persisted ever since.
And over the past year, AusAID has been overhauling its procurement after needling criticism of the amount it spends on consulting fees.
Development contracting has got a bad rep around the world over the past few years.
But is it deserved? The argument has been so one-sided recently that it’s hard to tell, even from within the industry. Has AusAID been paying its contractors too much? Are USAID contractors wasting money abroad? In our news coverage here at Devex, we’ve struggled at times to look past the rhetoric and get to the bottom of it all.
Just last week, we reported about an op-ed in Politico written by James R. Petersen, a former senior auditor for the U.S. Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, who suggested that as much as 90 percent of aid money to Afghanistan is being wasted. I suspect few in the international development community would agree with such a stark figure, but who is making the counterargument?
The nonprofit community has been much better over the years in deflecting criticism and refocusing the debate on its social mission.
“Interfacing is part of their DNA,” Betsy Bassan, president and CEO of the Panagora Group, said about NGOs at a Society for International Development event in Washington on Friday (Jan. 13) that showcased the new Coalition of International Development Companies.
But contractors have learned from the NGO community, and — at least in the United States — they are ramping up efforts to convince lawmakers and the public of their value for money.
At the center of the U.S. campaign are institutions such as the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition and the Professional Services Council’s international development task force, as well as the CIDC, launched last June as an independent body within PSC.
The creation of CIDC could be seen as a “maturation” of the for-profit aid community, Bassan suggested last week. CIDC’s goal is to educate — and to draw a line between development contractors on one side and defense and security contractors on the other.