A look at foreign aid profiles shows mixed results. On the one hand, some of the aid goes to increase the competitiveness of the economy, on the other, it is wasteful and dangerously encouraging inefficiency.

Over one and a half decades, having worked in several policy kitchens, negotiated with aid agencies, designed at times programmes to manage aid flow into Jordan, and later worked for some of those agencies, I came to realise that most of the aid that comes to Jordan goes to budgetary support, and very little is in technical support.

Budgetary support is immediately spent to alleviate budgetary constraints, which seem to grow in time. Technical support, on the other hand, is difficult to spend because it requires capacity mobilisation on both the aid agency and government sides.

In several incidents, technical support programmes have been marred by mismanagement, failure to launch, and consequently, meant several years of waste before the effort could be refocused and aligned with the development goals of the Kingdom. Budgetary support helps the government put aside the urgent need to reform the ever-expanding public sector. In spite of the flow of aid, the government currently consumes almost 60 per cent of the GDP.

Given the low impact of government spending on the economy, budgetary support should be screened in order to gauge its impact on the future competitiveness of the economy, not the remedial effect on salaries and current commitments.

A gift that encourages lazy attitudes towards reform, especially of the public sector, should be considered a bane not a boon for the future generations of this very young country where 70 per cent of the population is under 30 years of age and whose labour force is one-fifth of the population.

Technical support is supposed to encourage the growth of productivity so that Jordan can do more with less through value-added and knowledge-intensive production.

No one can deny that Jordan has spearheaded reforms in the region. Yet, because of its small internal market and knowledge-endowed labour, it has to quickly do better than all others in terms of reforming the business environment if only to stop the brain drain.

Furthermore, aid workers and administrators have to keep in mind that it is the tension between scepticism and creativity that creates the stunning and the unexpected world of tomorrow.

Alas, some development aid agencies, controlling coffers of hundreds of millions, seem to wish to maintain the ever-restful status quo. One agency, definitely among the largest in Jordan, selects only personnel that it deems non-controversial, i.e., not willing to attempt to push for more efficient frontiers.

Consequently, creative workers, critics and reformists not only suffer from lack of support from their own government because they dare to speak out but are also punished by representatives of world democracies.

Bureaucrats at such agencies probably prefer to please their counterparts in government, but by doing so, they have been aiding and abetting the maintenance of the status quo and punishing the creative individuals in Jordan, thus negating the very development slogans they claim to espouse. Hence, they do more damage than good and curtail reforms while wasting their own taxpayers’ money.

Maybe their own countries had better monitor how they allocate resources. Meanwhile, let’s remind them of Albert Einstein’s words: “You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.”

Aid agencies should not forget that imbalances, fluctuations, uncertainty are the very birthplace of creativity.

Luckily, not all aid agencies are like that. At least one has been encouraging creativity and the enablement of the freedom of choice. It has based its selection of recipients on merit and achievement and deserves the thanks of Jordanians. Not afraid to speak his mind, the leader of such an organisation has become an admirable leader of creativity in the economy.

Jordan will one day stop relying on aid. In the meantime, some aid agencies need to scrutinise their work in earnest and try to serve better this small country with great potential.

ymansur@enconsult.com