I'm currently working on a project on disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) within wider post-conflict transitional assistance programmes for the Overseas Development Institute (ODI - http://www.odi.org.uk).

I know there are young people within TIG who have first-hand experience of transitional assistance programmes, which include anything from quick-impact projects (usually implemented by the military) to humanitarian assistance or long-term aid, and I want to know about your experiences as young people in these programmes.

Transitional assistance refers to the "assistance" given in post-conflict situations while reconstruction occurs. Transitional assistance can take place over the short-term or long-term and may include practical projects like rebuilding schools and infrastructure or reintegration programmes etc.

If you've had any involvement in transitional assistance programmes anywhere, please either post a comment, send me a message through TIG or email me at f.k.mckenzie@lse.ac.uk with the type of programme, where and when it happened, and your general experiences. Anything you can tell me would be useful at this stage!

You can find out more about the project at http://www.odi.org.uk/HPG/cluster4_DDR.htm.

Young people in transitional assistance programmes
Translated into Spanish by: Fi McKenzie

In two months, I’m leaving NZ to study development management in London and this is because I’m passionate about eliminating poverty in my lifetime. Not just alleviating, but eliminating it completely.

Recently, Sir Bob Geldof, singer, songwriter and political activist, has been in New Zealand talking about our low aid levels. This has recharged the debate on how much aid NZ gives and I want to add my 2 cents.

New Zealand currently gives 0.27% of it’s gross national income (GNI) to aid. GNI is not the same as Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It comprises the total value of goods and services produced within a country (i.e. its Gross Domestic Product), together with its income received from other countries, less similar payments made to other countries. By measuring aid levels as a percentage, we can compare our aid fairly with the level given by other countries with a bigger, or smaller, GNI. Next year, New Zealand will increase it’s aid to 0.28%.

Many years ago, the early 1960s to be precise, the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) committed to give 0.7% of their GNI to aid. New Zealand joined the DAC in 1973, and at the time committed to this target of 0.7%. Some 40 years later, the Millennium Development Goals were created and many countries, including New Zealand, recommitted to giving 0.7% by 2015. There’s quite a massive gap between 0.27% and 0.7%.

Now imagine, for a second, that New Zealand had committed to removing waiting lists from the New Zealand health system. There are thousands of people affected by waiting lists and I’m sure we’d all like operations to happen straight away. Imagine that New Zealand committed to this 50 years ago, and then waiting lists actually got longer.

Let’s expand that example. There are over 1.2 billion people (2001 World Bank estimate) living on less than US $1 a day. They simply can’t provide for their own needs – no clean water, no food, no adequate healthcare. They are the poorest. There are over 2.7 billion (that’s coming close to half of the world’s population) people living on US $2 a day. Hell. Their countries can’t provide for them and they need the help of the international community to survive. It’s about survival and community.

So nearly 50 years ago, New Zealand committed to give 0.7% in aid. It was a commitment, a promise. Just in case we’d forgotten about this commitment, we recommitted, with all other members of the DAC, at the turn of the new Millennium to have aid to 0.7% of GNI by 2015. Most other members of DAC have set a timeline for progress in order to get actually meet this commitment. Thus far, all NZ has said is that we’ll try for 0.35% by 2010. So that’s an increase of 0.08% over 5 years (it’s been at 0.27% since last year). If that’s a timeline then I’m not convinced we’ll get to 0.7% by 2015.

We promised this aid. We committed to it, and it’s totally out of order for us to renege on our commitment. What kind of country are we!

Now there are many excuses provided by all sorts of people for not giving more aid. Here’s some of the dominant ones and my response:

· We should give to New Zealand’s poor, and leave other countries to look after their own poor - Three points: a) We committed to give a certain amount of aid; b) Our poorest are poor, yes, but we can’t just ignore the world’s poorest (who are living in extreme poverty, not relative poverty) just because we have poor people too; c) The other countries can’t look after their own poor. That’s the problem.
· We’re just giving to corrupt governments – New Zealand targets it’s aid on the Asia Pacific region, although it gives a little to Latin America and Southern Africa . We don’t give the money to the governments to do what they like with, that would be simply irresponsible. Aid is targeted at specific projects and activities. Aid is also given to NGOs like Oxfam and World Vision who work with their partners in countries to ensure that the assistance actually reaches the poorest. Aid is also evaluated for it’s effectiveness. The DAC also reviews our aid on this account. NZAID, the Government aid agency, provide some of the world’s most effective aid and that’s something we should be proud of. We’re not giving money willy-nilly to corrupt governments.
· Our health system needs the money spent here – We could spend the entire budget on the health system and achieve as much, or as little if you like, as we currently do. Yes, money needs to be spent on health and education and other services, but we can achieve more by spending a little of our money (the target is 70 cents out of every $100, that’s tiny!!) on helping other countries.
· New Zealand and New Zealanders contribute in other ways, which makes up for our lower aid levels – Yes, New Zealanders give a lot of their own money through NGOs. I don’t know exactly how much because it’s hard to collate EVERY NGO’s info on contributions. But, and I hate to go back to this, we committed to 0.7% and the fact that privately New Zealanders give a lot (particularly during disasters) does not mean that the Government can get away with giving less. We also give a lot in emergency relief for things like the Indonesian tsunamis and other disasters. This is over-and-above our aid current commitments and countries facing disasters need this immediate assistance but we still don’t give enough to even come close to our 2015 commitment. The British are also good at giving privately to NGOs and many of them spend time volunteering doing development assistance or emergency relief work. Just because they do this, doesn’t mean the British government should renege on it’s commitment. They even have a timeline for reaching their 0.7% by 2015.

I could go on forever I guess, and this has as much been for me as for you to read. Sometimes it’s easy to forget why I’m passionate about this but writing has helped to remind me of how important this is. The arguments above are not top quality and I could explain better if I had an extra 10,000 words but you wouldn’t bother to read that.
If you feel at all convicted about this, do something about it. You can write a quick letter to the Prime Minister, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, even just your local MP. Many National MPs, as far as I can tell, don’t believe in giving much aid. It’s certainly well below tax cuts in the scale of importance. Write to them too, they might be in Government one day and I really hope they don’t lower that level further because not enough people told them how important it was beforehand. Writing a quick letter isn’t that hard but it is really important.

Leave me a comment, or email me at fk.mckenzie@clear.net.nz, if you’re interested in any specific point in this. In many ways this was just a chance for me to rant and rave but it’s also a chance for you to reflect on your life, your needs and what you do about the issues that drive you crazy.

On Saturday morning, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook Indonesia's Java Island. The death toll has reached 5136, and UNICEF believe some 20,000 are injured and more than 130,000 homeless. Hospitals are struggling to cope with the numbers of injured and everyone is keeping an eye on the volcano Mount Merapi, whcih is sporadically emitting hot lava and highly toxic hot gas.

In Timor-Leste (East Timor), political unrest has led to violence between feuding army, police units, and gangs of youth. Seven years ago, Timor-Leste voted for independence and this led to militia violence and a UN presence in the soon-to-be state. In the last few months, the UN has been discussing finally removing the remnants of their presence there. Now Timor-Leste requires a heightened presence of Australian & New Zealand soldiers and for many it looks increasingly like Timor Leste is again where it was 7 years ago.

New Zealand is a tiny country, we have just over 4 million people and we're stuck in the bottom of the Pacific. There's a few maps that ignore New Zealand completely by cutting us off the edge. The thing I guess I want to show is that New Zealand plays a crucial role in the Pacific and South East Asia and shouldn't be forgotten.

While you're busy doing whatever you're doing today, spare a thought for those stuck in Dili and Yogyakarta. Aid agencies are currently scaling up their operations in Yogyakarta and would appreciate any donations you can give.

Jamie Cullum's song Photograph is definitely my new favourite. I get it. Wrote a similar blog post a long time ago on this blog titled "Photos and Memories" which I've just reread. I like photographs . . . and memories of a time gone by.


Photograph - Jamie Cullum (Catching Tales 2006)

Her name was written on the photograph,
right next to her red, sunburnt face,
it all had happened in that long tall grass,
about a mile from her old place,
and I can't remember how it started and if it lasted that day in the sun.

We said that we were going to study hard,
we held our books instead of hands,
she held a blanket over cans of beer,
I can't deny I was so full of fear.

It's just another story caught up in another photograph I found.
and it seems like another person lived that life a great many years ago from now,

When I look back on my ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.
when I look back on my ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.

And there's the first time that I tried that stuff,
I think I look a little green,
I remember throwing up behind a bush,
and I found it hard to use my feet,
and who's that easily led little boy who's really off his head?

It was the same night that I kissed that girl,
the tall one with the auburn hair,
I remember laughing coz to kiss me,
she had to sit down on a chair!
she tasted like the schnapps she'd drunk,
and the cigarette she'd stolen from her mum.

And it's just another story caught up in another photograph I found.

When I look back on my ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.
When I look back on my ordinary ordinary, ordinary life,
I see so much magic, though I missed it at the time.

New Zealand has created terrorism suppression legislation in a country where there are no terrorists, and the only terrorist attack was twenty years ago. New Zealand has profile as a good international citizen, and this is summarised in the concluding remarks of every report made to the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee. These remind the Security Council Committee of the role that New Zealand plays in the military, intelligence, and political support of the counter-terrorism efforts and the humanitarian assistance it provides. However, the argument that New Zealand is implementing this merely because it wants to continue its role as a good international citizen is far too simplistic.

An argument that states are implementing this legislation because of coercive fear holds much more weight, when considered against the public submissions made to the New Zealand Government, and around the world on similar Acts. States are coerced into implementation because of the fear that being left out will lead to an attack. New Zealand is unlikely to see a large-scale terrorist attack occur in its territory in the next ten years, but it has implemented UN Security Council Resolution 1373 (2001) because the government is afraid of an attack. It may also be ‘afraid’ of what would happen to its status if this implementation did not occur. Terrorism is about creating widespread fear and panic. Resolution 1373 (2001) has been implemented as a result of coercive fear, and the USA, Spain, and UK fear escalating attacks on their territory. Australia is concerned about not having top security during the Melbourne Commonwealth Games 2006. New Zealand is aware that it might eventually become a target. In experiencing these fears, the states are perpetuating the fear created by acts of terrorism