THERE are those overseas who see any criticism of aid programmes to Papua New Guinea as gross ingratitude.
The thinking appears to be that donations of funds, expertise, technical equipment or just plain know-how should be instantly accepted by a grateful leadership and people.
That’s not the way matters should be handled.
Donating a ship load of ice to the people of Greenland would be nonsense. Ice is one commodity still in abundance in the Arctic Circle country. But the example is informative.
All too often massive donations of goods and services are made to PNG and the donors feel they have every right to expect the people to be properly grateful.
There has been a number of occasions when charities and non-governmental organisations have thrown their weight behind projects and ideologies that have proven to be counter-productive, controversial and even a source of antagonism to the recipients.
And in most cases the donors are shaken by the apathetic or negative response and on some occasions, angered.
How does this happen?
After years of aid and donor funding to PNG, many observers now feel that ignorance of this country and its people lie at the root of the problem.
The hypothetical case of ice to the Eskimos may be extreme.
But take PNG literacy levels, of great concern to us all.
Too many of our people cannot read or write; they constitute a far greater number than most casual observers realise.
There are literacy programmes in PNG attacking that problem. Many of them are doing a commendable job in reaching out to often remote locations and teaching people the rudiments of language and writing skills.
But there are assumptions made by other groups that people can access information and understand introduced initiatives that are incomprehensible to them.
Even where language communication is less of a problem, cultural differences can spell the difference between a successful donor initiative and one doomed to fail.
We’ve observed a simple urban equivalent.
We’re all familiar with the ATM card; most of us use the bank token regularly.
We think nothing of the skills involved. Yet they are complex skills requiring access to a bank of knowledge that many of our people have had no chance to create and develop.
Mastering numerals and numeracy systems is every bit as complex as mastering language.
So many ATM card users seek help from security guards to interpret the screen and push the buttons.
Secretary for health Dr Clement Malau has underlined his concerns about sustainability.
He has pointed out that health support donors often fail to visualise what will happen when the overseas impetus behind a programme ceases.
If that system of support has been designed specifically for PNG and appropriate levels of knowledge and understanding of the recipient culture have been developed, then there’s every chance our own people will be well able to carry on the work of the programme.
But workers in the field are acutely aware of many projects that simply collapse when the foreign drive is removed.
This does not mean that foreigners have the skills to keep projects going and that we lack those skills.
It can mean that the whole design of an aid programme may be inappropriate for this country, but as long as foreign expertise is there to oversee the development of the project, it can be made to “succeed”.
But once that pressure is removed, the support initiative is almost certain to collapse.
Funding is also a vital aspect of these projects.
There can be little point in mounting a national campaign against a particular illness, for example, and funding its operation liberally, if at the end of the support grant, the recipients cannot afford to keep the programmes operating.
Dr Malau is pleading for commonsense.
He wants to see qualified Papua New Guineans at the head of these projects and he wants the support initiatives to be within PNG’s ability to maintain and later expand.
And beyond these concerns, Dr Malau has identified a broader problem.
He is committed to the development of basic health care services for the bulk of the people. And he wants donor aid within the health sector to reflect that goal.