Chad-Cameroon: Stop to Think

As a follower of the Chad-Cameroon pipeline, I think it is crucial for us to ponder the lessons from that project and beyond the lessons learned in implementation.

Here’s the World Bank statement.

Here is the New York Times story.

Here’s a more critical version of the development.

Having read these stories, it tells me that there is a much greater need for oversight and capacity building, as if that wasn’t obvious. And the argument that capacity building is enough for a project like this will be even harder the next time around as a result of this development. No easy answers here.

Mistrusted Good Intentions

It has been a while…a wedding, a honeymoon but now eager to re-engage with the world of sustainable development.

There are a lot of challenges with trying to invest wisely into countries that need a lot. ArcelorMittal recently gave the Liberian government 100-vehicles to “help accelerate the pace of key development projects in all of Liberia’s counties, especially in the efforts to respond to the food crisis and expand agricultural production across the country”. Not everyone seems to think this was the full purpose.

I came across a series of Liberia news stories today with some calling it a “Trojan horse” and others stating it was “open bribery”.

I have no knowledge of this event, and can only trust the company’s statements in a another article, but also believe it is justified to respond with skepticism. Such actions of generosity may be well-intended, but history puts the burden on companies to show how such a decision was taken, who was consulted, who will benefit and how such a generous donation would be managed. It shouldn’t be seen as insulting to the senators or to the company, but rather used to draw attention to the need for more background information and better processes, which should be a part of any transaction of this size. That simply needs to be a part of the gift.

On a side note, it is good to see lively debate on the topic.