Ambassador criticises donor demands

The special Dutch ambassador to Ethiopia and Eritrea, Pieter Marres has said that developing countries would be better off without development aid, Radio Netherlands reported on 16 May. Satisfying donor demands required great effort and energy on the part of developing nations, and aid was keeping people dependent and less self-reliant, Marres was quoted as saying. “The main thing is that people get their self-esteem back and that they will be fully in charge of their own future and their own development,” he said. Marres said that his work in Ethiopia had convinced him that developing countries had far more potential than the West believed. Development aid should be phased out over a number of years, with the money used instead for debt relief. This would provide developing countries with “a macro-economic framework to carry out their own programmes,” he added.