Who should have the most say in how aid is used: the countries giving the aid or the communities receiving it?

I still firmly believe that aid should be a collaboration of ideas between the community leaders and the government. Many argue that the community may not have leaders, so the community cannot receive the help it needs. However the government should find a solution to this by allowing the community members to vote for a leader or council. This is the way the community can make sure all their issues are heard. without having to keep in mind the budgets from other communities. However NGO’s and the government have more experience in decision making, especially when it comes to aid distribution.

NGOs were built to help communities free of charge. And go against governmental views. They focus on humanitarian, educational, healthcare, and environmental, or advocacy causes. This means NGOs have experience with community problems and needs. Unlike the government they have learnt to understand issues from the source. Not just through a report. Although they have this level of knowledge, some communities do not trust NGOs with private issues their community is experiencing. This makes it hard for them to help.

But the Government is no better at managing aid alone. The average government will not seek any deeper knowledge of local problems, than what they read in the documents and reports. These often only deal with the surface of the community's problems. However the Government should still have some say as they are in charge of funding. It is important to get the community leaders involved but we cannot just cut out the government from these decisions. The government has experience with funding control, understanding issues and resolving them.

This is why aid should be a joint effort, aid cannot be disturbed evenly if the people in charge of it are inexperienced, hard to manage or are not trustworthy enough to deal with big issues. To conclude, aid is crucial for many communities but it should not be controlled by one party. It needs to be a collaboration of ideas, skills and strengths.