As Nora Lester Murad has recently argued, alternative models to international aid are much needed. Alongside debates on how things can be done differently within the NGO sector, and presenting models of good practice, there is a whole set of funding streams that tend to go unnoticed in both academic and policy debates. This is partly because of an overriding emphasis on organizations, both in terms of funders and recipients, be they local or international. Such an emphasis overlooks a wealth of largely uncharted activities for which the journalist Nicholas Kristof coined the term “Do-It-Yourself-Foreign-Aid”. These are private initiatives, which remain unrecognised by the established NGO sector, even though they channel substantial private funds into projects supporting local health, education, or rights issues.
The contours of this phenomenon are not particularly well understood. Based on recent field research in Cambodia funded by the UK-based Leverhulme Foundation, some initial observations emerge. “Do-It-Yourself-Aid” describes individuals from comparatively wealthy backgrounds who set up projects in a developing country to address particular needs they have identified there. Also described as “private development initiatives”, they are often small-scale and personal in nature. While some of them are registered as NGOs, what set them apart are their decidedly individualistic approaches. The initiators of these projects do not necessarily rely on training in conventional “development”, nor do they consider themselves “aid workers” or “development practitioners”, though they may draw on other previous training or career experiences. Instead, they understand their activities as a personal initiative, driven entirely by their desire to “make a difference” in their field.
It is important to point out that these are not necessarily typical examples of the “white industrial saviour complex” so searingly criticised by Teju Cole. Rather, in the Cambodian case, DIY-Aiders include not just those who are white or from Western countries, but also individuals from the region’s wealthier nations, such as Japan, South Korea or Singapore. Neither are these initiatives solely run by foreigners: quite typically, a “private development initiative” involves a foreigner working together with a Cambodian partner, and their shared resources, capacities and visions are in many ways central to the success of these initiatives.
