Spread the Wealth, Already

A follow-the-leader mentality among aid organizations leaves some countries with far fewer services than others, according to an article about researcher Dirk-Jan Koch of Radboud University in the Netherlands.

Better than 60 percent of international aid organizations work in Kenya, Uganda and Sri Lanka. But very few work in the poorest of countries, such as Yemen and the Ivory Coast. Some of these "darling" countries of the aid groups get as much as 20 times more per capita than do the poorer countries.

"This pattern of grouping together must be broken because it is leaving some countries, where half or more of the population is living below the poverty line, to struggle on their own," said Koch.

Norway stands out as not falling into this pattern of following the heard, Koch said. For a long time, Norway was deeply involved in aid to Peru, Brazil and South Africa. But, Koch notes, Norway's aid groups are now active in Laos, Somalia and Mali, where aid money is more urgently needed.

Koch has tracked more than 60 Western aid organizations such as World Vision, Care and Oxfam, which, according to Koch administer an annual total of $27 billion. Many aid groups make their choices about where to work based on "the severity of poverty, the reliability of the government, religious or colonial ties and the goals of the organization itself."

Since so much of the money that goes to aid organizations comes from governments, Koch suggests that groups that make the effort of going into poorer countries could be rewarded for branching out with more funds.