Work in always in Progress - Help add info by e-mailing: info@aidevaluator.com
About Aid Evaluator
We have to work together and gather our information if we are to develop
The Aid Evaluator (Aid-E) aims to make aid work better for those in need, donors and researchers: Meaning pretty much everybody. Further - just about everybody has to help provide information, if it is to work optimally; so, no limited scope at all. The odds that it will never work are good, but if it really did work, so that efficient and transparent assistance was given to those in need locally, where we could see results and use best practice: that's a vision worth pursuing and meanwhile, some lucky individuals may even find the information here quite helpful. There are several target groups and many ways to improve the current system of aid delivery.
1. Help People in Need; find Assistance
- Help people find the available assistance in their local area.
- Provide relevant information about the individual organizations, to those in need of assistance.
- Give people a sense of their local community, what is lacking what works.
- Allow user to find the best aid available and, thus, promote the programs that work.
2. Help Individual Donors; give based on personal criteria
- Provide relevant information about individual organizations, to those seeking to help.
- Promote transparency and, thus, increase the trust necessary for continued public support.
- Allow user to find the best aid available and, thus, promote the programs that work.
3. Help Organizations; show what they do
- Help small NGOs get visibility, and help create oversight of what exactly the big organizations do.
- Allow evaluation, which looks at more than simply administration costs.
- Promote transparency and, thus, increase the trust necessary for continued public support.
- Reduce evaluation costs; by making it easier for those involved to comment on the aid initiatives, (perhaps eventually).
4. Help Researchers; make more comprehensive and improved research
- Give researchers better data, with which to make solutions based on facts instead of guesses.
- Allow both the recipient, the donor and the aid-organization a place to take note of each other standpoints and perhaps gain a better understanding of the issues they are dealing with.
- Improve aid patterns and make them more transparent, comprehensible and efficient!
The internet provides us with the tool to do all of this. I hope someone will help make this site work more like Wikipedia, until then, I hope whomever comes across the site will help me add information.
About the Aid-E
As I hope all organizations will make a page in here; to explain their set up and what they do in practice; Aid-E also has a page like this. Check it out here.
Rationale
There is no big brother to organize development and make sure, that aid is aimed at those who need the most. If we want to save the last bits of our environment and try to develop, in a more sustainable manner, it is up to us individuals to gather our shared knowledge.
There is too much needless fumbling in the dark, which this sector cannot afford, as it relies on the trust of regular citizens. To make any headway, we need information to find out what types of development practices works best. We need information, that experts can analyze, and we need oversight, to know where to act.
Improved oversight and insight, of the available aid, will also help prevent misuse. Hopefully, that will increase the credibility, which most NGOs depend on. People are suffering and we can help them, so please stop choosing to forget or distance yourself, no matter how harsh the reality may be. Aid evaluator gives you a means to take the right action, on the topic or area that you care about. If you can just help find some of the lacking information, from your computer, phonebook, friends, whatever...it will be a big help. For Aid Evaluator to work; people from everywhere must contribute with the relevant knowledge they have access to.
Background Story about the Founder
Having traveled around much and lived different places. I feel the world is my home and I am concerned with development. Being from relatively rich Denmark, I understand that people should earn their wage and be entitled to spend it, as they please, however I don't think people get what they deserve. There is extreme injustice in our world, which is not being recognized, and aid organizations seem to be the only ones trying to help. As a compromise, I'd say people need not concern themselves with others, if they are doing their best to help. Unfortunately, most people only give a little something to a random charity, probably one near them with enough funds to advertise. Yet, their options are limited - there is no place where one can compare organizations, and choose based on personal criteria and interests. My hope is that this site could become such a place; to make informed decisions.
My name is Britt Rasmussen and I first got the idea for the Aid Evaluator in 2005, when Wikipedia showed that it was possible for individuals to build something together. I started working on it, while I took my Master Degree in 'Development and International Relations. In 2007 experience from the EU and UN gave my further courage; that I was on the right path, and I began actively pursuing funding opportunities in 2008. I had to separate it from this international Aid-E site to look for funds that only cared about Denmark - although that did not work either. In 2009 I established The Charity Review as a danish association, and took in members to help.
Since then I have been trying to get volunteers to help, mostly in vain, but sometimes there are people who keep my spirits up and help add some information. I started out wanting to make Denmark a trial case, as we have many offers of assistance in Denmark. Yet, I found very little support and after a 6 months work trip to Rwanda in 2011, I found this to be a much better place to try and make the page work, as people here really care about making development aid work. Also, there are more development organizations, and therefore a greater need for coordination and oversight.
Currently, I continue to try and find volunteers, and my hope is that someone will help either make the web-site work, more like Wikipedia, or help spread the word, so that the page can be useful to everybody.
If you are interested at all, follow the 'add info' guides or write me at: thecharityreview@gmail.org
Politics
This site is not about politics but about aid. There are different perspectives on human rights, animal rights etc. We hope be able to remain impartial and merely list the different rights agencies, and perhaps outline their challenges on their local topic pages. We would like to be able to show what takes place, without taking sides, as individuals should be able to make up their own mind, based on facts. Yet, facts and people are not impartial, so there are no promises, but we aim to be impartial.
Disclaimer
As everybody are supposed to be able to add info, and even organizations are allowed to give their own information about themselves; we cannot be held responsible for something false. We will give better and more relevant information, but you must yourself determine, if you trust whoever is giving the information. Being listed here is not a stamp of approval.
Further, this is a pretty weak volunteer association, so we will be easy to bring down, but unless there is real evidence of absolute corruption, the aim is not to bring anyone down, but rather to strenghten the delivery of aid, especially to those most in need; and we hope not to offend anyone. It would be nice with a legal advice volunteer? :)