Last week, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the South African Broadcasting Corporation that she was "not yet confident" that aid money to Zimbabwe would get directly to the people who needed it most. Most of Europe has joined the United States on the fence, waiting to see whether Zimbabwe's unity government delivers on promises of change before giving it any assistance.
Two long-time Zimbabwe observers, however, argue in a Thursday New York Times op-ed that the time for aid is now. While acknowledging that the transition to the unity government "has not been smooth," Greg Mills and Jeffrey Herbst contend that donor governments have been "standoffish."
Mills and Herbst write that aid money can be directed in a way that supports the efforts of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), echoing a call that MDC second-in-command and finance minister Tendai Biti made in Washington last month.
Mills and Herbst argue,
Mr. Tsvangirai has set himself the difficult task of trying to dislodge Mr. [Robert] Mugabe's ousted party from the state apparatus that it has controlled for more than a quarter-century. In many countries that process would require extensive violence against the regime. The 'soft landing' that the Movement for Democratic Change has chosen is a difficult path but one which it has firm strategic reasons to opt for, reasons that deserve more careful consideration from international donors.
One name that is not mentioned in the Mills and Herbst op-ed is that of embattled Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono.
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Gono, appointed by President Mugabe, is a source of conflict between the MDC and Mugabe's Zanu-PF, and the MDC has now called on the regional body , the Southern African Development Community, to intervene.
In a statement, MDC is blunt about why it wants Gono gone: "The governor has created skepticism among... international partners as to whether Zimbabwe can mount a successful reconstruction programme." MDC believes that donor governments are much more likely to open up their bank accounts if Gono, widely viewed in the West as a poor manager and political crony of Mugabe, quits his position and is replaced with a technocrat.
With Gono still in the picture, though, the question that Western donors have to figure out is how to give aid without it ending up either in his hands and or those of Zanu-PF loyalists. Herbst and Mills suggest allowing Tsvangirai's office to direct aid.
Another option is to give money through third parties, perhaps international institutions such as the United Nations and World Bank. Norway used this option to give U.S.$9 million in aid earlier this week.
A third option for donor governments is to use their embassies in Zimbabwe to oversee and disperse funds.
One possible plan could involve parts of all of the three above options through the use of a "trust fund." The international community could supervise the aid and allow Tsvangirai and Biti to specifically disperse the money to needy sectors.
A fourth option is to just cut a check and hope for the best. This might be what South Africa, the primary backer of the unity government, is doing here.
