I ran aid programmes for 25 years – getting my car fixed at an Islamabad market taught me why they don’t work | Mohammad Altaf Afridi

Donors mean well, but in Pakistan I saw funds poured into professional, unaccountable NGOs rather than authentic, grassroots civil society It was a hot and humid August day in a market in Islamabad, not far from my comfortable, air-conditioned office in the US embassy. I was waiting for a mechanic to fix my car. Despite the heat, the market was unusually alive. I asked the mechanic’s helper what was going on. “Today we are electing our association,” he told me – and I could hear the pride in ...

By Mohammad Altaf Afridi