Yeah this rhymes with everything I’ve seen. I have a deeply unpopular opinion built on years of experience that NGOs generally pay people way too much. Wrote about it (quite poorly) a whopping 8 years ago!
The thing that makes me doubt my opinion is that I’m yet to find a local Ugandan who publicly agrees with me, and most privately disagree with me too. “More money coming in is better” seems to be the common sense line, despite the inflation (my town Gulu is the most expensive in the country), distorted education system and dragging the best people to less important jobs.
Its not only NGOs, but also means good business ideas can fail because of high salary bills, when they could have worked and grown to employ hundreds/thousands more if the foreigner just paid market rates not 3x....
I think better to just give people money give directly style rather than pay more. It doesn’t distort the economy much.
It’s a really tricky one emotionally and intellectually, and I find it very difficult to manage when I’m the one with the power to pay more
Yeah this rhymes with everything I’ve seen. I have a deeply unpopular opinion built on years of experience that NGOs generally pay people way too much. Wrote about it (quite poorly) a whopping 8 years ago!
https://ugandapanda.com/2017/04/17/ngos-part-1-pay-your-workers-less/
The thing that makes me doubt my opinion is that I’m yet to find a local Ugandan who publicly agrees with me, and most privately disagree with me too. “More money coming in is better” seems to be the common sense line, despite the inflation (my town Gulu is the most expensive in the country), distorted education system and dragging the best people to less important jobs.
Its not only NGOs, but also means good business ideas can fail because of high salary bills, when they could have worked and grown to employ hundreds/thousands more if the foreigner just paid market rates not 3x....
I think better to just give people money give directly style rather than pay more. It doesn’t distort the economy much.
It’s a really tricky one emotionally and intellectually, and I find it very difficult to manage when I’m the one with the power to pay more