The motive
There have emerged in recent years two main motives for so helping our neighbours and one would expect these to apply also to ARCASIA's activities. The first is directly humani- tarian and is directed altruistically towards the relief of mass poverty, ignorance, disease, hatred and plain despair.
The second is political with the intention of raising standards in order to gain the following of the nation. Whichever the motive, or in both cases, aid is good business for the professional man and this is nothing to be ashamed of why should the process not benefit the giver as well as the recipient?
....
Such professional and technical ser- vices, both direct and through educa- tion, bring prosperity more roads, railways, airfields and telecommunica- tions bring more clinics, schools, community-centres, agricultural sta- tions, light-industry buildings and rural-craft facilities. These, in turn, result in better health, understanding and awareness, hope and ambition, land-fertility, labour-relief and general prosperity.
Both motives are justified and the whole process is self-generating and beneficial ... to the people served and to the architectural practices in- volved.
The method
Help, however, can be given in several customary forms. Apart from 'Grants' (i.e. outright gifts but often with the donor dictating how the money is to be used) and 'Loans' (often tied to purchase of the lender's goods), there are five main types of aid: (a) advice; (b) training; (c) equipment; (d) voluntary labour; (e) trade concessions.
The last item is outside our scope and volunteering is not popular in Asia. This leaves us with the first three methods which are, in fact, commonly employed by the existing agencies in the region. Since these are services pertinent to the proposed Regional Centre, both in its initiation and func- tionary stages it may be well to men- tion such existing agencies in which Britain and the Commonwealth al- ready take part.
The agency
The main ones in Asia are:
(i) The Colombo Plan which is a Commonwealth organisation set up in 1950 for mutual assistance in the de- velopment of South- and South East-
Asia. This Agency is basically consulta- tive and acts as a clearing house for putting members in touch with each others' skills and financial potential. It also acts as a go-between for ap- proaches to the World Bank and pri- vate sources of monetary and other loans for its members. Another facet of its activities is to arrange exchanges of technical experience and education in this region and encourage research beneficial to its members . . . . in fact, its aims are similar to those relevant to ARCASIA, but of course in a wider context. It has non-Asian contributory members (Britain, Canada, Australia, etc.) and has recently extended its horizons to cover non-Commonwealth members such as Burma, Indonesia, Vietnam and the USA.;
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(ii) The Ministry of Overseas De- velopment a descendant of the old Colonial Office with aims implied in its name. The ODM negotiates finan- cial and technical aid from British sources and recruits professionals for temporary service in Commonwealth countries. The Ministry sometimes pays part of the salary of those men so employed. It also acts as the recruit- ment office for international agencies;
(iii) The United Nations Organisa- tion. The U.N. has set up regional commissions for the main geographic and economic areas of the world. Under this policy The Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) came into existence as a direct sub- sidiary of the U.N. Economic and Social Council.
ECAFE headquarters is in Bangkok and its members are:- Afghanistan, Australia, Burma, Cambodia, Ceylon, Formosa (Taiwan), France, India, In- donesia, Iran, Japan, Korea (Re- public), Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, USSR, United Kingdom (Britain), United States (America), Vietnam (Republic), Western Samoa, Brunei, and Hong Kong * (* denotes Associate Mem- bers).
The U.N.O.
**
The aid which may be relevant to ARCASIA would be the U.N. Special Fund which is mainly intended for 'pre-investment' projects. Examples in this connection are:
logy in Earthquake Zones (Tokyo);
The Asian Regional Institute for School-Building Research (Colombo).
In the aid-pattern mentioned ear- lier, the UN contributions to such projects has been to provide men, education and equipment.
The men are professional and tech- nical advisers who do much of the initial chores of setting up the various projects, but always side by side with a local counterpart who is to be the long-term man in the particular skill involved. The advisor is just that and as soon as his counterpart is well es- tablished the UN man gets out of the organisation as quickly as possible.
This is the first dictum of UN ... ... ... ... no Neo-Colonialism.
The education is in the form of Fellowships, includes travel costs, and is available to counterparts who have shown their sound potential. The Fel- lowships are open to all ranks. The free equipment speaks for itself and is particularly valuable since it comes at a stage early in the life of the project when money is usually in short supply.
Conditions
There are few conditions attached to this aid and these are concerned
only with proof of the bona-fide in- tentions of the recipient. The host (country or countries) must supply the accommodation, furniture and fittings and it must recruit local men of ade- quate potential ("counterparts') and pay their salaries and allowances. The host has the right to accept or refuse any adviser individually. A Plan of Operation is drawn up between UN and the host so that all are fully aware of the aims and intentions of the project and this serves as the frame- work of the whole scheme.
These therefore are the main avenues of assistance already available should the CAA wish to explore them. I suggest that by doing so ARCASIA could come into being more fully and more effectively on a broader basis than perhaps has been envisaged hitherto.
Recommended reading matter: - Economic Co-operation in the Com- monwealth - by Guy Arnold (Pergam- mon Press Ltd., London, 1967).
Aid for Development by H.J.P. Arnold (The Bodley Head, London,
The Asian Institute for Economic 1966). Development (Bangkok);
Aid for Developing Countries - by The Higher Technical Institute H.J.P. Arnold (The Bodley Head, Lon- (Taiping);
The Central Building Research Institute (Roorkee);
Institute for Construction-Techno-
don, 1962).
-
Yearbook of the United Nations (Office of Public Information, New York, 1969).
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Far East BUILDER, January 1970