Most parachuting foreign consultants (Nepali Pan, 'More consultants the merrier', #306) tend to be one of the following: friends, past employees, ex-colleagues, distant relatives, past employers, potential future employees and potential future employers of the expat heads of international development agencies who invite them to Nepal in the first place. If not, then such consultants attach themselves to a group of donor agencies for lifelong frequent short-term international assignments. In general, the more bilateral an aid agency is, the more opaque and incestuous its consultant-hiring process tends to be.

Economic conditions matter too. During recessions in Germany, the number of German consultants at German-funded aid agencies swells in Kathmandu. Ditto for other bilateral agencies. One result is that it's rare for expat heads of aid agencies to be concerned about the career paths of competent Nepali employees who they see as no more than glorified clerks. Often such Nepali employees may strut about as though they were important policy-makers but in reality they are paid well to do no more than push reams of paper, write terms of references for foreign consultants and be fixers for visiting clueless consultants. As for debating with Nepali scholars, it's a two-edged sword. Most such scholars themselves depend on local consultancy contracts. That makes them reluctant to antagonise the heads of the aid agencies by speaking and writing critically.

Pradeep Dhital,
Samakhusi

. It is a shame how these so-called helpful people are acting. For them, it is a business just like selling cars. Good consultants would try to improve the knowledge of local people so they could handle all sorts of aid projects and duties at foreign NGOs. This would save a lot of money, as foreign consultants earn a lot and their salaries are always part of the project cost. When you employ local consultants you save a lot of money on salaries and can be sure that these people know the situation in their country much better than any foreign consultant.

Leopold Hoeglinger,
email

. Rajendra Pradhan has illustrated well the nature of development workers/consultants working in underdeveloped countries. I am also confused about whether the activities of NGOs and INGO in poorer countries are doing any good. Parachuting consultants, as Pradhan said, appear pompous. When I run into such people, I ask myself a number of questions: are they honest in their work? Are the targeted groups/ classes benefiting from their consultancies? Do they have the required qualifications to dole out prescriptions for the development ills facing developing countries? Or are they selling illusions for their own benefit?

Jagannath Lamichhane,
Kathmandu

. Ashraf Ghani's report (Guest column, 'Hard work, hard choices', #306) if it is to come, will gather dust on some shelf somewhere as guessed by Rajendra Pradhan. Despite the fact that many dozens of PhDs reigned over the NPC in the last 50 years, thousands of politicians supported by intellectuals tried their minds, thousands of consultants and advisers sold their ideas and many finance ministers offered their prescriptions for the development of Nepal, the clear path to the nation's prosperity is yet to be established. Nobody seems to know what exactly needs to be done. Shameful! Enormous opportunities but no vision and strategy. Perhaps there will be no hope of a turnaround as long as bhajanmandalis and the corrupt continue to get berths in key positions.

Shambhu Malla,
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