It's this problem all the way down. You cannot verify that the charity is doing things properly. The charity cannot verify that the subcontractor is doing things properly. The subcontractor cannot verify that his employees in the foreign country are doing their job properly and then finally even they cannot verify that the locals who they are helping are actually those who need it the most.

Not giving anything is no solution either, but we definitely need more accountability for charities. This is part of that, I guess, but we also need to know which charities are effective. I'm sure that information is around somewhere too.