Sorry for the lengthy post, but I thought it was important. They won’t be this long again I promise!

This is a complete LOW-DOWN on the work I’m doing. I really wanted to communicate it to all of you in some detail, because I know you’re curious. That said, if something is unclear let me know! I’ve tried to be detailed enough to paint a good picture, without going overboard.

I mentioned before that over the last couple of decades the government in Ghana has been in the process of decentralization. This means that decisions should theoretically be taken at the district and community level, where problems are known best. These could be water supply issues, schools and teachers, agricultural services for farmers, medical services (doctors, hospitals), among others. Below is the government of Ghana in theory:

At all levels, the decentralized departments (food, health... there are 11 major ones in total) should be working together. Services and infrastructure should be planned and implemented at the district level, monitored by the regional level, and overseen by the national level.

In reality, though, the system is broken; shot to pieces. Donors (World Vision, UNICEF, CIDA, World Bank, and hundreds of others) fund projects with a preset purpose in mind. This undermines the government system that is supposed to identify what the people NEED and implement projects accordingly. The picture really looks like this:

There is a lot of influence (donors, politics) that skew the power. The departments don't communicate with eachother, and report to their national level counterparts directly. There is no procedure or system in place to say otherwise.

Also, the way the government functions is really reactive. The national government says: “do a survey!” and a survey is done, data is collected. The government says: “make a plan!” and a plan is made. The government says: “report on projects!” and projects are implemented and reported on. But the link between these activities does not exist. Data is not used to plan. Plans are not used to implement projects. And the projects are not used to collect data and see what has changed as a result.

There is a HUGE push right now from both the Ghanaian government and a Danish development project to fix this system. It involves pooling all the money Ghana is getting from donors, and using that to provide the districts with grants. The grants are awarded based on the districts’ leadership, planning, and data management systems, among other factors evaluated in assessments called the FOAT (Functional Organization Assessment Tool). This grant creates incentive for the district to do well. Eventually, as districts improve their process, the plan is to (over the next decade) make FOAT based on changes in the actual indicators of district development (illness rate, water access, test scores, school enrollment). The hope is that as their communication, planning, and data processes improve, we will start seeing improvement in the quality of life in impoverished communities.

MY JOB:

This gets a little complicated. I am part of a team of 9 Engineers Without Borders volunteers in the Northern Region. 6 of us are short-term, like me, and are embedded at the district level of government in 6 different districts (out of a total of 20 in the region). Out of the 3 long-term volunteers, 1 is working with a huge development initiative that spans the whole region; 1 is embedded at the regional level of government; 1 is working to engage stakeholders, and funnel all the knowledge and lessons from our work to donors, government agencies, and the Danish development initiative I mentioned.

The 6 of us embedded in districts are trying to develop and implement 3 different systems; the regional government will then potentially use these systems for all 20 districts in the region. The systems are:

  1. An database that tracks the key issues in across all the communities in the district, and across all the departments (health, water/sanitation, roads, education, agriculture)
  2. A process for using this data (making it visual, developing easy ways to see which communities are priorities for certain resources such as water) to inform the planning process.
  3. A monitoring system: a database for information relating to projects in the district, and process for interfacing with the regional level who will monitor plans and projects. There is already a database in place at the regional level, as a result of this Danish initiative.

For these systems to work, they must be developed with the district, for the district. I can’t just draw up a plan and implement it. I have to work with everyone: the planning officer, people from every decentralized department, the engineering department, data people, etc.

Right now, there are broken links in the planning process for infrastructure and services. My job is to attempt to strengthen the links.

Key challenges:

  • In Ghana, things move sssllloooowwww. People don’t appreciate directness like in Canada, but take it easy. ALL THE TIME. It gets frustrating, but it’s not something I can change. It’s cultural, and something that I have to adapt to and work with. In a way it’s nice, but the fact that I’m only here for three more months is constantly on my mind; there is SO much to do, my brain is going at light speed all the time but I’m paralyzed by the system. All the knowledge I’m accumulating from all over the place feeds into other interactions, and leads to connections with people and future possibilities; but there isn’t enough time!
  • Authority is ridiculous. No one will do anything without the director’s permission. I mean anything. Initiative is culturally not appreciated. Again, frustrating as hell. I’ve been (slowly) trying to push people to take action, and constantly communicating with the leaders myself. It’s really difficult though, and really slow.
  • The different departments (who should be working together) are up to 1 km apart in different buildings! Also, all of the workers who are supposed to work in a TEAM have separate offices with doors shut; how the hell does this make sense?!
  • People are underpaid. There is no motivation to work, to do things well or to do them right.
  • Computer skills are extremely poor. The communication barrier adds another level of craziness in trying to tutor someone.

Here is what I’m trying to do right now:

  • Pushing the creation of a Medium-Term (4 year) Development Plan for Saboba district. The district does not even have a planning officer (yeah, crazy, I know) so they are behind schedule. The good thing is that the previous volunteer at this district really worked hard to ensure issues were identified based on data. I’m working with an awesomely determined (but unfortunately by-the-book) man named Thomas to improve his computer skills through writing the plan.
  • Making connections with people in the different departments, and will hopefully work with them to identify issues for their sections in the database. I am also going to try and bring them together for anything from computer training, lunch, or a meeting in hopes of opening up communication channels.
  • Working with both Thomas and a sharp woman named Patience to develop the database. This way, they can improve their excel skills while actually applying them to something practical. The first challenge is getting Patience assigned to work with me! (she’s been assigned to another department, and management has to deal with it)
  • Working with the Engineering department to develop the monitoring system, while developing their excel skills. I haven’t given much thought to this yet, but it’s only my 4th day at the office.
  • Going to project sites (I went to 2 yesterday) to ask questions, and understand the process for project implementation and monitoring that is used at the district.

My hopes are that through a parallel efforts of creating the databases, using them while writing the plan, and connecting key people from different departments to each other, information flow will become better, and the planning process will improve.