Before the Plunge

6:45 pm. May 8th.
Pearson International Airport. Toronto, ON.
** 3 hrs to take-off **

EWB’s work… development work… the fight against extreme poverty: these are issues that the world has been working on for over fifty years. $1.3 trillion have been poured into the development sector and things remain stagnant. Over 1 billion people still can’t earn a sustainable income working over 12 hrs a day; they can’t send their kids to school; can’t get health care when needed; can’t feed their families every day.

People a lot smarter and much more experienced than me have made this their life’s work. They have earned PhD’s, started businesses and NGOs, and volunteered for millions of man hours. It hasn’t worked. Why?

I don’t have the answer to that question.

People have tried taking ideas from developed countries and applying them on undeveloped ones (ie. Green Revolution, Structural Adjustment). They’ve failed. They’ve made massive, global efforts to help the poor (ie. Millennium Development Goals). They’ve failed.

I spent the last week digging deep into these issues. Me and the 23 other volunteers heading overseas today have spent every waking moment of the last week pushing ourselves until our brains have hurt, and then pushed further (and there was an abundance of waking moments, let me tell you that).

The 24 STELLAR people in the West Africa sending group

We’ve done a LOT. We spent some time on basic safety/health, our hopes, our fears, and our expectations. But then we dived right into understanding rural livelihoods, ideas of how change comes about, what poverty and development are (we still don’t know), impact models, frameworks, agriculture, cultural and gender roles in Ghana and Burkina Faso… We’ve had to develop interventions we’d make in a given (14-page) scenario, attempted to get information out of (very accurately portrayed) farmers, have had to explain our ideas and get grilled on their shortfalls. We’ve assumed personalities of people in villages, in NGOs, in markets, and play out situations through their lenses.

On top of it all, we’ve done specific work for our overseas placements and communicated with other volunteers on the ground. We’ve also had personal coaches who’ve pushed and challenged us individually on our thinking over the course of the week.

An analysis of a rural household, it's vulnerabilities, and their strengths that can be leveraged for change

All these scenarios we’ve explored have been very specific. They all have intricate power dynamics between people, cultural advantages and limitations, norms, beliefs, and history.

So how can you generalize and try to “solve” extreme poverty for thousands of different sets of cultures, beliefs, and problems at once? How can you plan programs to address these issues when you don’t understand these specific factors? That’s what many organizations have been doing (and still are) for the last five decades. That is not what EWB is trying to do. For my placement, I have a very specific problem to work with, and there are a lot of factors even there. My job is not to change the world, but to add as much value as I can to the situation I’m put in.

So after all this thought, after all this brain-hurting grilling… now what?

Well, you can’t spend all your life thinking. There is never going to be enough information, because no one’s ever gotten this right. Ultimately, nothing will change without taking action. In the end, you have to take a leap of faith. An educated guess. You have to make a gut call.

I have a belief. I believe that change happens through people. You can always sit with a piece of paper and chalk out how a system should work and build it like that. But without the right people, without the right attitude, without the push from someone championing it… the system will FAIL. I believe in peoples’ ability to create change, and I believe in investing in that. I believe in partnership. I believe connecting people to each other is the pathway to creating change. These are my beliefs that I’m walking into this placement with. They may change, they may get reinforced, and that’s okay.

For every idea I have going into this, I probably have 10 other questions without answers. I’m making assumptions that would make any scientist cringe. I have little knowledge, and no experience. I’m 20. I’ve never done this before.

I have some other things. I have drive. I have passion. I’m committed to change, but I’m not committed to being right. I don’t have donors asking me for results, but I have people relying on me to do what I think is right. I have the opportunity to experiment, to be creative, and to work directly with the people to create change.

It’s time. I’m ready to make that gut call.

I’m ready to test out my ideas.
I’m ready to learn, to act, to challenge.
I’m ready to feel overwhelmed, to be inspired, to be stuck.
I’m ready to be constantly outside my comfort zone.
I’m ready to fall sick, and work through it.
I’m ready to try.
I’m ready to fail. I’m ready to succeed.
I’m ready to change, and I’m ready to create it.
I’m ready to walk onto this plane right now.

I’m ready. For Ghana.

Destination: Saboba, Northern Region, Ghana

I’m sitting at the Engineers Without Borders volunteer training house in Toronto. Today was the second official day of my 6-day pre-departure training; this Saturday our batch of 22 volunteers including myself will fly out for Ghana and Burkina Faso respectively. The last two days have been over-13-hour days of intense seminars, workshops, case studies, and learning… and it’ll only get more challenging as the week goes on! I’ll throw up a post later this week with some highlights from training, but for now I figure it’s about time I shared with all of you what I’m going to be working on in Ghana.

—

EWB is working with the officials in district government offices in Ghana to support planning for infrastructure that is based on evidence. This way, critical public services such as clean water, education, and health services get to the communities that need it most urgently, and where they serve the most people. I can describe how I relate to this work with a short thought: while I in Canada sit comfortably on a computer typing this, I know there are people in Ghana who’ve never had the privilege of free education or services like Wikipedia. I know that if something even minor happened to me right now ambulances would be on the scene in 3 minutes and I’d be taken care of, while a pregnant woman suffering complications in Saboba (the community in Ghana I’ll be working in) must travel 50 km to the nearest health clinic. These are not unsolvable problems, and they can be solved, locally… with a little push.

—

I’m going to be working as part of EWB’s Governance and Rural Infrastructure team (GaRI) in the Northern region of Ghana. 80% of the 2 million people in this region earn less than $1.25 a day, and most are small-holder farmers that grow crops to earn a living. Electricity is sparse, communication (especially internet) is difficult to come by, and the roads are gravel and get washed away by the rains every year. And the weather: hot-and-dry for half the year, and hot-and-wet for the other half. Fully tropical.

Like I mentioned I’ll be working at the district level of government in a district called Saboba (circled). It’s right on the border with Togo, and has a population of about 100,000 people.

My official job: to work with district officers and the District Coordination and Planning Unit to encourage the use of data in infrastructure planning processes. This means decisions being made on information and data, rather than political whims and “guessing.” Another part of my job will be to explore communication between departments such as Ghana Education Services, Water/Sanitation, and Ghana Health. Lastly, I’ll be looking into systems that ensure districts follow through with their plans, and public services get to those who needed it the most.

My key thoughts right now: What are the attitudes like of the people working at the district office? I know that culturally, people in Ghana have a much stronger view of authority than we do; but how can we work with that while at the same time encouraging them to push back against bad decisions? What motivates the people – leaders and officers – in the government? Is it just getting paid, doing their job, gaining power, serving their community…?

My unofficial job: to understand, learn, and connect with the culture, language(s), and people of Ghana. To build trust, and strong connections, and provide whatever support I can to help people achieve their goals (this can be technical assistance, knowledge, motivation, and more). To explore what poverty is, what development is, and gain an idea of what rural living is like. To connect my friends, family, colleagues, and EWB members at U of T directly to my work in Ghana; to help them all gain a better understanding of why I’m doing what I am, and what the realities of poverty look like in a specific context.

—

Extra Information: (click here for more about Ghana!)

Until the late 1980′s, all of Ghana’s governance and public services were managed from its capital city, Accra. Over the last couple of decades, though, the Ghanaian government has been moving away from this “centralized” system of governance so that more decision-making power would lie closer to the people, at the districts. It makes sense; every region has different priorities and needs, and the capital of a country over 800 km across can’t possibly do an efficient job of managing services.

Ghana is divided (based on population density) into ~140 districts across 10 regions. This gives way to three levels of government: National, Regional, and District. The idea around decentralization is that district assemblies would plan and implement public services in their districts, the national government would set the direction for specific things (education, health, water & sanitation, etc) and the regional government would monitor the districts for progress.

On paper this sounds great, but in practice it’s a little more complicated. A lot of funding money in Ghanaian districts are from donors (ie. World Bank, UNICEF) whose requirements and restrictions must be met. There is political corruption, like everywhere, but no systems that limit the power of leadership. Nobody knows who is responsible for particular services, as the national government departments play power-tug-of-war with the districts. Thus due to complex political and donor relationships, real decision-making power is not always where it should be.

—

Not-Extra Information:

That’s all for now! Stay tuned for (much) more very very soon. In the meantime, read what I’ve written, pick out things that aren’t explained clearly, and comment! Ask me questions, and we’ll all learn something together.

Before I leave I’ll put up another pre-departure post about some of the things I’ve been working on in training. FIVE DAYS TILL I FLY OUT!!!

Crossroads — The First Post

April 3rd. 1:20 am. Markham, Ontario.

I edge close to the embers of the fire pit in my aunt’s backyard, shying away from the crisp cold of the spring night. I think back to October, when I was writing up an application to Engineers Without Borders’s (EWB) Junior Fellowship (JF) program. I vaguely remember describing my passion for international development, and relating it to the hot embers of a fire. It seems like eons ago when I spat out draft after draft, trying to put into words why I wanted to work for EWB in Africa this summer. What I, an average second-year engineering student, could possibly have to offer the fight against extreme poverty. A lot has happened since then…

Relaxed after an amazing family dinner and a much-needed day off, I decide to reflect on thoughts that have been simmering in my mind over the last few days. I figured, hey, why not kick-off this blog, which I’ll be using throughout this summer to chronicle my work in Ghana.

——

Three days ago I attended a year-end appreciation night held by Leaders of Tomorrow, a student organization under the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Toronto. There was a distinct buzz of excitement, passion, and energy in the room as upwards of 30 students, professors, and faculty shared the successes of the year. Social leadership, collaboration, and critical thought was in the air and my heart leaped at the amazing drive of the people around me.

One conversation stood out in particular. A student at my table spoke with strong dedication about his ideas around education and the native peoples of Canada. “[In some parts of Canada] it’s like a third-world country!” My ears piqued, and I listened in as he explained how it is rare to see First Nations people in U of T, and he wants to start up tutoring and education initiatives in his community that encourage native people to pursue university. He argued how they are stuck in the cycle of poverty, and that parents “don’t send their kids to school because they didn’t go themselves.” The woman sitting on his other side, enamored, encouraged and supported his words.

My mind exploded in a series of thoughts, starting with “I really want to ask this guy some tough questions around the root cause of the problem, and what leads him to believe this is the right approach to a solution,” “what right (or experience) do I have that enables me to ask him anything,” and ending at “leave him alone; we’re all learning, he’s showing strong leadership skills and initiative, which the world needs.”

In the end I said nothing, but it did get my mind whirring though. I can be pretty critical, but I also don’t think it was my place to discourage an absolute stranger who didn’t ask for my opinion. What was interesting was that the woman beside him was all for building schools and setting up programs; it’s easy to see the connection between education and a school building. And hey, it may very well be what’s needed… but it may not. It just concerned me that all I heard were plausible solutions to the problem, but no real analysis of the cause. I say ‘plausible’ because that is our point of view; we know very little of native culture, society, interest, beliefs, tribal governance, history… and all that plays a very real part in big issues like education.

How do you encourage good intentions when the best thing you can do to help – challenge ideas – may be seen as discouragement? What would the world look like if all the programs for the poor, were designed with an understanding of the poor? If what Canada is implementing on-the-ground in far-off countries, came about in cooperation with the local people rather than in the government offices of Ottawa?

——

So, hey, my name is Amir. I’m an engineering student at the University of Toronto. I’ll be spending about four months working in Ghana (West Africa) this summer, with the Governance and Rural Infrastructure sector of Engineers Without Borders Canada. This blog is not meant to be processed or structured. Rather, I’m going to aim to be as real and grounded as possible. I don’t know if what I write on here (or what I wrote above) will be right or appropriate; it will, however, be completely honest. And I expect no less in return; comment, discuss, and share your thoughts. If there was a defined and correct way to approach international development, poverty would have ended a long time ago.

——

So here we are.. I already feel uneasy about posting this, but I will. The last six months have been a roller-coaster ride of learning and personal development: about leadership, about change, about Africa, about poverty. Oh, and engineering, of course (how could I forget school?)

In just four weeks now, I’ll be joining the 15(?) other Ghana Junior Fellows (short-term volunteers) when they fly in to Toronto for six days of pre-departure training. Then on May 8th we’ll fly out to Ghana. I’ll post on this blog again at least once before I go, probably twice; watch out for the next post where I’ll talk about what I’ll actually be doing this summer. I really hope you all follow this blog over the summer, and join me in what’s sure to be an interesting experience to say the least.

——

The fire has died out now, it’s 2 am, and I’ve already written more than I wanted to. I think about my values, about my family (both here and back in Vancouver), about what lies ahead… after unending amounts of preparation, reflection, and thought, I feel even less sure about it than I did back in October when I wrote that application. Questions about poverty, society, politics, economics, and their interconnectedness plague my brain; so much to learn, so many questions to which answers don’t exist. In me, though, the fire is building pressure; the hot embers are about to have a new log thrown on them.

This is just the beginning. Feels like the end, and in a way it is; the truth is I’m at a crossroads. Despite all the uncertainty, I think it’s time to check out how all this plays out on the ground. It’s time to put ideas into action. A last stretch of exams and assignments lie before me, then, come April 29th, it’ll truly be the beginning of an opportunity – and an experience – of a lifetime. 5 weeks from now, I’ll be boarding a plane… to Ghana.