Ripples in Turbulent Water

Meeting the community of N-Nalog, with the chief (far left) and the assemblyman (far right)

“How many boreholes do you have?” Sitting on a wooden bench surrounded by a large group of men and children, we pitched this question to the community of N-Nalog. It was around 5 pm, and the sun could be seen to be losing power as it made it’s way behind the vast fields we were sitting at the edge of. I had spent the day with George, the district director of community development, visiting communities all over the district. N-Nalog was our last stop on the way back, about 10-15 km outside of Saboba town. We had also luckily ran into the assembly man (elected representative) of the area, who joined us for the meeting.

“No borehole.” Sitting on a low chair, the elderly man who is the chief of the village replied to us in Linkpapa. He told us how once a borehole had been dug, but many people got sick and poisoned from it because it was on a fluoride deposit. As a result, that one borehole had been capped shut.

The banks of River Oti.

“Ah! Where do you get water from, then?”

“We get it from the river. But it’s far!” River Oti is at least 5 km from this place, probably more. The women would be carrying upwards of 25 L a day per person in the family.

“And what do you use it for? The water.”

“Bathing, food, drinking…”

“And before drinking do you do anything to it?”

The man from the community who spoke some English laughed. “No, we’re not doing anything. We just take it.” After further questioning, the man told us that the kids are often sick, usually with vomiting and diarrhea. I also asked the assembly man why the water was not boiled or treated before drinking. He replied that there is no time for the women to do it as they are fetching water often, and that they have to be doing other things around the house.

Water is a huge issue in Saboba. As of last year, the water coverage in the district was 38% (so out of the 62,000 people in the district, less than 24,000 have adequate access to potable water). As a result, water-borne diseases and parasites are common; and some of them can be extremely debilitating. Guinea worm is one of most concern, and only recently through an intense ongoing eradication campaign has the occurrence in Ghana decreased.

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“They wanted to drill 30 boreholes. That ahh, World Vision.” I was walking outside in the scorching heat with Douglas, one of the most dedicated district officers. We were making our way to his office, in the Works (engineering) department. Douglas was telling me about how at the end of last year, World Vision approached the district assembly with their 2010 budget that allocated the drilling of 30 boreholes in the district.

Saboba has had two EWB volunteers in the past who have spent one year each with the district assembly. Both had worked with Douglas’s office. Two years ago, Nick Heminez (click for his blog) had developed a water-prioritization tool with Douglas. Using a series of different factors for a community (water sources, coverage, distance to source, guinea worm, diarrhea, money, etc) the excel database assigns each community a score. This score can then be compared across communities to see which is in most need of a borehole, based on all these important factors. Douglas and I were discussing this tool.

“So how did you tell them which communities?” I asked about World Vision’s request.

Douglas replied they had used the water tool, combined with data that had been collected in February 2009. “I sorted it from largest to smallest,” Douglas said.

My heart jumped, I wanted to scream with joy. 30 communities got water access, and those who needed it the most. I know Nick’s placement at the time had been extremely frustrating, but here over one year after he left, boreholes are being drilled in critical areas.

There is no way of knowing that if the tool wasn’t there, the priority communities would have received boreholes anyway. It is very possible, since Douglas has a really good memory of communities’ individual situations. So did we (EWB) result in this happening? Maybe. I think we played a part, but the human factors stop us from knowing for certain. But the bottom line is that Douglas selected the communities, not EWB. World Vision is drilling boreholes, not EWB. This is the sustainability we’re talking about.

Oh, as a side note: World Vision, despite their short-comings, are doing good work here in Saboba. There is a problem, though: they are using an inefficient, imported, expensive hand-pump model called India Mach II. As a result, due to lack of capacity and unavailable parts the district cannot repair the boreholes World Vision drills. This is a huge problem, that Douglas often complains about. The district assembly uses the cheaper (and frankly, better) Afridev pump using local parts. Whoever calls/contacts World Vision to find out why they use these imported pumps – and comments on this post – will get an authentic Ghanaian souvenir from me! Click here to email them.

“So why isn’t the data updated?” I asked Douglas.

Douglas said there was too much to update. Working with Douglas, I have removed some of the less important indicators from the water tool and integrated it into the broader database we’re working with now. I’ve also added a function that assigns scores for communities that need borehole repairs, as well as those that need sensitization on water issues. We’ve talked about different channels of information from communities, such as assembly men/women. What happens next?

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The trends in education. The purple line are standardized test scores, and the other three are enrollment numbers at different levels of school.

June 30th. Saboba.

I spent about 2 hours with the Director of Education, Phillip, in the morning. We have been interacting a lot, while I develop the Education section of the database with his department. I was showing him the work that has been done thus far, and we went through some scenarios of where certain resources could be allocated (ie. where to post the next qualified teacher) based on the graphs generated by the database. One thing that really stuck him was a graph that showed rising enrollment over the last 3 years contrasted with the falling test scores.

Later in the afternoon, Phillip was giving a closing address to a Junior-High-School quiz competition, with a number of Ghana Education Staff present. I was sitting in my office, but his voice carried from the assembly hall and I heard him say: “If you look at the enrollment for 2007, 2008, 2009, it’s going up. But your performance is going down. Why?! What can we do, because this is a big problem!”

A chill shot up my spine and I had goosebumps from excitement. It’s not huge, but it’s a step. This is behavior change at it’s core: messy, slow, erratic, but in the end, powerful.

Where would you assign teachers, if resources were limited?

July 2nd. Saboba.

I arranged a meeting between the District Coordinating Director (one of the head honchos) and Phillip, along with officers from Education, Thomas and Patience from the district assembly, and Dan Olsen (EWB team lead visiting from Tamale) where we started a dialogue between the two directors with regards to the database.

“With this information on my computer, when I talk to regional about Saboba I can show them I know what I’m talking about.” Phillip continued: “If we had to build a school, and the politicians say they want it one place, with this we can say ‘there is no argument.’”

“Ah, no, the politicians can still have their way,” the Coordinating Director said half-jokingly. He was right, there are too many ways to circumvent the system. But that’s true to a degree all around the world, and it will take time for the system to gain more power over individuals. And it’ll take strong individuals willing to invest in the system – like Phillip, like Douglas – to make that happen.

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When I’m demotivated, frustrated, angry, or feeling a host of other emotions characteristic to working here, I turn to these small successes to keep me going. They aren’t sexy successes we can put up on donation cards like many NGOs do, they aren’t easy-to-understand successes that appeal to our desire for common good.

In my opinion, however, they are symptoms of progress towards critical change at the lynch-pins of a massive system. We are trying to change something so massively huge with a history, culture, and people so intricately complex that there are no easy answers; to anything. But this is true “development.”

Imagine… because of one small change and one sharp officer (Douglas), 30 communities got boreholes allocated. That’s water enough for 9000 people. 0 Guinea worm cases – directly correlated to water source – have been reported in the district of Saboba this year. We cannot cannot attribute these things to any one factor. We can try and have an idea, but ultimately the fact that they are happening is good enough.

The change we are trying to catalyze, in people, in the system, in the processes… when successful its effects reverberate across the board and the benefits are huge. But there is no one person, organization, or initiative that can be responsible. But why is that important?

Closing the Loop

This has been probably the most difficult post for me to write so far. I’ve thought about it everyday for the past week, but just haven’t been able to write. I debated whether or not to even bother; it would be so easy to go on and write about some of the cool experiences and stories I have in mind. But I put my foot down on myself, and said “no, this is important.”

In Canada, many of you know I’ve been involved with EWB’s developing advocacy campaign over the past year (now called the ACT campaign). The premise of this political advocacy has been to push the Canadian government to deliver better foreign aid. Not only more, but better. This means foreign aid that serves poverty reduction, not foreign policy interests. It means foreign aid that is accountable to the poor as well as to the Canadian people, and open to trying new things to see what works. It means foreign aid implementing agencies (ie. CIDA) that reflect and understand the realities on the ground, don’t shy away from complexity, and don’t constantly change their focus.

Well, since I advocate for all these things and more importantly, I value them, it would only be right for me to adhere to them myself. I consider all of you my “donors.” You have supported me or EWB financially, or you’ve invested your time in me, or even just engaged with my blog. You are chapter members who’ve raised funds, friends who’ve helped me work through my thoughts, family who’ve kept me grounded. I need to be accountable to you, and I need you to hold me accountable to the people here in Ghana. So I want to give you an honest, REAL idea of what I’m doing here in Saboba. If it’s right or wrong, good or bad, that all depends on your personal opinion.

When I start thinking about all the stakeholders, the nuances, the detail of the complexity around me, things get really murky; the situation on the ground is a mess, and it makes my head hurt to even think about the interconnectedness of everything I’ve learned. So I stonewall when I try and put it into words. But here is my best go at it.

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Check out my original post outlining my placement: Nuts and Bolts

The Premise:

The six short-term volunteers, including me, are embedded in six districts in the Northern region of Ghana. EWB is partnered with a big Danish development initiative called the Local Service Delivery and Governance Program (LSDGP) that aims to put development in the hands of the district-level of government, rather than the NGOs. They’ve been active for quite a few years now. The core of LSDGP’s strategy is two-pronged: a) to strengthen districts’ leadership, accountability, and ability to provide services (ie. capacity building) and b) to consolidate donor money into a district discretionary fund (DDF), where money (a total of ~60 million USD and rising) is distributed to districts based on their performance (which is evaluated every two years). The criteria used to evaluate districts’ performance right now centers on processes: financial auditing, planning and execution, monitoring and evaluation, leadership and organization. This will slowly evolve, once the districts improve, to measure actual development indicators: medical and water coverage, income levels, etc.

This way, the districts can decide what is best for them, and the key developmental issues can be addressed by the Ghanaian government themselves rather than the hundreds of NGOs operating independently who don’t necessarily understand the problems.

If anything is unclear, feel free to ask me many many questions by commenting. I’ll use my next post to answer them all.

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The Premise II

EWB has been working in governance in Ghana for over 5 years. Our strategy developed from supporting water and sanitation teams, to supporting planning processes at district level governments.

Why? People in rural communities, especially the ones further from the cities, are extremely vulnerable. Low sanitation & little access to clean water –> causes disease –> incomes and livelihoods suffer. Low or inadequate access to education –> less opportunities for work –> livelihoods suffer. There are many such issues, you get the idea.

Our working theory has been that if districts’ government can use evidence and see the importance of tracking information about what’s happening in their communities, they can a) plan projects and activities that tackle the key issues and b) can provide NGOs with information on which communities need what, and direct their services to where they’re most needed.

Even I find it difficult to see the connection sometimes. It’s so difficult to work when you know you will never see how and whose lives you’ve impacted, if at all.

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Let me just lay out some of the challenges

I’m supposed to be working with the District Planning Officer. Saboba doesn’t have one, and hasn’t since the end of last year. The budget officer, also involved with planning, does not exist here in Saboba. Half the office is empty on Fridays and Mondays, as people travel to Tamale to visit their families. In addition, the government & NGOs call officers over to Tamale for workshops and trainings all the time, so you’ll almost always spend 3-4 days trying to get a hold of any one person. People make a lot of commitments: “let’s go to the area council offices tomorrow” “yes lets meet at 3″ “I’ll call you when we’re ready to go.” But people either forget, plans change, or they get called away to Tamale. I plan my time based on people, but get shot down 80% of the time. The frustration is fiery, but now I’m just used to it; doesn’t mean I’ll stop trying.

There are some pretty big ones I’m not listing, because it’s just better if I describe some of the pretty ridiculous situations I’ve been in. Watch out for that in upcoming posts.

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The different government departments (Health, Education, Agriculture) are located in separate buildings up to 1.5 km from the main district office I’m in. Because really no one was engaging with me at the district assembly, I started spending a lot of time with the decentralized departments. Let me tell you, this is where things are HAPPENING. The staff at the departments are working hard, even on Saturdays, to deliver services to the communities. They are under-resourced and stretched thin, but man they care about their job. I’ve been spending time going to different communities with them, to really understand how they work and what the problems are at the grassroots.

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What I’m doing:

• Building a Centralized Databank: This is my big deliverable for LSDGP and EWB. How can we have a effective planning system when information is… everywhere? There is no place (and no one) who has information on the district! Using my relationships with the departments, I’m gaining an understanding of the key issues faced by the district. I’m building the databank with participation of people in the separate departments as well as the other volunteers over email. I am adopting each section to the data the departments already have and collect. That way, it’ll be easier to use it. The volunteers in the other districts  give feedback as well, and are adopting the databank to their districts.
• Engaging the district leadership: This is critical to the success of anything. The top-down nature of government in Ghana means that if the District Chief and District Director see the importance and value of the work, the chances of success go up. I’m trying my best to build a relationship with them, and give them weekly updates on my work. Also, I really want someone at the assembly whose sole responsibility is data, and who will come with me to all the departments (and continue after I leave) to keep the databank updated. Patience, the person I’m hoping for, is already working with me sporadically but this is not her job. She wants it to be, and the leadership wants her to be working in the planning office; getting it done is another story.

Some of the other volunteers have developed a project monitoring database, that I’ll be implementing with the engineering department in Saboba.

All the trainings, the databases, the work that the six of us are doing, LSDGP will (hopefully) eventually roll out to all 20 Northern Region districts. In time.

What’s next?:

• I want to organize two workshops, co-run by Patience and I, in July and August once the databank is complete. I want to use my relationships with the departments to get officers (and hopefully directors) of each department to attend, and learn how to use the database. To learn how to find the information they need. And MOST IMPORTANTLY, to learn how to make the data visual and easy to understand. How to use data.
• I want to spend July and August visiting the departments constantly, helping them use the database, refining it to their needs, and building up their computer skills.

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Now you see, even if I’m completely successful, all I’ll have done is put another piece in place needed to strengthen district processes. Will it be used? Will it serve the people in the communities? I came here to work against “poverty,” didn’t I? Who am I helping? I don’t know.

This is the nature of the beast. I go home to the village I’m living in, and I continue to see their challenges. I certainly won’t see anyone’s livelihood improve before I leave, and I probably won’t see it at all. It’s not an easy thought. It’s sad, it’s demotivating, and it’s real. I knew that is what I was getting into, but it doesn’t stop me from shedding a tear before bed once in a while. But I’m a small small small part of a process. 20 years from now, I believe that people in Saboba will have better health care and education. 20 years from now, I believe that the district government will function better and the people will be less vulnerable. Will that be attributed to me? HELL NO. Will it be attributed to EWB? Maybe a little bit. But ultimately, it’ll come from within. Change, will come from within Ghana.

But do I still believe in what we’re doing. Yes. Saboba is not an ideal placement, the other volunteers are having more success engaging district officers, but ultimately we’re all just putting those small pieces into place. What’s next?

EWB’s strategy, our next step for Governance in Ghana, it hasn’t been developed yet. The other volunteers and myself will be part of developing that. When things are not going well, I spend a lot of time with different people in Saboba. The more I can really understand the issues, the more I can flesh out the system, the better equipped I’ll be to contribute to the larger strategy. We have many problems, even in our approach; but we have been and are moving in the right direction.

So this placement. This web of craziness. It’s not the end for me. I’m beginning to see more and more, as hard as it is to justify and accept, that this placement is an investment in me. It’s an investment in my future impact. It’s an opportunity for me to sink deep and understand the entire massively fucked up system of NGOs, committed workers, corruption, money, cultural limitations, and the impoverished people who’re left without support. I can already see that my career in development is just beginning. Yes, career. Whether it is in Canada or overseas, I don’t see me turning away from this. Not anymore.

But I think this is enough writing for now.

ASK ME QUESTIONS. BE CRITICAL. DON’T HOLD BACK.

Echoes and Dust

Silence. Inactivity surrounds me, as I sit in the office today. I am the (almost) lone person here. Occasionally, someone will rustle in an out of the complex. A child’s squeaking-toy faintly echoes in the distance. It’s a civic holiday in Ghana, and everyone is off work.

Why am I sitting here, then, in the planning office of the Saboba district assembly? Well, the truth is, a throbbing guilt has been taunting me over the past few days. Guilt. I’m here in Ghana, after pouring everything I had into preparing for this placement for the past 7 months. I knew this was what I was meant to do. I felt it. I believed I could create change. I was ready for the challenges. Well, here they are.

Now, suddenly, everything has become hazy, unclear. I’m working at a snails pace. No one in this office seems to have the drive, the motivation, the leadership initiative to push this project to the forefront. Don’t get me wrong, they’re really supportive and want this to happen, but they’re submissive to everything and happy with the way things are. They don’t feel the need and urgency for this to happen. But the people in the communities, the ones that are in villages up to 50 km away, they feel the need. They feel the urgency. And that is why I feel it too.

I feel like I’m doing a terrible job right now. I feel guilty that I’m slow. I feel guilty for the fact that I’m a burden on the farming family I’m living with. I feel guilty that I miss home sometimes. I’m searching in myself, pushing to rekindle the fire that has accelerated me from Toronto to Ghana. But the firewood in Ghana is wet, and lighting it takes a lot more energy. The demotivated nature of the office is infectious, and that fire is a much-needed vaccine.

Sometimes I think about the task ahead of me and it seems easy. But when I get to work, roadblocks galore slam into my legs when I try moving forward. I don’t want to fall into the trap of creating a development plan with the district that will be just another document on the shelf. This is what normally happens. Not this time. This time, even if it’s incremental change, I want it to be different. I swear that I will keep in touch and follow through with this district even after I’m back in Canada, if that’s what it’ll take for them to improve.

There is potential here… there is amazing potential for four years of a district’s development. There is potential for water coverage in Saboba to improve. There is potential for health services to be delivered to critical areas. There is potential for gender disparity in education to decrease. There is potential for a brighter future in Saboba.

But I feel empty. I’m powering my internal spark-plug but the fuel just won’t ignite. I want to punch the wall right now. Dammit, on paper this change seems so easy… So obvious… So doable! But down here, it seems insurmountable. But that is why I’m here. And I’d better get my shit together and figure this out, because there is no way I’m backing down. Not now. Not after all this. I’m feeling the pressure, I’m feeling the weight. So much has been invested in me: financially, socially, personally… and I feel that I’m the only one that has benefited. I feel guilty for that too. I’m not in this for me, or at least not primarily for me. I’m in this for the people living in poverty. Right now, though, it doesn’t feel that way. And it bothers me.

Sorry for the rambling, sorry for the negativity. I know things will change, that I won’t be like this (feeling down) for long. But I promised you all that I’d be honest through this blog, and I meant it. Watch out for a post soon on rural life in Saboba.

Nuts and Bolts: Governance in Ghana

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.