My Job in Ghana

Although I’ve tried to fill you in on my living situation and my office atmosphere, I haven’t actually articulated what I’m doing at work.

I think I’ve already mentioned that I feel very lucky to have the job I do here; I’m involved in all sorts of conversations about all the development issues that the Bole District faces, and I get to meet all sorts of amazing people. I really feel like I’m getting an experiential degree in Development Studies and a very large portion of my day every day is spent thinking about how the local District Government can better deliver services to citizens of the District; and how I can help to facilitate that in my short time here.

Engineers working in governance?

I am part of EWB’s Governance & Rural Infrastructure team. Here’s a blurb from our team strategy document:

“Our team is making the district planning systems work. Specifically:
1. District plans utilize accurate data for evidence-based decision-making.
2. District leaders are proactive in assigning roles, motivating staff, and taking responsibility for creating evidence-based plans.
3. District communication systems are transparent and allow communities to hold the district accountable.”

Let me be the first to say that these are big goals. But they’re also really exciting because they address some of the key issues to proper functionality in the local governance structures, and ultimately in service delivery to the citizens of the district – particularly the rural poor.

Fortunately for me, I find big challenges like these to be motivating rather than paralyzing – especially when working with the awesome people that make up our little G&RI team. We’re all working towards the team’s goals with strategically selected projects, but there’s also room for some innovation and testing things out within each of our districts so we can learn and share best practices.

Planning for Service Delivery

At the Bole District, my primary focus is working with the District Planning Officer to facilitate the creation of the District Medium Term Development Plan (MTDP) for the term 2010 – 2013. This document is supposed to be the framework that each district uses to plan out their focus and specific development projects over the four year period. Each year, the MTDP is used to guide the creation of an Annual Action Plan which is a more detailed and specific plan for the upcoming year.

The theory of the process is great, but in reality many of the districts fell short on execution. This is likely due to a great number of factors, but some main hypotheses are:
- the document was not easily read or understood and so was not consulted when carrying out specific actions or projects
- there was little stakeholder involvement in the creation of the plan, meaning that departments didn’t have buy in (or even know that it existed for use)
- the plan wasn’t actually finished until over half way through the planning period
- the plan didn’t reflect actual priorities of communities and departments

Project Specifics

I’m trying to facilitate a MTDP creation process that addresses these challenges and hopefully creates a plan which reflects the development priorities of the district, is accessible and user friendly, and engages stakeholders so they can use it to hold their governments and politicians accountable for service delivery. It’s a long process which involves data collection, consulting all stakeholders in the District, prioritizing issues and projects, and setting goals and targets. The process won’t be complete when I leave in December, but I’m working hard to coach the planning officer through initial stages of the process so he can continue down that path when I leave.

Some other things I’m doing at work:
- exploring the role of the public sector in private sector development and trying to determine some best practices that the public sector can follow to create an enabling environment for economic growth
- some computer training to staff at the District Assembly in basic computer use, MS Office programs, electronic data analysis and management, and virus management
- trying to facilitate development of a District capacity building plan based on a government led and donor supported assessment called the Functional Organizational Assessment Tool (FOAT). Basically FOAT is a way of annually assessing the performance of a District and awarding funds based on good performance. If District capacity is built, there will be potential for higher fund disbursement to Bole in the following years
- working to change small behaviors such as time management, communications, and organization

Not a short list. And also not comprehensive. I don’t expect to achieve a state of satisfaction of each area, but organizational change is difficult and if I can make some small sustainable changes to the way the District operates to better deliver services to its people, I will be happy.

The EWB vacuum

When the EWB long term volunteers leave Canada for their 12 month placement, many of them seem to be drawn in and extend their placements for two and even three years. When I first arrived in Ghana, I was a little overwhelmed with things and although I knew I would be fine for four months, I wondered how so many volunteers would want to stay longer than a year.
I’m now beginning to understand how easy it is to be completely caught up in your work – the challenges are so numerous but the potential for rewards are so great. You’re learning so much every day about your surroundings, systems that work and don’t work, and your own ability to face challenges and seek for solutions. I’ve never had a job that is constantly pushing my thinking and is filled with so many opportunities for contribution. I know that at the end of my placement I will be going home, but I also can now see how easy and tempting it would be to stay.