In dusty Garissa for a week. The Nomad Hotel, admittedly, is nothing like Garissa. Fancy you have to go all the way to “Forgotten Kenya” to find a nice place to sleep with regular Internet (albeit slow), good prices and a lot of quiet, quiet space these days.
I’m here for a workshop on Monitoring & Evaluation, Communications, Reporting and Documentation. Basically, two days of information on all that paperwork that people find awfully boring and typical of development. Surprisingly enough though, I am not falling asleep but finding the information quite interesting. I suppose that’s my analytical “now where is development really going wrong?” side.
Apparently, unbeknown to me, results-based monitoring & evaluation is a new concept. Godfrey, the facilitator, said it was introduced by USAID (go figure). Here’s an example of a results-based monitoring & evaluation process:
Input: Girls’ Forum (staff, funding, trainers, kit with tampons and khangas etc.)
Activities: Train teachers in Girls’ Forum model, train student forum leaders
Outputs: Improved attendance among girls
Outcomes: Increased performance and retention
Goal: Increased access to education by marginalized
The traditional monitoring and evaluation system would have stopped at outputs. Donors would only have wanted to know that the kits were delivered and that a certain number of teachers were trained. That’s it.
Above, we look at the bigger picture. While the bigger picture is definitely not deeply changed within five years, perhaps this type of reporting system means we’re on track to analyzing data behind change instead of making decisions based on politics or anecdotal data.
If you’re asking yourself what on earth monitoring & evaluation is, it’s basically a process that allows you to see how an organization affects its environment. You choose “key performance indicators,” such as # of girls who finish primary school, and find a baseline number. As you implement something like the Girls’ Forum in that school, you see if those numbers change. You also use a control school (so one where there is no Girls’ Forum) and compare variances. Of course, there’s nothing foolproof. You compliment this with in-depth focus group discussions and surveys to see if – perhaps – positive variances can be attributed to a certain activity.
Well, at least this is my very basic understanding.
I’ll be teaching the reporting, communication & documentation section tomorrow. I’m much more comfortable in this field, though I may want to realize that the Somali mzee has never heard the word “social media documentation.” Debating whether to drop this from the presentation.
TMS Ruge shot a video during our latest visit to the quarry. Check it out here. What a difference selling jewelry makes to these women’s lives! NOTE: Sorry for the confusion in the video (language differences make these kind of things hard), Grace has confirmed that it took 3 days to make Ush 40,000 through jewelry sales and 3 weeks to make Ush 40,000 pounding rocks.
As you may have noticed, I have added a third tab to the site titled “Women of Kireka.” A temporary solution, we’re building a proxy site to provide donors with information on the women’s work. I’m finding the internship opportunities link the most exciting – please visit!
I will be doing a bit of editorial advising over the coming months with The First Drop. However, in order for any advising to be done, we’re looking for a set of founding contributors!
We want to provoke passionate, informed and accountable discussion among Canada’s next generation of leadership. We plan to do this by supporting a slate of contributors with widely varying views, and pushing them to generate the most enlightening discussion possible. We are now accepting applications for the first round of contributors.
Contributors! We Want You!
We’re looking for about 20 people who will become the core of the community at The First Drop: our founding contributors, ready to roll as we launch in the next month or so.
Contributors will write 1-3 short articles a month on a topic that matters for Canada’s future. That’s the subject: Canada’s future. In any way you choose. Politics, business, civil society, it’s all good. From what perspective? Legal, artistic, entrepreneurial, military, academic or the snowboard shop. East, West or North (we don’t really have a South, do we?), you’re all welcome. Conservative, Liberal, NDP, Bloc, Green. C’mon in. We don’t care, so long as you can write a good, reasoned, reality-based piece and trigger a great conversation.
Actually, that’s what we really care about – the conversations that emerge from your writing. Have a voice, but no way to get it out there? TFD can be that way. Have a blog or book already? TFD can help you reach a bigger audience and draw in new perspectives. Just want to help us create a community of future Canadian leaders? Great.
Interested? Have a look at our Guidelines to get an idea of what we’re looking for, fire Brendan an email with any thoughts or questions, or just apply and let us know you’re interested.
I hope to see some familiar faces applying – this is an incredible opportunity:
We are pleased to announce that the call for applications for the third round of the UNAIDS Special Youth Programme (SYP) is now open on the UNAIDS on-line website. The programme consists of a 5 month fellowship at UNAIDS Geneva Headquarters followed by a 4 month fellowship at the UNAIDS country office in the fellows’ country of origin. The objective of the Programme is to help engage youth from developing countries (especially young people living with HIV) in policy development and programming as well as strengthening their leadership skills in order to contribute to the AIDS response.
This year, 3 fellows for the SYP will be selected to join the programme. Please bear in mind that the application deadline is 12 February. As in the past two years, relevant UCOs and HQ teams interested in mentoring a fellow will be involved in the selection process.
Finally, UNAIDS will soon be offering several 6 month remunerated internships at their UCOs. If your country office is interested and has the capacity to mentor an intern from your country, please let them know as soon as possible.
For more information, please contact Ms. Andrea Miller (millera@unaids.org)
It’s been almost two years since I returned to the rock quarry where Project Diaspora and myself are helping the Women of Kireka. I must admit, I often shrugged off the project as PD took over and I lacked of time and resources. That, and I generally do not have much faith in these “entrepreneurship” organizations. The local market is saturated, the difference made so slight. The hopes brought up and then let down far too costly.
However, being back at the quarry reminded me of why I was interested in the first place. Santa and Grace are fantastic. Enthusiastic, boisterous, grumpy and bickering, it’s great to work with real people instead of Skype and Email. There’s a reality behind the situation at the rock quarry that can only be breathed in after a boda-boda ride through hectic traffic, a hot setting sun, the train chugging out of Kampala in the distance, and the increasing depth of the rock quarry. Soon enough, these women are going to have to look for new work elsewhere (or at a neighboring quarry) at the speed the area is being dug out. Hopefully, their business will be up and running by then.
So, to share some of my enthusiasm, I’ll post a few pictures. I went up last week to survey the situation and see what kind of materials were being produced. The women have really introduced some newly inspired artistic intuition and their materials are looking better and better. It also doesn’t hurt that we have a on-site manager, Teddy’s wonderful sister who works for us pro-bono while juggling her studies at Makerere, to guide the women and Teddy going in and out teaching them what international quality looks like. We’ve also hooked up with Ida Horner of Ethnic Supplies, a dealer in the UK, who certainly injects even more flavor into the project.
And, just yesterday, I returned in the evening with three friends working in town. There is nothing like bringing customers.
You can find more pictures of the jewelry on Project Diaspora. If you are interested in purchasing beads or having a sampling shipped over, please let us know.
Once again, Uganda has presented its many assets and flaws over the past few days.
- Delicious rolex (chapati with eggs and tomatoes inside) and nyama choma in the night market after a night at Bubble’s;
- At least a dozen harrowing boda-boda rides (I find myself increasingly concerned with my safety as my stay lengthens);
- The beautiful countryside in Masindi on our way to T.’s family’s place;
- The hated bus-ride (I feel older and older as I increasingly hate taking them);
- Evening chai and curling up with the children under the stars and the huge moon looking at pictures on our cameras;
- Adopting a Bunyoro pet name, Adiari;
- Matoke, ground nut sauce, sweet potatoes and chicken eaten under the light of a paraffin lit lantern;
- Stumbling to the outside bathroom at midnight under a moon so bright no lamp was needed;
- Two coatings of red dust washed off in a cold bucket shower and later at Backpacker’s after two 13 mile boda-boda rides;
- A car crash between a massive lorry carrying bricks and cement and a small white jeep on the Masindi-Kampala road. Roads blocked;
- Careening onto a dirt village path behind the LINK bus, watching it narrowly tip over;
- The ridiculously low cost of a 5-hour taxi ride ($90);
- Pharmacies selling $3 treatment of industry-strength antibiotics (you will lose your appetite);
-Bath-tubs.
1. Inhale Lake Victoria and say to myself “now this is the reaaaal Africa.”
2. Immigration officer tells me I’m cute and offers to kiss me.
3. Taxi driver attempts to fleece me for 10,000 Ush. Dissapointed when I say I arrived on the Air Uganda flight and not the KLM mothership.
4. Take in surroundings that consist of the “reaaaal Africa:” shanty-town-like stores, 10 pm bars with christmas lights and bass to knock your socks off, a boat load of banana trees.
5. Get dropped off at Backpackers. Sips of whiskey, a musician and a lot of red velvet chairs and sofas.
6. Morning run through smog, hilly streets, man-holes, banana trees and a road lined with universities and pre-schools.
Ah, now I am back “home.” Take that Nairobi.
Today’s funnies (this is what my mother thinks they might be):
1. Java House in the Nairobi Airport is spiking my drinks. This earns the waiter another 100KSH.
2. Being Attention Deficit Disordered, I often forget the marvels of Kenya. On the highway today, we drove past a Maasai herding cattle. Wind blowing his purple shuka (tune in romantic African safari song), sunset, and a fabulous dozen head of cows. A backdrop of metal factories and new housing developments.
3. Project Diaspora has shaken my debate cells. I really do not agree with this post on aid organizations and LGBT, but, after further consideration, I will write about the “Globalization of Values” for the World Bank’s You Think on Friday.
4. Sometimes planes start boarding two hours before boarding time. Sometimes one hour. Sometimes five minutes. Here’s to hoping Java House won’t wreck my judgment.
5. I keep thinking the guy next to me on a very fancy Apple (nicer than mine by far) is wearing purple jeans. But, no, it’s just the lights under the counter. Though, he is drinking hot chocolate with his friend. You rarely see Kenyans imbibing anything other than Tuskers in bars (hooray! – I agree). Oh and he speaks French. Swoon.
6. Driving through the police block today, the taxi driver clearly paid off the policeman. But I asked him whether or not he had and he said “Noooo….” What’s the point of hiding this from Westerners? Ah, reputation. My former taxi driver would explain that the poor police lady had spent the night on patrol and needed a few extra bob for chai. I liked this explanation much more (and agreed with it) than the blatant, “Whaaat?”
