A rainstorm just began in Kampala. Washing away ash, grit and smog. The orange glare of the wall out of the office window damp. The sound of the rain hitting the cement outside; thick red dust now a paste over the sidewalk.  Went to S.’s work at the Refugee Law Project a few hours ago. There was a beautiful Somalian woman in the doorway, bony face and a purple shawl tightly wrapped behind her ears and over her hair. She stood besides a Congolese man. I briefly spoke in French with him: it’s nice to have proper conversations in a language you feel is shared.

I visited AMREF’s offices yesterday. I’ve been curious to learn more about the Katine project since it was first launched. After all, media and development have never been so connected.

I met with Steve, the Communications Officer, who ran me through some details. I then met Joshua Kyallo, the AMREF Country Director.

We had a brief, but interesting chat. His vision for the Katine project, along with the Guardian’s, is very straightforward: community integration and empowerment in the process of development. The Katine project is also fairly unique in its approach: they are developing five aspects of the village simultaneously. Governance, water, education, livelihood, and health. I remember hearing a lecture from Jeffrey Sachs a year or two ago at the Millennium Development Goals conference. He had done a similar experiment (integrated development) in a village, however, without media coverage like Katine.

There’s a lot of criticism flying about Katine. Sustainability is questionable, though Kyallo emphasized that the village was being equipped with the governing structures necessary to take care of itself in the aftermath. I also previously said the isolation of one village for development might be questionable. However, Rick Davies was kind enough to point out that “The Katine project is focusing on one sub-country (Katine), not one village. There are, I think, about 50 villages within the sub-country. Villages are the smallest administrative unit. Katine sub-county was chosen by AMREF in consultation with local government, because of its relatively greater needs, from amongst all the sub-counties within Soroti district.”

As Kyallo says, there are thousands of ways to go about development projects. Combining the media, an international organization and a whole community is one new, innovative approach. Media has always had a role in development, but this takes it to a new level. It forces the media to put long-term attention on an area of the world the majority of people wouldn’t care about. The Katine website truly personalizes development, and offers what Kyallo calls the “human face.”