Gap Filling

GAP FILLING

The section of my work is really intended to do two things. Accelerate the workings of the District Assembly to make time for the more important things, such as getting out into the field and providing for the rural poor. The second objective is to try and build credibility and trust with my partner organization (the District Assembly) and to share knowledge and skills along the way. I have a lot to learn about this organization if I am going to contribute to its improvement, and an outside perspective is extremely useful in improving processes here at the District Assembly. This partnership is truly an exchange of skills.

The previous post, The Task Ahead, provides a good overview of how things are working, however here is a short re-cap to help you understand the following post. The District Assembly (Assembly for short) carries out its own projects that have been highlighted in the medium term development plan (Mentioned in the “My assigned tasks” post). The Assembly doesn’t have enough resources, human or financial, to get the work done however so non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and Donor Projects come in to fill in the gaps.

NGOs are the small organizations that get contracted out to do work. Donor Projects are the big international government backed projects that are really driving the activities on the ground. District Wide Assistance Program funded by our very own government of Canada (CIDA) is an example of a Donor Project. This project is very simple in that money is available to the District Assemblies to apply for, and upon being granted funds they are to undertake the projects of their choice with the money.

Other Donor Projects are rigid guidelines and are more specific in their intended use. Currently in the district there are at least 8 of these Donor Projects. Now I will go into the side projects I have found myself working on.

In Detail

The first is a Northern Region Poverty Reduction Program (NORPREP) evaluation. NORPREP is a big Donor Project that is working in the district. They have asked the Assembly to do an evaluation of the work that a smaller NGO did for them. I have been working on this project in order to pilot new ways of doing evaluations, as well as to improve the quality of reports that we write in efforts of making the knowledge we gain from the field more useful to other people.

The second is working with the Natural Disaster Management Organization. This is a branch of the government that is responsible for managing and distributing relief items to people affected by natural disasters (such as the floods last year). My role with them will be to do the allocation of the rest of the relief items and to make sure that accurate reporting is done to aid in transparency.

Last, I have just started working on a new Community Based Rural Development Project that is providing the district with a large sum of money to do road rehabilitation after the floods last year. My role in that project is to ensure a transparent and evidence based decision making process for deciding which roads get rehabilitated.

For now those are the only side projects I have on the go, in addition to my three other large work streams. It makes for a long 10 hour day, but keeps me busy which is why I came here.