Friday, June 23, 2006
Attempting to Answer My Existential Musings, or, More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About My Job
So I’ve devoted a decent amount of space on this blog to questioning what the hell I’m doing here in Tanzania, but I realize I haven’t really attempted to explain what the hell I’m doing here, in terms of what (barely/sort of/not entirely) pays the bills.
In a previous post, I referred to myself as an “Excel maven.” I think this description is still apt, but I have been honing my other talents, and I think at this point I am also a certifiable Word Wizard, not to mention a Power Point Pro… (OK, and clearly a big nerd.)
Before I expand upon what I do beyond demonstrate my skills with Microsoft Office applications, I should say a bit about my employer. HakiElimu is a non-governmental organization with a staff about 40 people, all of whom are Tanzanian, with the exception of myself, two other “international volunteers” (a Swiss and a Canadian) and another American who joined us on Monday as a summer intern (and who has also become my third housemate). As I may have mentioned previously, “HakiElimu” means “right to education” but our work covers a range of issues beyond those relating specifically to schools (which is fortunate, given certain current restrictions on our work that I’ll explain below.)
The broad theme directing our activities, as I understand it, is enhancing public participation in democracy in Tanzania. So, while much of our work focuses on education policy, we also look at issues relating to freedom of information, governance, and other development buzzwords.
HakiElimu is divided into four program units - Community Engagement, Information Access, Media, and Policy Analysis and Advocacy. I am not entirely clear on all of the precise distinctions between the units, but generally speaking their activities are divided as follows:
The Community Engagement unit works to strengthen a network of grassroots partners (the ‘Friends of Education’); the Information Access unit works to popularize our materials and disseminate them widely; Media does some information dissemination work as well, primarily with newspapers, and also monitors how HakiElimu issues, and the organization itself, are portrayed by the press. Finally, the Policy Analysis and Advocacy unit (PAA), where I work, conducts research and “high-level” advocacy (networking with the media, Members of Parliament, and other like-minded civil society organizations) in areas related to our core issues. For example, my PAA colleagues coordinate HakiElimu’s working paper series, contribute to a weekly newspaper column, translate key Government documents into Swahili, and participate in various coalitions, among other things.
As for the restrictions mentioned above… HakiElimu is currently subject to an interdiction on any activity that involves doing research in schools. The ban came about last year when some of our findings about Tanzania’s recently implemented education reform program (what I like to call “Tanzania’s No Child Left Behind”) were found to be unpalatable by the former Minister of Education. So we were banned for “defaming the Government” or some such. Since then, a new Minister of Education has been appointed under the recently elected new President (Kikwete). While word on the street is that the new Minister is much more receptive to our position, the politics of lifting the ban are rather sensitive, since an abrupt reversal of any of the previous government’s policies would be viewed as a slap in the face. But we hear that behind closed doors there is progress being made (in fact the other day an article ran in the newspaper proclaiming “Government Set to Unban HakiElimu”). So we’ll see. We certainly have enough to keep us busy in the meantime!
One of the less glamorous things keeping us busy is the intense amount of planning. As one of my officemates put it the other day, we do a LOT of planning, a LOT of review, and a little bit of implementation. Next Wednesday the full staff will be meeting to review our activities in the past quarter, and plan our activities for the next. Yesterday we were supposed to have a unit meeting to prepare for this (yes, a planning meeting for a planning meeting) but my manager mercifully decided that perhaps that was not necessary. I managed to get out of last quarter’s review and planning meeting since I was away at language school but could not finagle an excuse this time around.
So, the bureaucracy has made me a bit cynical, but I still think HakiElimu is a pretty cool place to work. The staff includes a number of really interesting, dynamic, and thoughtful people. A lot of former journalists, plus folks with a range of experience with other NGOs.
Also, since we are a “learning organization,” we have weekly “learning sessions” for the entire staff held each Thursday morning. These are typically involve a 20-minute presentation by a guest speaker (though they are sometimes facilitated in-house, and in fact last Thursday yours truly attempted to inform the staff about the recently enacted budget. I’m pleased to report that no one fell asleep…), and then 20 minutes of Q & A. We also have a weekly book club that meets to discuss scholarly and popular articles on a range of topics. I haven’t yet managed to attend a meeting of the book club, but today I learned that they serve ice cream, so that sort of changes everything…
In a previous post, I referred to myself as an “Excel maven.” I think this description is still apt, but I have been honing my other talents, and I think at this point I am also a certifiable Word Wizard, not to mention a Power Point Pro… (OK, and clearly a big nerd.)
Before I expand upon what I do beyond demonstrate my skills with Microsoft Office applications, I should say a bit about my employer. HakiElimu is a non-governmental organization with a staff about 40 people, all of whom are Tanzanian, with the exception of myself, two other “international volunteers” (a Swiss and a Canadian) and another American who joined us on Monday as a summer intern (and who has also become my third housemate). As I may have mentioned previously, “HakiElimu” means “right to education” but our work covers a range of issues beyond those relating specifically to schools (which is fortunate, given certain current restrictions on our work that I’ll explain below.)
The broad theme directing our activities, as I understand it, is enhancing public participation in democracy in Tanzania. So, while much of our work focuses on education policy, we also look at issues relating to freedom of information, governance, and other development buzzwords.
HakiElimu is divided into four program units - Community Engagement, Information Access, Media, and Policy Analysis and Advocacy. I am not entirely clear on all of the precise distinctions between the units, but generally speaking their activities are divided as follows:
The Community Engagement unit works to strengthen a network of grassroots partners (the ‘Friends of Education’); the Information Access unit works to popularize our materials and disseminate them widely; Media does some information dissemination work as well, primarily with newspapers, and also monitors how HakiElimu issues, and the organization itself, are portrayed by the press. Finally, the Policy Analysis and Advocacy unit (PAA), where I work, conducts research and “high-level” advocacy (networking with the media, Members of Parliament, and other like-minded civil society organizations) in areas related to our core issues. For example, my PAA colleagues coordinate HakiElimu’s working paper series, contribute to a weekly newspaper column, translate key Government documents into Swahili, and participate in various coalitions, among other things.
As for the restrictions mentioned above… HakiElimu is currently subject to an interdiction on any activity that involves doing research in schools. The ban came about last year when some of our findings about Tanzania’s recently implemented education reform program (what I like to call “Tanzania’s No Child Left Behind”) were found to be unpalatable by the former Minister of Education. So we were banned for “defaming the Government” or some such. Since then, a new Minister of Education has been appointed under the recently elected new President (Kikwete). While word on the street is that the new Minister is much more receptive to our position, the politics of lifting the ban are rather sensitive, since an abrupt reversal of any of the previous government’s policies would be viewed as a slap in the face. But we hear that behind closed doors there is progress being made (in fact the other day an article ran in the newspaper proclaiming “Government Set to Unban HakiElimu”). So we’ll see. We certainly have enough to keep us busy in the meantime!
One of the less glamorous things keeping us busy is the intense amount of planning. As one of my officemates put it the other day, we do a LOT of planning, a LOT of review, and a little bit of implementation. Next Wednesday the full staff will be meeting to review our activities in the past quarter, and plan our activities for the next. Yesterday we were supposed to have a unit meeting to prepare for this (yes, a planning meeting for a planning meeting) but my manager mercifully decided that perhaps that was not necessary. I managed to get out of last quarter’s review and planning meeting since I was away at language school but could not finagle an excuse this time around.
So, the bureaucracy has made me a bit cynical, but I still think HakiElimu is a pretty cool place to work. The staff includes a number of really interesting, dynamic, and thoughtful people. A lot of former journalists, plus folks with a range of experience with other NGOs.
Also, since we are a “learning organization,” we have weekly “learning sessions” for the entire staff held each Thursday morning. These are typically involve a 20-minute presentation by a guest speaker (though they are sometimes facilitated in-house, and in fact last Thursday yours truly attempted to inform the staff about the recently enacted budget. I’m pleased to report that no one fell asleep…), and then 20 minutes of Q & A. We also have a weekly book club that meets to discuss scholarly and popular articles on a range of topics. I haven’t yet managed to attend a meeting of the book club, but today I learned that they serve ice cream, so that sort of changes everything…
Monday, June 12, 2006
Roughing it
Since I always like to look on the bright side, I’ll put it this way: my experience just got a lot more... authentic. This past Thursday, the Tanzanian government announced that from now until December they would be rationing electricity – imposing blackouts in most areas from 6 AM until 6 PM seven days per week. For the past three years Tanzania has been afflicted by drought, which means that the water level at the main hydro-power dam is too low to sustain full energy production. In light of this, the government is planning to build two new power generators, but they won’t be completed until December. Hence the need to ration in the meantime.
Daily 12-hour rationing won’t have as devestating an impact as it might seem, since the blackout hours will likely be reversed in areas that are heavily commercial (so that power can be on during business hours) plus a lot of offices (including mine) have generators. Also, as is not entirely shocking, the schedule for the blackouts has not been adhered to all that strictly thus far.
That said, it is still rather an inconvenience, since daily power outages mean you can’t really keep anything in the fridge. And the generators are often overworked and can be unreliable. They also make an infernal racket. At work, ours is usually on from 8 AM until 1 PM, at which point it takes an hour lunch break, and is then turned back on until about 4:30 or 5:00 PM. While this is nice since it precludes working late, it can be a big pain if you’re really up against a deadline.
I was bitching about the power cuts the other day to my manager and he expressed his sympathy, saying he knows that in the States electricity “flows like milk and honey” and if there’s a blackout it’s front-page news. I was a bit chagrined, remembering the spate of articles in the New York Times after the blackout a few summers ago. (As an aside that hopefully won’t sound *too* holier-than-thou, I was somewhat struck by the level of triviality of many of the articles on the New York Times website when I went to check it recently. That said, I then proceeded to scour the Internet for the latest information on such high-minded issues as Katie Holmes’ pre-nup and Brangelina’s spawn… Shiloh?!! Why is it that celebrities insist on naming their children such awful names? You would think they could have at least given her [Thanks, Leigh Anne for cluing me in on Shiloh's gender!!] a nice “African” name after spending all that time in Namibia…)
Daily 12-hour rationing won’t have as devestating an impact as it might seem, since the blackout hours will likely be reversed in areas that are heavily commercial (so that power can be on during business hours) plus a lot of offices (including mine) have generators. Also, as is not entirely shocking, the schedule for the blackouts has not been adhered to all that strictly thus far.
That said, it is still rather an inconvenience, since daily power outages mean you can’t really keep anything in the fridge. And the generators are often overworked and can be unreliable. They also make an infernal racket. At work, ours is usually on from 8 AM until 1 PM, at which point it takes an hour lunch break, and is then turned back on until about 4:30 or 5:00 PM. While this is nice since it precludes working late, it can be a big pain if you’re really up against a deadline.
I was bitching about the power cuts the other day to my manager and he expressed his sympathy, saying he knows that in the States electricity “flows like milk and honey” and if there’s a blackout it’s front-page news. I was a bit chagrined, remembering the spate of articles in the New York Times after the blackout a few summers ago. (As an aside that hopefully won’t sound *too* holier-than-thou, I was somewhat struck by the level of triviality of many of the articles on the New York Times website when I went to check it recently. That said, I then proceeded to scour the Internet for the latest information on such high-minded issues as Katie Holmes’ pre-nup and Brangelina’s spawn… Shiloh?!! Why is it that celebrities insist on naming their children such awful names? You would think they could have at least given her [Thanks, Leigh Anne for cluing me in on Shiloh's gender!!] a nice “African” name after spending all that time in Namibia…)
