Through Dan’s Eyes

All eyes in Ghana have been glued to the television, watching their Black Stars take on the world. Last night Ghana lost to Germany, but managed to qualify for the second round since Australia beat Serbia 2-1. The streets of Ghana were filled with excitement. On the main street in Tamale, people were parading down the street chanting victory songs. Cars and motos were driving recklessly with passengers spilling out the windows on all sides. I’m sure the hospital received lots of visitors that night.

Over the past year, I’ve observed how divided Ghanaians can be when it comes to politics and traditional authorities. From the national level right down to the communities, opposing views hinders productivity and development. Every time the government changes power, there are so many policy changes. A government system that large cannot handle so many changes to its legal, administrative and fiscal policies. Having a long-term vision for Ghana is a far off dream.

But when it comes to football, Ghanaians are united. It’s amazing to see a whole country come together for a common goal. Ten years ago, many Ghanaians would have been left in the dark about the status of their football team. Today, almost every community has access to radio or television. Riding down the road last night, handfuls of people were crowded around small televisions, eyes glued to the screen.

I have no doubt that Ghanaians will start to channel the same unified energy towards development as they do towards football.

Ghana Watching and Celebrating

Hi friends. This is an article I just wrote for the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers. Still in draft format. Let me know what you think.

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Buipe is the capital of the Central Gonja District in the Northern Region of Ghana. It was the place I called home when I first arrived in November 2008 to work with the Engineers Without Borders Governance & Rural Infrastructure Team.

I had arrived right at the beginning of the dry season. By February, most of the boreholes had dried up and many community members had no choice but to drink water from a nearby dugout pond. Soon after, Central Gonja recorded the highest number of Guinea Worm cases – a deadly water borne parasite worm infection – in all of Ghana.

One of my friends, Salifu, ingested the parasite. Over a 3 month time period, the worm grew inside his body to a length of 1 meter, and eventually pierced the skin just below his knee. More painful than this though was the fact that Salifu was not healthy enough to farm his land – his only source of income and food.

This story reflects the reality for many people in Ghana, but for the citizens of Buipe, the situation could have been different.

A year before I arrived, a small-town water system had been constructed in Buipe through a Government of France project to bring clean water to the community. A submerged pump in a high yielding borehole 1 km outside of town pumped safe water to a 125m³ stainless steel elevated water tank which distributed piped water to outlets located throughout town. A water board was formed to manage the water system. Water board members were trained on managing bank accounts for collection of user fees and procurement of replacements parts. Other water board members were trained on the technical aspects of operating and maintaining the system.

One month after commissioning the system, the control system malfunctioned. For four months the system sat idly, serving as a reminder to the people of Buipe that the solution had failed them. To make matters worse, there were heavy rains in June 2008 that flooded the pump house, control system, and standby generator, leaving them in disrepair.

Water System

It is now May 2010 and the Buipe water system is still not functioning. The district government installed a permanent electrical supply to the station and a UNICEF project funded the replacement of the pump and control system. Upon start-up, leaks were found throughout the system which will take more time and money to fix.

Citizens are excited about the repaired water system, but skeptical at the same time. If the system breaks, will it take another 2.5 years to fix? Even though the donor-funded project trained water board members to manage the finances, operations, and maintenance systems, these independent trainings were not sufficient to build the necessary lasting systems.

This story has been played out over and over again in Ghana. Donor-funded projects are implemented without addressing the underlying systems necessary for projects to be successful.

I worked for 3 years as a Project Manager at CH2M Hill Canada Limited, mostly within their wastewater division. Our clients were Canadian municipalities who would identify a need for an expansion, upgrade, or operational support at their wastewater treatment plant and create a request for proposal.

Consultants would bid on projects and the winning bid would enter into a contract to deliver the project.

This same process takes place in developing countries. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) identifies a need in a developing country and prepares a request for proposal. Canadian or international consulting companies bid and deliver the projects in countries like Ghana, often working through local district governments.

It is expected that short-term infrastructure projects will set up the necessary systems for the infrastructure to reach its expected lifespan. Most projects tag on capacity development programs to develop lasting systems, but end up facilitating isolated workshops that don’t provide the continuous support necessary to build long-term systems.

In Canada, government and private sector have evolved slowly over time, building the necessary management and technical systems to function. Projects are merely a mechanism of engagement between government and private sector to achieve mutually beneficial goals. If the underlying systems are not in place, projects are destined for failure.

There needs to be a paradigm shift in the way donors like CIDA support countries like Ghana. We need to have the patience and courage to support the long-term development of institutions rather than projects which define success as the number of boreholes drilled and number of trainings delivered. There is higher risk and ambiguity in this approach, but it is a path worth taking.

It will ultimately be Ghanaians who will drive development in Ghana. Engineers Without Borders is partnering with 6 districts in Ghana to develop effective district planning and implementation systems. We have embedded personnel that work directly with district staff to learn and develop skills to establish strong data management and information systems.

With more continuous partnerships, communities like Buipe will develop the necessary water systems to ensure safe water for its residence.

Meet my good friend Salifu.

Salifu with his finished product

Salifu is a soap maker. He is the sole reason I remain clean in the dusty Northern Savannah during the dry season. Salifu is from Salega, the capital of East Gonja District. His mother died when he was 7 and his father died when he was 21. Salifu inherited a small plot of land where he was destined to live his life as a subsistence farmer like the majority of his community. But Salifu had a dream. He wanted to be an entrepreneur. At age 26, he caught wind of a Rural Enterprise Project funded by the European Union. The project brought a soap maker named Adaj from the Brong-Ahafo region to train 33 people in his area. However, no loans were provided and people were expected to use their savings to purchase the equipment. Of the 33 people who underwent the training, Salifu was the only one with the drive to turn the art of soap making into a business. He worked hard on the farm for 2 years and saved every pesewa he could. Finally he had enough money to purchase the necessary equipment. Being a perfectionist, the quality of his product soon caught the attention of the community. As opposed to purchasing soap manufactured in Accra or abroad, the community started to purchase Salifu’s high quality shea-scented soap, branded ‘Sunset’, at a lower price. His business took off, and he soon hired an apprentice named Jinche. She was his neighbor who was searching for work.

One Saturday morning, I woke up at the break of dawn and joined Salifu and Jinche for a morning of soap making. We started off by laying out the frame and plastic sheet.

Step 1

In a bucket, we created a mixture of caustic soda and water, using a hydrometer to measure the density in order to get the right balance. Salifu then added 10 parts oil to 5 parts of the caustic soda mixture.

Step 2

He then took 1 cup of soda ash and added it to the oil. The soda ash made the soap white. Next he added three cap fulls of scent to create a pleasant smell. With a swift movement of the hand, Salifu turned the ingredients into a smooth homogenous mixture that look like caramel.

Step 3

The mixture was poured into the frame and he scraped the top to get a smooth layer. He let it sit for 30 minutes to cool down. A chemical reaction caused the mixture to change colour from brown to black to white. Once the contents cooled down, he removed the frame, scraped the edges until smooth, cut the soap into bars, and pressed the soap with his ‘sunset’ stamp. And voila, soap!

Step 4

Salifu wakes up almost every morning to prepare his soap. It’s only Monday and Tuesday he doesn’t make the soap since he travels to sell his product at the Buipe and Yapei markets. The other days he sells the soap at his own shop. Salifu enjoys the freedom the business provides in that he can take a day off if he’s not feeling well. There was a sense of pride in his voice when he said “I own this”.

Every time I have a meeting with CIDA the same question is asked. How are you working yourself out of a job? This is a common question posed by donors, and it comes from a belief that development workers are playing a role that should be performed by local Ghanaians once their capacity is built. To me, this patronizing attitude marks everything that is wrong with development. So I often reply, why am I trying to work myself out of a job?

Donors are often referred to as development partners. Our good friend Mr. Oxford defines a partner as a “person sharing with another or others in an activity” and a partnership as a “group of two or more people working together”. I view my role in Ghana as a thought partner. On a daily basis, I sit around a table with my Ghanaian counterparts, flip chart paper and markers in hand, to hack through a problem. Each of us has a unique skill set and knowledge base, that when combined generates the necessary means to tackle complex problems.

So I come back to the same question, why am I trying to work myself out of a job? I am not training someone to think like me so that when I leave someone else can fill my gap. I rather view my role as bringing critical questions to complex issues that when combined with the critical thinking of my counterparts, produces workable solutions that can be tested and scaled if successful. When I leave Ghana, there will likely be someone else from the community, from Ghana, from Africa, or from another continent that will arrive and bring a completely different set of critical questions to tackling new complex issues in this dynamic environment.

After doing something naughty as a kid, were you ever told by your mom or dad to go to your room? I recall this happening all too often. At the time I thought it was my parents’ way of punishing me. But I soon realized it was a stalling tactic that provided time for my parents to discuss the case and make their final verdict together.

Decision making is challenging when more than 1 person is involved in the process. Governments have no easy task in making decisions on behave of millions of people. Complicating matters is the often lack of clarity in who should be making decisions. Even in Canada with clearly defined roles between the national, provincial, and municipal governments, there are still grey areas of decision-making that create tension.

Ghana has a decentralized governance system, and accordingly to the legislated acts, decisions are made at a district level. The assumption is that a governing body close to communities will be in a better position to make informed decisions that benefit the constituency. However, most money flows through the national government due to a non-existent localized taxation system, so decision-making is partly centralized. You can imagine the problem this creates. Decision making is supposed to be in the hands of the districts, but with no enforcement mechanism, there’s a constant battle for resources. The current political party in power has prioritized sanitation and is rolling out a national sanitation program, a service that is supposed to be the responsibility of the district. What levels of government are in the best position to make informed decisions on services and infrastructure such as health, education, water, sanitation, and roads?

Being embedded within different levels of government, our team is asking this very question. From what I have observed, education is best understood close to the ground. Local district offices understand conditions in communities and have the knowledge on where to site new schools and train/incentivize teachers in areas where quality of education is poor. Roads infrastructure, on the other hand, is best planned across a larger economic zone where road networks can be constructed to facilitate access to markets. If roads were planned at a district level, you’d end up with a fragmented network of roads leading nowhere.

Part of the SADA strategy I’m involved with for developing Northern Ghana includes a ring road that cuts across the three northern regions. SADA is assessing the right mix of public infrastructure (roads, electrical networks, water dams/reservoirs) and private sector investment (sugar cane, rice, economic tree crops) that will accelerate development in Northern Ghana. This type of planning could likely not be achieved at district level.

So back to the question of who should make what decisions. With many people vying for power at multiple levels of government and across different sectors, the delineation of decision-making is no easy task, but a necessary one to ensure resources are effectively prioritized.

Welcome to Luisa’s and my 1 room mansion.

It’s quite cozy. We’ve got a couple of paintings by local artists on the wall, and a couple Luisa’s very own artistic masterpieces. A quilt, created by my Aunt Bev, plays two functions. It reminds me of home, and also divides the room in two between our bed mattress and table/chairs. Outside our room is the courtyard which is shared by three families. It is always full of cloths on the line, kids playing, and chickens/goats scrounging for any food they can find.

This is one of the families in the compound. The lady in the middle is Adia, who is the mother of the owner and basically runs the compound. She has the most beautiful laugh, but I wouldn’t get on her bad side. She finds a perfect balance between love and discipline. Everyone respects her greatly. The reason they call her Adia is because she has visited Mecca. This elevates the level of respect people have for her. You can probably tell the kid on the left side of the couch, Elim, is a trouble maker (looks kind of like my brother Geoff). Very mischievous!

With the arrival of Luisa, we’ve decided to experiment a bit with cooking. This past weekend we treated ourselves to a fabulous dinner, different than the typical tzed and fufu meal. Who knew you could cook South American food in Ghana. Maize flour makes amazing tortillas, and there are avocados this time of year. There are always tomatoes, lime, garlic, and hot peppers. There’s plantain that can be squished into deep fried goodness. Last but not least, there’s this type of cheese called Wagashie which is made by the Fulani people (nomadic cow herders) which is, of course, deep fried like every other dish. The meal was fantastic.

In the book ‘White Man’s Burden’, William Easterly shares two tragedies of poverty. The first tragedy is that many people in our world live in extreme poverty and are limited in opportunities. Out of the 18% of Ghanaians who live in extreme poverty, 54% live in Northern Ghana where I work. The second tragedy is that after fifty years and more than $2.3 trillion in aid from the West to address the first tragedy, there is not much evidence to show for it. In Northern Ghana, there have been many donor projects over the past 50 years, but sustained development requires strong public sector institutions and a strong private sector, both of which have been slow to develop.

There’s something special happening in Northern Ghana right now which has the potential to transform development in the region. It is called the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA). This government-led initiative has a strong private sector focus, and is the most comprehensive initiative to date to target the overall development of Northern Ghana.

Map of Northern Ghana

In 2005, two prominent policy think-tanks in Ghana, the Institute for Policy Alternative (IPA) and Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA), articulated the need for a distinct strategy for developing Northern Ghana which was economically falling behind the south. A series of meetings brought the top minds in Northern Ghana together to develop solutions. The discussions were elevated in 2007 after massive floods hit Northern Ghana leaving 20 dead and 260,000 homeless, mostly vulnerable households living in flood plains. What followed was a comprehensive roadmap for how SADA could be achieved with its vision of a ‘Forested and Green North by 2030’.

Since then an act has been passed through government legislating SADA and giving it $25M seed funding for 2010. An interim secretariat has been created for 2010 which will become permanent at the beginning of 2011. SADA is projected to have a yearly budget of between $100M and $200M.

Meet Dr. Sulley Gariba.

Sulley Gariba in action

Sulley is one of the two leading brains on SADA, and is currently my boss. He is the director of IPA which is home of the SADA interim secretariat, and has also been named Senior Advisor to the President, Atta Mills.

The Engineers without Borders (EWB) Governance and Rural Infrastructure team works within the decentralized governance system, focusing on district planning and implementation. Out of the 20 districts in the Northern Region, our team operates in 6 districts. Through our experience at the district, we have become recognized for our understanding of implementation challenges on the ground. Over the past year, we have fostered a relationship with Sulley who respects the analytical rigour we apply to our work. In January 2010, EWB formed a partnership with IPA to support in the implementation of the 2010 SADA prototype initiative, and development of the SADA monitoring and evaluation system. SADA provides an opportunity for our team to be directly involved in a larger government planning initiative. To put this in perspective, I first started in Central Gonja which has a population of 80K. I then moved to the regional office for Northern Region which has a population of 1.8M. SADA spans Northern Ghana which has a population of 8M.

This is my new office.

My new office

It’s a small change from my previous office at the district where I had no desk and a fan that moved a 1 rpm. Since January, I’ve participated in meetings with some of the top Ghanaian minds, listening to deep debates on the technical and political strategies for SADA. Last week I met Samia Nkrumah, a Member of Parliament and daughter of the 1^st President of Ghana. It’s been an exciting experience so far and over the course of the year I’ll be exploring how decisions are made at different levels of government to achieve the ultimate vision of our team: a Ghana where every citizen has equal opportunity to benefit from public services. I’ll keep you updated on the journey.

If you want to read an article on SADA, here’s a link: http://www.modernghana.com/blogs/241637/31/the-savannah-accelerated-development-authority-sad.html

The Governance and Rural Infrastructure (G&RI) team in Ghana is currently asking the question: how do we overcome barriers to scale? G&RI has been working at the community, district and regional level in Northern Ghana to improve data and infrastructure planning capabilities to better meet the water, roads, education and healthcare needs of rural communities. Our model has been direct capacity development in District Assemblies. But with limited resources, this model limits our impact on Dorothy.

One approach we are taking is to partner with the regional government and donors to implement region-wide skill development trainings that align with the institutional systems at the district level. Two significant independent activities will take place at districts over the next 4 months: (1) Housing and Population Census; and (2) preparation of the district 4-year development plans. G&RI has made the link between the two in that to create evidence-based district development plans, districts need data. The census will be collecting data on population, education, health, water, and sanitation; all data required to effectively develop evidence-based plans.

This past week G&RI partnered with a World Bank project called the ‘Northern Region Poverty Reduction Project’ which operates in all 20 districts in the Northern Region of Ghana. Team G&RI (Shamir, Jody, Gato, Hasan, and Dan) facilitated a 3-day computer training program for all the planning and budget officers in the region. Our training program was a practical exercise on district planning and census. Modules included file management, data management, data analysis, district indicator selection, and presentation skills. All modules included actual data that officers use in the district.

A fun exercise that two of our team members Jody and Shamir facilitated was to take a bunch of paper documents and spread them across a table. Next to the table was a filing cabinet with organized files. Shamir was asked to look for the District water and sanitation data file. He scrambled across the table searching but could not find. At the same time, Jody opened the filing cabinet opened a folder for water and presented the needed document. One of the district officers, Akwesi, said at the end of the day “I didn’t realize how I was making it so difficult for myself to find information”.

So again, the big question - how can G&RI continue to find new innovative ways to move beyond the direct capacity development model at the district and scale-up our behaviour change model to all districts in Northern Ghana? One idea could be to hold a regional competition for the most innovative district data management/analysis system, and to develop regional standards and best practices. We will keep you posted, but please share your ideas.

During my placement, I have had family visits evenly spaced throughout the year which has allowed me to stay connected to home, which I so love, and has allowed me to share my experience with those I love. This post is about experiences with family in Africa.

Best Practices and Lessons Learned

• If you plan on visiting someone in Ghana, don’t send a care package 4 months before. You’ll arrive before the package.
• Sarcasm is a great coping mechanism for +40 degree temperatures.
• When bringing supplies of chocolate to Ghana, select the small Cadbury eggs with the hard shell.
• Beer does not hydrate you.
• If you’re an animal lover, don’t agree to help slaughter a goat, which happens to have the cutest laugh.
• Bug nets don’t help with bed bugs.
• 120V appliances don’t work on a 240V line.
• Never worry about getting ripped off on a tro (minibus), everyone on the tro has your back.
• When you go to a secondary school expecting to speak to a classroom of 30 students, plan to speak to the entire school of 800.
• When you visit a village for the first time, you’re an outsider. When you visit a village for the second time, you’re family.
• Always take the path less traveled. It may not seem the best idea at the time, but it always makes for better adventures.
• Take people outside their comfort zone. It’s scary but exciting and a great way to learn about yourself.

Hottest Night – Geoff and Christine – February 09

Near the end of Geoff and Christine’s trip, we headed off to stay with a community near Damango in the West Gonja District. I was living in Buipe at the time, and the Buipe Wura (chief of Buipe) had relayed a message to the Damango Wura, that three aubruni (white people) were on their way. Upon entering Damango we went to greet the chief who graciously offered us rice with fish stew. He loaded us up in his truck with lots of food and off we went to the community. In the afternoon we mastered the art of sitting around and hanging out. The kids were really curious about our guitars so we started playing music familiar to all. No, not Celine Dion, we played Bob Marley. That night we ate some T-Zed and palm nut soap with our host family before retiring to our quarters. Throughout the day, the scorching sun had relentlessly penetrated the metal roof of our room, turning it into a sauna. It was the hottest night I had experienced so far in Ghana. The three of us were in one room, Geoff and Christine on a double mattress and I on a cushioned chair. Half way through the night I woke to find myself on a sweat soaked cushion with my back twisted in ways it had never before experienced. Looking across the room I noticed that Geoff and Christine were enjoying the nights sleep just as much as I was. We all decided to take a couple of prayer mats outside to escape the heat. We hung our bug nets to anything we could find. The bug nets were draped more like a bed sheet rather than a protective covering. We made it through the night, and were more proactive the following night in setting up our bug nets outside in the light.

Hardest Working – Dave and Sara – March 09

Right when Dave and Sara arrived in Ghana, I put them to work helping me make the big move from the District office in Buipe to the Regional office in Tamale. The work didn’t stop there. My two friends from Buipe, Daniel and Yakubu, took Dave, Sara, my parents and I to their village for a couple of days. While the rest of us had fun, Dave and Sarah ploughed the fields and made yam mounds from dusk till dawn. When they arrived back at the village, they had to fetch water for the rest of us who were very thirsty. While at the village, we celebrated my 30^th birthday, and what better way to celebrate than with fresh goat. Yakubu found someone in town that was selling goats. Unfortunately for us, the demand was high and the supply was low. He gave Dave and me a price of 45 cedis and we wanted it for 35. Unlike a typical aggressive bartering interaction, we ended up sitting for 10 minutes in silence staring at each other, waiting for the other to budge. Finally we settled on GHc 40. Dave and I helped to slaughter the goat while Sara looked on. After slaughtering, Yakubu took a stick and entered the goat’s skin from the hoof, loosening the skin around the body. He then blew air into the goat between the skin and body, inflating it like a balloon. With the inflated goat over hot flames, it was relatively easy to remove the hair. That night, many in the community enjoyed a small piece of goat with fufu and light soup. What more could I ask for on my 30^th birthday.

Biggest Following – Mom and Dad – April 09

After 3 days in Mole National Park visiting elephants, crocodiles, and monkeys, my family headed to Yakubu’s village. With my mom’s spirit and my dad’s size, they attracted every kid in the village. My mom relived her childhood by getting a group of 15 kids to play ‘Simon Says’. She got every child to follow her directions without speaking a word of Gonja. Now that’s non-verbal communication at its finest! Standing 6 feet 5 inches, my dad was easily 1 foot higher than most Gonja men. The kids were curious and amazed by his height. They followed him around wherever he went, to the soccer match, to the borehole, to the shower, to the bathroom, to sleep. My parents had to close the doors and windows to get some privacy. Unfortunately that didn’t make for comfortable sleeping. Now my parents can rough it out with the best of them, but reaching 60 years and sleeping on a thin prayer mat with no pillow in +40 degree temperatures, wasn’t the most comfortable environment.

Most Exciting Ride – Luisa – July 09

During Luisa’s first week in Ghana, we decided to take the path less travelled between Accra and Tamale, on the east side of the Volta. After a week of beaches, mountains, and waterfalls, we had a day and a half to make it back to Tamale before I started back at work. On the map it appeared we were half way to Tamale, so we thought we were safe. Little did we know that the paved road soon turned into gravel, which soon turned into mud, which soon turned into one big adventure. Starting at 7am, we made our way from Hohoe to Bimbilla on shared taxi, two tro tros (mini-buses), and one pick-up truck with 15 people crammed in the back. We landed in a small village called Damanko at 7pm hoping to catch the last tro, but we were out of luck. With no guest house in the village, our only option would have been to kindly knock on the door of one of the thatch houses with a big smile, hoping for the best. Fortunately, it was market day in Damanko, and there was a big yam truck heading back to Bimbilla. We hopped on the top of this massive beast and sat on the metal frame that covered the back. Below us were bags of yams and other produce that had not been sold at market. The women sellers were sitting on the bags, pleasantly sharing stories and offering us bananas. It was a beautiful ride. We crawled along at a snails pace with maize crops and Baobab trees gracing the land. It was a full moon that night which illuminated the path, lighting up all of Ghana’s beauty. A trip I’ll never forget. The picture doesn’t do it justice.

Two weeks ago, I created a video in Burkina Faso for my parents 60th birthday. Accidentally I told everyone it was their 60th anniversary and they thought it was a miracle that my mother was able to give birth at the age of 55. I thought you would all enjoy. Cheers!”