“It gets late real early round here…”
This week’s Ramble has had a mixed week. Exhaustion brought on by overwork has been tempered by the warm glow that comes with a sense of accomplishment. All shall be revealed.
* * *
First, the exhaustion. I’ve been working on a strategy paper over the last four or so weeks, which has involved intensive discussions with our major donors, officials from the various arms of Government and representatives from the NGO sector. It’s been brilliant to work on, getting all of these people together to discuss the way aid is delivered in Malawi and how it can be improved. As I’ve said before, there are number of problems with the way donors administer the money they pledge to Malawi, and a number of these problems are in reaction to real or perceived weaknesses in the way Government uses the funding which we manage ourselves.
It’s been instructive to be part of all of this, really getting to grips with the problems on both sides of the aid relationship that need to be addressed, and starting to come up with a way of doing that. The flip side is that it has involved an extraordinary amount of work: organising meetings, writing the various papers that will go on to form the strategy, seeking comments, consulting important colleagues who have been unable to attend meetings, redrafting, briefing senior officials and so on and so on. This all came to a head this week, when we realised that our tentative deadline for producing a draft of this strategy (about five minutes from now) was looming, and senior figures were not willing to countenance a slippage against this deadline. As a result, the Maradona has been spending those hours normally reserved for sleeping and dreaming of football in front of the computer, frantically tapping away at his keyboard.
The strategy will be circulated for comments later this week, and the reaction of stakeholders within and outside of Government is going to be revealing, as it’s the first time we’ve really set down what we want to see from them. They’ve been asking us to do this for some time, and now that we have, it might leave some wishing we’d left it alone. We’ve tried to corner our development partners into committing to improve their practices by also committing Government to undertake the reforms that they say we need. There’s a suspicion that, sometimes, the slow pace of reform is an excuse for non-optimal forms of aid delivery, rather than the reason.
That’s not to say that donors want aid to have a small impact; that wouldn’t be true at all. Donors want aid to have a large and immediate impact. To achieve this, most feel happier when they are spending the money themselves, so they can control what’s happening. I sympathise with this outlook, to an extent. The fact remains, however, that capacity within Government will be strengthened faster if donors used Government systems more. As an example, donors might not use Government auditing procedures because of a shortage of qualified accountants in Government. The problem is that when donors don’t use our audit systems, we have difficulty recruiting or training accountants, as there’s insufficient demand to justify spending scarce resources on them. Catch-22, Mr. Heller described it as.
* * *
And now, the euphoria. Well, euphoria might be a bit strong, but there’s definitely a sense of achievement among my colleagues and myself this week. Readers may remember that we spent quite a lot of energy and time trying to ensure that the support that we get from our donors shows up in the coming budget. Well, last Friday, we finally got a look at the budget, more or less in the form it will go before Parliament in. It’s not perfect, and a lot needs to be done for the next one, but its much, much better than it has ever been before. All those meetings, those arguments, those long afternoons poring over excel spreadsheets and beseeching recalcitrant colleagues to provide information have paid off. We’re all very proud of the effort. What’s left now is to start planning for the next one, to improve and make sure that we do it even better next year.
* * *
Three days until the World Cup. I’m so excited I could cry. Looking at the odds one can get, I’d recommend a modest punt on Ukraine to make semi-finals. They’ve looked superb in their warm-ups, and that’s without the One Who Broke My Heart. A relatively easy group, coupled with the best forward in the world, means that they may surprise us.
* * *
First, the exhaustion. I’ve been working on a strategy paper over the last four or so weeks, which has involved intensive discussions with our major donors, officials from the various arms of Government and representatives from the NGO sector. It’s been brilliant to work on, getting all of these people together to discuss the way aid is delivered in Malawi and how it can be improved. As I’ve said before, there are number of problems with the way donors administer the money they pledge to Malawi, and a number of these problems are in reaction to real or perceived weaknesses in the way Government uses the funding which we manage ourselves.
It’s been instructive to be part of all of this, really getting to grips with the problems on both sides of the aid relationship that need to be addressed, and starting to come up with a way of doing that. The flip side is that it has involved an extraordinary amount of work: organising meetings, writing the various papers that will go on to form the strategy, seeking comments, consulting important colleagues who have been unable to attend meetings, redrafting, briefing senior officials and so on and so on. This all came to a head this week, when we realised that our tentative deadline for producing a draft of this strategy (about five minutes from now) was looming, and senior figures were not willing to countenance a slippage against this deadline. As a result, the Maradona has been spending those hours normally reserved for sleeping and dreaming of football in front of the computer, frantically tapping away at his keyboard.
The strategy will be circulated for comments later this week, and the reaction of stakeholders within and outside of Government is going to be revealing, as it’s the first time we’ve really set down what we want to see from them. They’ve been asking us to do this for some time, and now that we have, it might leave some wishing we’d left it alone. We’ve tried to corner our development partners into committing to improve their practices by also committing Government to undertake the reforms that they say we need. There’s a suspicion that, sometimes, the slow pace of reform is an excuse for non-optimal forms of aid delivery, rather than the reason.
That’s not to say that donors want aid to have a small impact; that wouldn’t be true at all. Donors want aid to have a large and immediate impact. To achieve this, most feel happier when they are spending the money themselves, so they can control what’s happening. I sympathise with this outlook, to an extent. The fact remains, however, that capacity within Government will be strengthened faster if donors used Government systems more. As an example, donors might not use Government auditing procedures because of a shortage of qualified accountants in Government. The problem is that when donors don’t use our audit systems, we have difficulty recruiting or training accountants, as there’s insufficient demand to justify spending scarce resources on them. Catch-22, Mr. Heller described it as.
* * *
And now, the euphoria. Well, euphoria might be a bit strong, but there’s definitely a sense of achievement among my colleagues and myself this week. Readers may remember that we spent quite a lot of energy and time trying to ensure that the support that we get from our donors shows up in the coming budget. Well, last Friday, we finally got a look at the budget, more or less in the form it will go before Parliament in. It’s not perfect, and a lot needs to be done for the next one, but its much, much better than it has ever been before. All those meetings, those arguments, those long afternoons poring over excel spreadsheets and beseeching recalcitrant colleagues to provide information have paid off. We’re all very proud of the effort. What’s left now is to start planning for the next one, to improve and make sure that we do it even better next year.
* * *
Three days until the World Cup. I’m so excited I could cry. Looking at the odds one can get, I’d recommend a modest punt on Ukraine to make semi-finals. They’ve looked superb in their warm-ups, and that’s without the One Who Broke My Heart. A relatively easy group, coupled with the best forward in the world, means that they may surprise us.
posted by the Maradona of Malawi at 8:54 PM
