November is an exciting time at the offices of Partners in the Horn of Africa. This is the time when we line up, tentatively, projects for the coming year in Ethiopia. The process is exhilarating but also demanding. The exhilarating part is easy enough to understand. We receive proposals for literally dozens of projects, all of which could make a huge difference in the lives of the people of Ethiopia. It is rewarding for all of us in the office to know that every decision to go ahead with a project is going to have a direct impact on a community. That impact might involve bringing clean water to a village, a Group Home to street kids in town or desks and classrooms to kids that now attend classes in makeshift structures. November is also the time when donations start building up their momentum and when begin to feel confident that we will indeed reach the goals we set up at he start of the year. We are also getting ready for our field trips to Ethiopia. Dave Cosco, a fellow director and I go early each year after the rainy season to check out existing projects and, with our Country Representative in Ethiopia, to make final decisions for projects in the coming year.
But November is also a demanding time. At Partners we have learned that spending money wisely in a developing country is much more challenging than we first realized and, in many ways, more difficult than raising money. In part that is because Partners’ focus is on empowering Ethiopian civil society to play a major role in the country’s development. It’s one thing to say that; it is quite another to set up the proper checks and balances that will ensure that our Ethiopian ‘partners’ meet the standards which our donors expect of us: spending funds carefully and getting competitive bids on construction and supplies; adhering to rigorous reporting criteria, involving villagers in providing labour and supplies. The temptation for an international aid organization is always to hire a large contractor, give it the go ahead to build the school and then sit back and wait for the gala opening. That kind of aid is easier to deliver but misses the point of empowering local people.
Only by working painstakingly with our ‘partners’ and involving local people at every step of the way can we bring about lasting changes in the delivery of developmental assistance. Yes, “It takes a village”; it takes time working with ‘partners’ focusing, not so much on the end product but, rather, on the journey to that product. So, at this time of year we are regularly insisting that the proposals we receive be revised to address our basic criteria; 15-20% local contribution, lean competitive prices developed by efficient tendering of project components in the local market, strict accountability of funds and adherence to contracts signed between us and our ‘partners’. This is the harder, invisible-to-our-donors part of our work but we know we are on the right path, that the Partners’ model of assisting the third world is a good model and one which we must scrupulously adhere to. And we are regularly rewarded by seeing our ‘partners’ grow with us, becoming more sophisticated and competent in their operations. In part that development is traceable to our recent emphasis on ‘capacity building, ‘ an omnibus term used in the developing world to describe aid that assists an indigenous group become more efficient and capable agents of change rather than mere “beneficiaries”. The kind of ‘capacity building’ that we are doing at Partners can involve purchasing computers for administrative staff in the offices of our Ethiopian ‘partners’, or conducting workshops on how to they should ‘evaluate’ a project and measure its success.
I leave for Ethiopia in early December and will stay for a little over three months. Dave will join me in February along with his wife, Gina, who will be putting together the washable sanitary pads manufacture and distribution project planned for the Bale Mountain Region. Also, early in the New Year some of our supporters will visit the country. Increasingly our donors want to see our projects first hand. They usually come in January or February (always a good time to be out of Canada) and combine their visit with some tourism. Many visitors find the trip ‘transformational’ and a few now visit every year.
My next report will be from the Land of Prester John, as Ethiopia was often referred to in European medieval literature. This was a reference to a kingdom in North Africa, known to be Christianized with an intelligent and enlightened king. Historians consider these references to be to Ethiopia which was Christianized in the 4th century A.D. and where “Johannes” was a common name of early emperors.
