One month in Rwanda. Thirty nine stakeholders: a community, a few government agencies, several private companies, and a lot of NGOs, NGOs, and NGOs. I have made contact with most of them and also shared some with Sector Leader and teams at the Millennium Village Project. So, I am in Rwanda to help the MVP conducting an Economic Costing Evaluation. Basically, the project is to compile the cost of interventions which had been invested in Mayange Sector from 2010 to 2012. The project involves interviewing stakeholders abovementioned (represented by their CEO and CFO, country directors, or even a newly hired junior worker who has just worked for two month and knew nothing about his organization work) and/or reviewing pages of budget and expenditure documents.
Dealing with the government agencies is manageable. Aloys, the Agriculture Sector leader with his plausible negotiation skill with the Bugusera District officials even completed three costing evaluation on agriculture, livestock, and environment only within one week.
Making contact with the private companies is still manageable. It took sometimes to work with, especially when it comes to evaluate the investments that have been implemented in Mayange. Not necessarily, because the financial data is confidential, but most of the companies has no specific data on the Mayange Sector per se. They mostly compiled the data based on District level. Had an appointment with district coordinator, went to Chief Financial Officer’s office, back to district coordinator for clarification, and so on. I have travelled from office to office, floor to floor, and went through a lot of metal detector machines.
How about the journey to NGOs?
This is the interesting parts of the project. I met a lot of NGOs' representatives through a meeting or a visit to their offices. All of them are very welcoming… at first. Some of them asked me where I came from, how I found their beloved country, am I a Chinese, or as other Rwandese I have met, some of also asked, “are you married?” I gladly described them about my country, the differences between Columbia and Colombia, how I enjoy living in Rwanda, that I am not “made in China”, and also told them that I have not had any cow for a dowry (it’s a Rwandan culture) so I stay single still. Icebreaker is done!
However, when it come to the introduction of Economic Costing Evaluation idea, they seemed worry. I always referred to the letter for them that Millennium Villages Project and the Earth Institute has prepared; the Economic Costing Evaluation purpose is not to audit or check up on them. But it is not easy to ensure them.
A UN Agency officer indicated his reluctance by complicating the evaluation. One component of the evaluation is analyzing staff salaries. He argued that all people at his office, even people at the headquarter office, have share on the intervention in Mayange Sector. I convinced him that the staff salaries at Bugusera District office is enough to represent his office’s management cost. Rhetorically, I asked him, “if you keep tracking back, don’t you think Ban Ki Moon might also have share on the intervention?” He laughed out loud then provided the costing.
That’s a success story.
Tragic stories also happened a couple of times.
I came to an NGO and met its Sector Leader, but he said he would have a meeting in a minute so he asked me to call him for an appointment. We agreed on an appointment. When the day came, and I was in his office, a receptionist told me that her boss was in a meeting. On the following day, I went to Kigali and thought I could meet him, but when I called his cell and introduced myself as the one from Millennium Village, he interrupted me, “Sir, sorry, but I am in a meeting now. Sorry.” A few days ago, I stopped by his office and he was also in a meeting. The receptionist even apologized because her boss was still at a meeting on my hat trick visit. I tried visiting and calling on different days and in different range of time, and he keeps on a meeting. I truly adore his hard working attitude!
On another appointment with NGO on education, I had to meet Education Program Manager, and then led me to his Education Projects Coordinator for Bugusera District. Explained the economic costing project twice, the Project Coordinator eventually invited his colleague from financial division to help him fill out the form. And the problem began; they both started debating in French mixed Kinyarwandan-two languages I do not understand. I kept listening to their conversation word by word though. One word catch my attention was ‘espionnage’. Whoa! So, the financial man thought I was spying? I realized that the existence of Millennium Villages as an NGO conduct Economic Costing Evaluation on others NGOs is a concern for them. Without being asked, I politely reexplained to him that the evaluation’s aim is neither to audit nor spying his organization, and its result would be kept anonymously. The financial division guy claimed that he has no right to give financial record before a permit from Financial Manager given. After resending the letter and revisiting the office, the Country Finance Manager now argues that he is still waiting an approval from his Country Director (which had directed the Education Program Manager to meet me). This labyrinth process has been taking 3 weeks, and no results so far.
Once, I had a dog of a country director licked my shirt during an interview. A security guy stopped me for almost 15 minutes and made me explained to him the Millennium Development Goals (very sure that he would not understand, but I successfully intimidated him and he let me in). Etc, etc, etc. It is true that these experiences are exhausting, yet they are exciting.
Dealing with the government agencies is manageable. Aloys, the Agriculture Sector leader with his plausible negotiation skill with the Bugusera District officials even completed three costing evaluation on agriculture, livestock, and environment only within one week.
Making contact with the private companies is still manageable. It took sometimes to work with, especially when it comes to evaluate the investments that have been implemented in Mayange. Not necessarily, because the financial data is confidential, but most of the companies has no specific data on the Mayange Sector per se. They mostly compiled the data based on District level. Had an appointment with district coordinator, went to Chief Financial Officer’s office, back to district coordinator for clarification, and so on. I have travelled from office to office, floor to floor, and went through a lot of metal detector machines.
How about the journey to NGOs?
This is the interesting parts of the project. I met a lot of NGOs' representatives through a meeting or a visit to their offices. All of them are very welcoming… at first. Some of them asked me where I came from, how I found their beloved country, am I a Chinese, or as other Rwandese I have met, some of also asked, “are you married?” I gladly described them about my country, the differences between Columbia and Colombia, how I enjoy living in Rwanda, that I am not “made in China”, and also told them that I have not had any cow for a dowry (it’s a Rwandan culture) so I stay single still. Icebreaker is done!
However, when it come to the introduction of Economic Costing Evaluation idea, they seemed worry. I always referred to the letter for them that Millennium Villages Project and the Earth Institute has prepared; the Economic Costing Evaluation purpose is not to audit or check up on them. But it is not easy to ensure them.
A UN Agency officer indicated his reluctance by complicating the evaluation. One component of the evaluation is analyzing staff salaries. He argued that all people at his office, even people at the headquarter office, have share on the intervention in Mayange Sector. I convinced him that the staff salaries at Bugusera District office is enough to represent his office’s management cost. Rhetorically, I asked him, “if you keep tracking back, don’t you think Ban Ki Moon might also have share on the intervention?” He laughed out loud then provided the costing.
That’s a success story.
Tragic stories also happened a couple of times.
I came to an NGO and met its Sector Leader, but he said he would have a meeting in a minute so he asked me to call him for an appointment. We agreed on an appointment. When the day came, and I was in his office, a receptionist told me that her boss was in a meeting. On the following day, I went to Kigali and thought I could meet him, but when I called his cell and introduced myself as the one from Millennium Village, he interrupted me, “Sir, sorry, but I am in a meeting now. Sorry.” A few days ago, I stopped by his office and he was also in a meeting. The receptionist even apologized because her boss was still at a meeting on my hat trick visit. I tried visiting and calling on different days and in different range of time, and he keeps on a meeting. I truly adore his hard working attitude!
On another appointment with NGO on education, I had to meet Education Program Manager, and then led me to his Education Projects Coordinator for Bugusera District. Explained the economic costing project twice, the Project Coordinator eventually invited his colleague from financial division to help him fill out the form. And the problem began; they both started debating in French mixed Kinyarwandan-two languages I do not understand. I kept listening to their conversation word by word though. One word catch my attention was ‘espionnage’. Whoa! So, the financial man thought I was spying? I realized that the existence of Millennium Villages as an NGO conduct Economic Costing Evaluation on others NGOs is a concern for them. Without being asked, I politely reexplained to him that the evaluation’s aim is neither to audit nor spying his organization, and its result would be kept anonymously. The financial division guy claimed that he has no right to give financial record before a permit from Financial Manager given. After resending the letter and revisiting the office, the Country Finance Manager now argues that he is still waiting an approval from his Country Director (which had directed the Education Program Manager to meet me). This labyrinth process has been taking 3 weeks, and no results so far.
