Sylvia's Journal

Once in a while there is a day where I wonder, can this behemoth of an oil tanker-like ministry be turned around and do what it claims to want to do?

I was called to a meeting by one of the director-generals who needed the stuff of everyday office life: paper to print, printers, pens, etc. Since the government cannot seem to provide this people have learned to ask the foreigners. Eventually one will buy what you need.

We could say yes because we all have the money but we don’t want to say yes because this should be the responsibility of the government. Everyone shakes their head in agreement, but what do you do when you cannot write or print? And so we say yes, sometimes adding that this is the last time. Or we say ‘only this one time,’ because we claim that the government has ‘ownership.’ But for that you need paper, printers and pens, all the time.

From an organizational development perspective we are colluding by protecting our client organization from the consequences of its behavior – in this case the unwillingness to change rules that impede the work. When we buy things the government could get, someone, someplace won’t find the negative consequences that we prevent from surfacing. So, what’t the problem?

I think that the donors need to get together and draw a line and then the procurement process and the signatory authorities have to be reconciled and streamlined because otherwise everything comes to a halt. It is a risky strategy because it means our work also will come to a halt.

This is not just about stationary but also about drugs in hospitals. One hospital orders 100 kg of meat daily for its patients and distributes about 60 kg. It is of course much easier to skim things off meat than of vials with pills or vaccine. So telling the hospital to stop buying meat and start buying medicine won’t work (how’s that for steakholders!)

At such moments I get a little discouraged. Where to start? If even the DG feels powerless to do something about that how high should we go? And who is ‘we?’ I know that pretty much anything in this world can change if someone with power says ‘yes!’ But finding that one person who can say yes without exposing others who can cause trouble is the tricky part.

I get the sense that most of the people don’t want to trouble themselves with such battles. As it is, there are enough battles here already. And so you pay things out of your own pocket or ask a friendly foreigner.

The other source of a mild form of discouragement are the consequences of the inequitable salaries paid to government employees. There is a grand divide: those that live comfortably on 1500 dollars a month or higher (‘topped up’ by donors, or super-scaled as they call it here) and those that get what the government can afford, somewhere around 250 dollars per month.

We have spent much time and energy investing in both types of salaried employees: the former stay and make our lives easier, the latter grow (if they can) until their resume is solid enough for a job that earns more and then they leave the ministry. It is capacity building allright but not of the ministry staff.

And so we start all over again with the low-paid staff, with no end in sight other than the project’s end date. What happens then with the 1500 dollar plus staff is anyone’s guess but one thing is sure – they’ll go to wherever the higher salaries are paid. Everyone will.