getting started

Lots of things are going on lately. Finally my work is getting started now I get to the end of my placement. It is a strange feeling though getting to the end of my placement. I have mixed feelings about Naija, about my work, about the sustainability of the programme and about a lot more. 
Lately I have had some discussions with Yakiem about the NGVP and my role and responsibilities. I don't understand it anymore, at least if I have to describe my feelings about those discussions. I have to hand the NGVP over to partners but there are no partners and I also am not allowed to identify them and start the path to partnership with them, at the same time Yakiem provided me with all the information how to start a partnership. Then you have Yakiem, who is starting up new partnerships just on a hunch and in Kano (a city where we as international VSO’s are not allowed to go). We have had a meeting with Ladidi who came for this occasion to Abuja, she asked for help in teacher training for current teachers as only 25% of their teachers was qualified as teachers, but Yakiem is so focused on NGVP that he didn’t really listened to this and just started talking about how to implement the NGVP in the Kano State Senior Secondary School Management Board (KSSSSMB). Ladidi was a bit struck back because they have enough teachers, even a lot on a list to be employed.  
As second frustration, out of experience, I know that no Governmental organisation is willing to take responsibility as long as they sign something official. So I really try to get them involved, but Yakiem is questioning it all too much. I don't know if it is trust or anything but it is annoying as I see NGVP die if we don't start signing contracts of one sort or the other. 
But I just told him I will not take any decisions anymore, I will let him decide what is needed, I am almost leaving and shouldn't stress myself too much. With this in the back of your head the next part of this blog will sound strange and dubious, because I still try to get organisations on board to carry on this NGVP. Last week for example I have had a wonderful first meeting with the Ministry of Science and Technology in Lafia. It was a advocacy visit for NGVP and VSO, to see if we can become partners in improving science education. They looked like a quite well organized small Ministry with a lot of good ideas. They have a resource development department in which they develop teaching aids for science and vocational training. They showed me around after we have had a small chat about their wishes and our opportunities. They also took me to one of the four vocational training centers they have in Nassarawa. Really nice! They are really trying to give school drop-outs and unemployable youth a change to start their own business. After each course a participant is entitled to get some materials to really start of a business. No money but materials, which I think is good. There are two different programmes one for children that don’t have their WAEC or NECO or any other exam-certificate, and one for young adults and women who need to generate their own income and want to do this through a trade. At the surface it all look quite well organized, but to get a real impression VSO needs to do a OrgScan or Organsation assessment. Together with the first impressions I gave this advice to Yakiem as a conclusion of my visit.
Somehow I sometimes think I am doing the right thing although it isn’t always what Yakiem wants or expects. At least I know I am appreciated by the people I work with and the organisations I start talking to. Appreciation that is shown in different ways, like getting a big heap of yams and a ride home by a private driver ;-)

strategic thinking is hard

This week I was for one week in Ilorin to start a strategic planning process with the Ministry of Education and the stakeholders of the Nigerian Graduate Volunteering Programme.

The first day was all about the Memorandum of Understanding that VSO has to sign with the Ministry, so for this day I only invited Ministry staff. I had hoped all directors would be there and the Permanent Secretary would take part in some sessions, but it was a bit too much to ask. The Honorable Commissioner did do the opening and that meant a lot to the staff. They felt supported by this gesture, which made them more open en free in their plans.

I tried to make it as participatory as I could without leading them to much in certain ways. During the first activity, a small discussion about the partnership principles, I understood that you will have to structure the discussions otherwise they will go nowhere or anywhere. I also noticed that the discussion culture here was different then in the Northern states, where hierarchical systems are more important; a normal staff there will never openly disagree with a senior. Here it was totally open and they were even looking a bit funny when I told them that I wished for a discussion without hierarchical limitations. It was a nice feeling. I know I steered the discussion a little bit too much into the ‘ownership’ question, as this is most often the hinder for an equal partnership. The participants, as I expected, saw ownership as a financial commitment and said that for that I only could go to the Honorable’s office. So I had to encourage them thinking about ownership in different ways. Was hard but we got some good imput.

The second activity was the SWOT-analysis on the functional and organizational activities in the Ministry as well as to reflect on relations with other stakeholders. This was interesting; we worked in groups of 5 to get the first information on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. So much came out of this; almost every group had their own unique input when we were collecting the information on central charts. Then the difficult questions started, questions that Nigerians in general don’t ask. You could notice they had problems linking the four categories from the first part of the exercise to answer the analytical questions. It was hard to organize this discussion and to keep the participants focused on each question at the time. During the writing of the report that evening I discovered that I had answers to questions I thought I forgot to ask. I was lucky, by the way, that a Corper was writing the note during the whole meeting. Although she did a bit chaotic and I was really happy with my good memory, whitout her help I wouldn’t be able to get these answers al sorted out.

After the lunch only half of the group turned up for the final part, this happens more often in Nigeria; lunch is seen as a last activity. After lunch also light stayed away what made it really hard for the participants to respond adequate on the questions and to get them involved in writing objectives for the Memorandum of Understanding. So I speeded through this and left it for the MoU-committee to finish.

Day 2 was with all stakeholders in NGVP; this was a bigger meeting with 30 participants at the prime time. The introduction on VSO and NGVP took only little time after which the first activity, stakeholder analysis, started with a thought shower. Who are the stakeholders in the NGVP? We came down with a list of 18 stakeholders of which MoE and NYSC were seen as major ones, but also the schools, media, communities and philanthropist were seen as important stakeholders. It was funny that only one person mentioned VSO;-).

The rest of the day was about the future planning; what do we need to do to make it work? I short we can say ….. this will depend on the committee that will be working on de framework and plans …. And ofcourse finance! Money is so important. There needs to be a big stakeholder who is willing to lobby for this programme to get the money from other stakeholders or investors.  This because the Ministry is most likely not willing to pay for the whole amount of the allowance and getting the allowance from different places will ask to much organization. I at least have a lot of input from this meeting and a committee who will work on writing a plan for NGVP Kwara.