As expected, most people in Graham’s Masters program decided to do an internship for the summer. Some are working with NGOs, others with government agencies and grass roots organizations. These are bits and pieces from emails coming from different corners of the world wiht comments on living conditions and resource management:
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"The security situation is a little overwhelming. We have a body guard and driver at all times.... in theory, we're not allowed to walk on the road. So far, this means no walking at all!
Up until now, I've been sitting in on meetings... The goal is to improve the planning process... hopefully by coordinating the IOs and NGOs which don't talk to each other as much as they should...."
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“I am finding the vehicle dependence here hard enough.[This city] is pretty sprawling and most people seem to get around in cars. So far the driver from work has been picking me up but I don't really want to rely on that for too long so will have to figure out minibuses and taxis. So I sympathize at the moment with feeling housebound.
...There is really no communication whatsoever between actors in the field. They all seem to work away in their little bubbles... the main bilateral and multilateral donors here have signed up to a joint assistance strategy which envisages a division of labour system where they allocate lead / active and background roles in different sectors to try to avoid overlap and increase coordination...It is actually very difficult to get NGO data because there is no oversight / international body that collates it.
The internet is painfully slow here. It has literally taken all day to download some antivirus software onto my computer. It keeps cutting out so I have to start again. We also had a country wide power outage for most of yesterday...."
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"I am still in [my home country]. On Wednesday I will fly to [my summer destination] - si Dios quiere... Or better: if the government allows it. I still don't have my visa. At the embassy they say that there was a computer issue, so the authorization from the capital did not arrive in time. Now I am supposed to enter the country on a tourist visa and apply again once I’m there.
...Keeping track of resources is not easy. That's why many donors prefer to do projects instead of general budget support or sector-wide approaches (SWAps). In one case, all the big bilateral and multilateral donors (except the U.S.) got together under a so-called joint assistance strategy. Through this umbrella, they are trying to work out mechanisms to track their resources...”
****************************************************
"The security situation is a little overwhelming. We have a body guard and driver at all times.... in theory, we're not allowed to walk on the road. So far, this means no walking at all!
Up until now, I've been sitting in on meetings... The goal is to improve the planning process... hopefully by coordinating the IOs and NGOs which don't talk to each other as much as they should...."
****************************************************
“I am finding the vehicle dependence here hard enough.[This city] is pretty sprawling and most people seem to get around in cars. So far the driver from work has been picking me up but I don't really want to rely on that for too long so will have to figure out minibuses and taxis. So I sympathize at the moment with feeling housebound.
...There is really no communication whatsoever between actors in the field. They all seem to work away in their little bubbles... the main bilateral and multilateral donors here have signed up to a joint assistance strategy which envisages a division of labour system where they allocate lead / active and background roles in different sectors to try to avoid overlap and increase coordination...It is actually very difficult to get NGO data because there is no oversight / international body that collates it.
The internet is painfully slow here. It has literally taken all day to download some antivirus software onto my computer. It keeps cutting out so I have to start again. We also had a country wide power outage for most of yesterday...."
***************************************************
"I am still in [my home country]. On Wednesday I will fly to [my summer destination] - si Dios quiere... Or better: if the government allows it. I still don't have my visa. At the embassy they say that there was a computer issue, so the authorization from the capital did not arrive in time. Now I am supposed to enter the country on a tourist visa and apply again once I’m there.
...Keeping track of resources is not easy. That's why many donors prefer to do projects instead of general budget support or sector-wide approaches (SWAps). In one case, all the big bilateral and multilateral donors (except the U.S.) got together under a so-called joint assistance strategy. Through this umbrella, they are trying to work out mechanisms to track their resources...”
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