Abuja Volunteer

Why are we rich?

2010-09-18T03:45:00.000-07:00

One of the questions asked by people interested in International Development is "why are some countries rich, when others are poor?" Some answers here:

Breaking a Conspiracy of Silence

2009-10-28T23:16:00.000-07:00

I am writing to you in desperation because we have lost ten of our best qualified nurses and midwives to International NGOs who do not support us during the training but who snatch the best from us with salary offers that we cannot match. Somehow, we seem to have become victims of our success because our nurses are the best in the country. We train four times what our hospital needs but still cannot cover the demand for good and responsible nurses.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23372

(New York Review of Books, Sue Halpern).

Slump pushes world hunger to 40-year high

2009-10-14T20:35:00.000-07:00

The increase in the number of hungry people is not a result of poor harvests but is due to high food prices – particularly in developing countries – lower incomes and lost jobs.

"The rising number of hungry people is intolerable," said FAO director-general, Jacques Diouf. "We have the economic and technical means to make hunger disappear, what is missing is a stronger political will to eradicate hunger forever."

U.K. Independent Newspaper

* News * Technology * Google Google joins push to send Ugandans vital information through their mobiles

2009-07-02T04:26:00.000-07:00

AppLab will give millions of Africans access to health advice, farming tips and trading services using only a mobile handset

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jun/29/google-launches-applab-in-uganda

I.T. goes Green

2009-04-21T23:11:00.000-07:00

Information Technology goes green.

There are a lot of environmental issues concerning I.T.; a major concern is disposing of old hardware, which can contain toxic substances. This article in PCMAG.COM reviews eco friendly laptops, desktops, monitors, and disk drives:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2345704,00.asp

More roads in Africa ?

2009-04-09T13:45:00.000-07:00

Does Africa need more roads, more railways, or both ?, (or neither ?);

This article in the UK Guardian suggests that more roads are needed; China is investing in building more railways.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/katineblog/2009/apr/09/african-road-investment

Ecological debt: no way back from bankrupt

2009-04-08T16:21:00.000-07:00

While most governments' eyes are on the banking crisis, a much bigger issue - the environmental crisis - is passing them by, says Andrew Simms. In the Green Room this week, he argues that failure to organise a bailout for ecological debt will have dire consequences for humanity.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7988648.stm

fairtrade

2009-03-04T02:01:00.000-08:00

Apparently the people who first came up with the idea of fairtrade took the idea to banking analysts who laughed at them, saying that it was ridiculous to think that anyone would pay more for coffee, chocolate, etc in order to help some poor farmers in a far away country.

"Britain's most popular chocolate bar, Dairy Milk, is to become Fairtrade certified in Britain and Ireland in a move that will double the amount of cocoa bought from smallholders in the developing world under the sustainable farming scheme."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/04/cadbury-fair-trade-dairy-milk

hope wins over cynicism (again)

Aid = bad ?

2009-02-19T02:32:00.000-08:00

Dambisa Moyo is an economist who has worked as a consultant for The World Bank, and as head of economic research and strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa for Goldman Sachs.

She has written a book called "Dead Aid" about the aid industry.

reviews of her book are here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/feb/19/dambisa-moyo-dead-aid-africa

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/dambisa-moyo-aid-dependency-blights-africa-the-cure-is-in-the-credit-crisis-could-be-the-cure-1522996.html

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article5674886.ece

Internet access = good ?

2009-02-15T03:07:00.000-08:00

"Unicef said that when they set up public computer kiosks with educational material, a cached Wikipedia, basic health information, etc, in villages that the people using them are aged six to 60, but when adding internet connectivity the age range reduces to 14 to 18. They consume porn and it creates an environment unfriendly to others."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/feb/15/this-much-i-know-clay-shirky-technology

Rich countries once used gunboats to seize food. Now they use trade deals

2008-08-25T18:59:00.000-07:00

"In a recent report on this pillage, ActionAid shows that fishing families that once ate three times a day are now eating only once or twice. As the price of fish rises, their customers also go hungry. The same thing has happened in all the west African countries with which the EU has maintained fisheries agreements. In return for wretched amounts of foreign exchange, their primary source of protein has been looted."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/26/food.eu

Peter Melchett: Don't believe the GM apologists

2008-08-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

Arguments about genetic modification, often wrongly characterised as science versus irrational nature-worshippers, have lost none of their passion.

(article from UK Independent)

Maybe the answer to global warming is genetic modification ?
We can modify ourselves to survive higher (or lower) temperatures, lack of food, rising sea levels.

UK adds to drain on global water sources

2008-08-19T22:17:00.000-07:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/aug/20/water.food

"Water, or lack of it, has moved rapidly up the agenda for British businesses. A report published today by the environmental group WWF highlights why the issue is suddenly being taken so seriously. UK Water Footprint calculates for the first time how much water British consumers use, not just directly, but also indirectly due to the large volumes required to produce the globally-sourced, all year round foods and textile fibres which we now take for granted. According to WWF, each UK resident uses 4,645 litres of the world's water every day, compared to people in poor countries who subsist on 1,000 litres of "virtual water" a day."

UK ready to scrap killer cluster bombs

2008-05-28T00:53:00.000-07:00

Excellent news.
UK ready to scrap killer cluster bombs

Gordon Brown has been getting a hard ride, but if he succeeds in getting these bombs banned then this will be a great achievement.

Britain leads the world in fairtrade

2008-05-24T05:41:00.000-07:00

A report in the UK Independent newspaper states that Britons brought almost 30% of the worlds total value of fairtrade goods last year.
Are Brits more ethical/moral than other nationalities? Perhaps there is some truth in the idea of British "fair play" ?

Adidas workers on £11 a week in China

2008-03-29T23:24:00.000-07:00

"THE German sportswear giant Adidas has paid a reported £50m to sponsor this summer’s Beijing Olympics with the slogan “Impossible is nothing”.

For the thousands of Chinese workers who earn a basic £11.36 a week making Adidas’s expensive trainers at factories in the industrial city of Fuzhou, one thing does seem impossible: to get fair play."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3646424.ece

corporate responsibility

2008-03-22T00:09:00.000-07:00

Workers at Tesco paid just 8p an hour

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/22/ntesco122.xml

The report from the UK Daily Telegraph describes how Tesco exploits its workers in Malaysia.
I have emailed Tesco customer service to ask them for an explanation, and would suggest that other Tesco customers do the same.

Tesco Customer Service [customer.service@tesco.co.uk]

minerals = money

2008-03-10T23:31:00.000-07:00

"A disturbing article this week in the FT reports how cassiterite sourced through the use of child and slave labour has made it into the supply chains of global electronic goods manufacturers. Cassiterite is a derivative of tin ore necessarily used in circuitry and its use has, ironically, enabled devices to become more eco friendly. But at what cost?"

http://blogs.zdnet.com/sustainability/?p=114&tag=nl.e622

Africa has wealth, not only in human resources, but in minerals; but this wealth is not used to benefit the people that live there.

Whistle-blower site taken offline

2008-02-18T09:56:00.000-08:00

"A controversial website that allows whistle-blowers to anonymously post government and corporate documents has been taken offline in the US."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7250916.stm

It's interesting that this site can be taken down, whereas sites that exploit children and show pornographic images aren't.

George Bush: a good man in Africa ???

2008-02-15T00:05:00.000-08:00

!They may not be George Bush's natural constituency but Rwanda's prostitutes have good things to say about him. So do poor South Africans abandoned by their quixotic government, and doctors across Africa who otherwise regard the American president as a walking crime against humanity."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/15/georgebush.usa

The amazing power of money sent home

2008-02-07T04:14:00.000-08:00

"It has been known for years that most economic migrants send money home. But a recent study by the United Nations Agriculture Fund shows that these remittances, as they are called, are far more important than was ever thought."

http://money.uk.msn.com/guides/ethical-money/article.aspx?cp-documentid=7414450

Internet 'necessary' to Africa's growth

2007-12-19T01:13:00.000-08:00

"A professor whose work in spreading information technology in Africa has been awarded by the Internet Society has hit out at critics who say the continent should focus first on basics like water and sanitation." (BBC News)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7149788.stm

Farmers in Africa, West rethink subsidy

2007-12-09T12:05:00.000-08:00

In exchange for foreign aid, debt-saddled African countries agreed to cut subsidies. Less than 4 percent of government spending in sub-Saharan Africa now goes to agriculture.

But without a safety net, a single bad season can bankrupt a farmer, and often does. And without help, African farmers are too poor to pay for the good seed and fertilizer that bring land to life.

There are signs of change. The World Bank is rethinking its stance on subsidies after a scathing internal review last month, and it made agriculture the center of its agenda this year for the first time in more than two decades. About 70 percent of Africans live off the land, and agricultural reform — from seed to market — is the surest way to lift the continent out of poverty.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071209/ap_on_re_af/rethinking_africa_from_the_ground_up

Jeffrey Sachs

2007-12-06T01:44:00.000-08:00

"The development community lacks the required ethical and professional standards. I am not suggesting that developent practitioners are corrupt or unethical: such cases are rare. Rather, the development economics community does not take on its work with the sense of responsibilty that the tasks require. Providing economic advice to others requries a profund committment to search for the right answers, not to settle for superficial approaches."

The End of Poverty

Nigeria: Siemens Bribery Scandal - Indicted Men Face the Music

2007-11-21T01:39:00.000-08:00

http://allafrica.com/stories/200711191176.html

I found this story to be particularly relevant after my experience of working for GTZ in Abuja.
The GTZ website states that the EoPSD project in Nigeria is funded by "the Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ)", i.e. the German Government. In fact, I was told that 60% of the funding is coming from the BMZ, the other 40% is from another source (un-identified). It would be very interesting to establish who is providing the rest of the funding, and whether there is any connection to Siemens.

"Companies cooperating with GTZ for the first time tend to be disappointed with the amount of public-sector money on offer. When asked after the measures are concluded, however, the majority report being positively surprised by the quality of the advice they received and the fact that the "development workers" often had excellent contacts useful for helping the companies get into the market and reduce the risk of their engagement."

http://www.inwent.org/E+Z/content/archive-eng/06-2003/foc_art2.html

mobile phones and entrepreneurship in Africa

2007-11-15T00:04:00.000-08:00

"This is the Village Phone-model, which provides a business in a box. With loans, budding entrepreneurs can buy a mobile phone, a car battery to charge it, and a booster antenna that can pick up signals from base stations situated up to 25 kilometres away.

The handset is loaded with software that tracks revenues from every call.

The loan providers, so-called microfinance institutions, take on the task of ordering the equipment and transporting it to those who cannot afford to travel long distances."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7071636.stm

HP helps Africa with recycling standards

2007-11-07T09:51:00.000-08:00

An estimated 500 containers of used computer scrap enter Nigeria each month,” says a report from the Basel Action Network, a lobby group specialising in e-waste issues.

http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2199600/hp-helps-africa-recycling-3505547

2007-11-01T10:18:00.000-07:00

Wind-up lights for African homes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7072741.stm

"The technology behind the wind-up radio could soon be helping to light up some of the poorest homes in Africa."

2007-10-10T23:59:00.001-07:00

The devastating cost of Africa's wars: £150bn and millions of lives

http://www.guardian.co.uk/congo/story/0,,2188340,00.html

"Conflicts in Africa since the end of the cold war have cost the continent £150bn, equivalent to all the foreign aid it has received over the same period, according to a report released by Oxfam today."

UK backs African farmers in battle over imported produce

2007-09-26T01:36:00.000-07:00

"The Department for International Development warned only last week that food miles alone do not determine the environmental damage of food and praised organic air freight as a "trade success story" for Africa."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2998915.ece

G8 global fund to fight aids, TB, and malaria

2007-09-22T00:02:00.000-07:00

"The G8 decided that one way to get treatment to all those who need it would be to triple the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, so that by 2010 it could provide £3bn-£4bn for programmes delivering medical care. Next week in Berlin, members of the G8 will attend a meeting of the fund to deliver on that promise."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2174654,00.html

Mobiles for the 'world's poorest'

2007-09-14T01:49:00.000-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6986804.stm

"Nearly half a million people, described by the UN as "the poorest of the poor", will soon be able to make mobile calls.

As part of a UN programme to tackle poverty in rural Africa, 79 villages across 10 African countries will be hooked up to cellular networks."

Exploiting Africa

2007-08-02T22:02:00.000-07:00

"A British mining firm linked to abuses around the world is banking huge profits at Africa's expense"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2140854,00.html

"Britain has supported the World Bank-led rewriting of dozens of countries' mining laws, resulting in foreign firms paying much lower corporation tax and royalties to host governments. In Ghana the government gets a minuscule 5% of the value of all minerals exported. No wonder Anglo American was able to make $6bn profits last year."

sharing computer power

2007-08-02T08:21:00.000-07:00

A way to share each PC between 5 - 6 people.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/aug/02/guardianweeklytechnologysection.it1

Could be useful for schools and colleges in developing countries ?

Aid to Africa

2007-07-31T00:18:00.000-07:00

"Construction work on a 51-mile stretch of road will cost an estimated £2.9bn, twice Britain's yearly aid budget to Africa"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport/Story/0,,2138044,00.html

UK Conservative Party volunteers for Africa

2007-07-21T01:19:00.000-07:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,2131500,00.html

44 members of the Conservative Party in the UK have volunteered to work on projects in Rwanda.

"This issue is central to the Conservative party and I think to British politics," said Mr Mitchell. "Our generation is the generation that is going to make a real difference to the enormous discrepancy of wealth that exists between the rich world and the poor world, which is obscene."

Andrew Mitchell is the shadow international development secretary in the British Parliament.

Internet Cooperation

2007-07-16T06:28:00.000-07:00

India provides medical help to Africa via the Internet:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6295044.stm

The war on corruption continues

2007-07-14T03:18:00.001-07:00

"Disgraced media mogul Conrad Black faces a lengthy stretch in a US jail after a court convicted him of looting millions of pounds from his Hollinger empire by embezzling funds from shareholders."

http://business.guardian.co.uk/conradblacktrial/story/0,,2126307,00.html

African corruption 'on the wane'

2007-07-10T23:28:00.000-07:00

"African nations have taken the biggest steps in reducing corruption over the past 10 years, the World Bank has said."

BBC World website

World Bank report shows that Africa is winning the fight against corruption.

postive action from the UK Government

2007-07-09T04:41:00.000-07:00

"Treasury plans to shut arms sales department"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/baefiles/story/0,,2122026,00.html

The international arms trade fuels conflict, such as currently happening in Darfur.
The decision that UK taxpayers should stop subsidising this trade is very welcome.

corruption and hypocrisy

2006-12-15T04:39:00.000-08:00

Nigeria has an international reputation for corruption, and one that is based on reality. However, there does seem to be a large element of hypocrisy in the criticism directed at Nigeria and Africa in this regard.
For example, today it has been announced that the criminal investigation into corruption at BAE (British Aerospace) has been dropped. This has happened just as the UK Serious Fraud Squad has began to uncover details of secret Swiss bank accounts.
It appears that in Nigeria there is progress in revealing corruption, and trying to deal with it; in the UK, in contrast, we are moving in the opposite direction, i.e. becoming more secretive.

So who is progressing towards the moral high ground?

Computers for Africa?

2006-12-12T04:20:00.000-08:00

An article in the UK Independent newspaper describes how recycling your computer helps developing countries.

Like a lot of aspects of development, this is open to debate. One opinion is that "you can't eat computers", i.e. the priorities should be clean water, food, healthcare.
Another valid issue is that of pollution; computers contain a lot of dangerous substances, which need to be carefully disposed of. A cynical (but perhaps realistic) view would be that the big computer manufacturers and sellers see developing countries as a dumping ground to get rid of this waste at little or no cost, (or even at a profit).

My own experience is that both computer hardware and the skills to use it can be very valuable. When I was in Abuja I visited NAFDAC. Actually I was invited by an employee who had learned that a "computer expert" was working at GTZ. At the NAFDAC offices I found rooms full of paper files; I wrote a report suggesting that a basic computer network and document management system could improve their efficiency by a huge amount. If the documents were scanned into a database, any particular file could be found in a few seconds and displayed on screen, compared with 20 - 30 minutes spent manually searching through roomfuls of paper files.

I was also involved in designed and mentoring a training scheme for young graduates to work as IT specialists in community finance. The training was done by a Nigerian institute, to a high standard and at reasonable cost. At the start of the training we focused on basic hardware support and maintenance; there are a lot of stories about schools and colleges in Nigeria who have computer labs full of computers that don't work, or work very slowly.
Another issue is software, especially which operating system to use. If you are using Pentium 2 or 3 processors with 64 or 128 mb RAM then results with Windows XP are going to be poor; you are going to get much better results with Linux.

African Hair

2006-11-30T01:52:00.000-08:00

I was walking through Tooting (a London suburb) yesterday, and walked past a young woman with an Afro. She looked great; is the Afro making a come-back?

healthy, wealthy, wise?

2006-11-25T00:27:00.000-08:00

One of the images of Africa in the Western media is showing unhealthy people: either mal-nourished or dying of aids.
LIke most of the images that we see in the West this is based on truth, but only shows a small part of the big picture.
One of my strongest impressions of Nigeria is that the typical Nigerian is healthier than the most Europeans, both physically and mentally.
In fact my own health improved considerably in the two years that I lived in Abuja. I practice martials arts (Shorinji Kempo) and had a major problem with my back.
While in Nigeria I started daily exercises to improve my lower back strength and found a big improvement.
Living in a warm climate made a big difference, but I think that the major factor that helped me was the quality of the food.
Most of the food that we eat in the UK is processed, and not very nutrious, whereas food grown in Nigeria is generally organic and probably a lot healthier.
I also found that my mental attitude improved a lot when I was in Nigeria, perhaps partly due to the weather, (although I actually like the variety of having four seasons).
People living in a big city like London tend to be withdrawn and isolated, which can lead to depression and other mental health problems.
In contrast, I never felt lonely in Nigeria; there is always some-one to talk to or give you a friendly smile and a welcome.

Thinking about these health issues, I came across an article on the web about human organs for sale:
I find this to be very worrying, especially having experienced the attitude of some Westerners who see Nigeria as a major market opportunity.
I think that countries like Nigeria have to be very careful about opening up their markets, and to make sure that they are not a target for this kind of exploitation.

Open Source

2006-11-16T17:11:00.000-08:00

The "consultants" spoof on the previous blog was from Tech Republic.
This is an excellent source of IT information and resources.

Before coming to work in Nigeria I completed an MSc in Internet Engineering at the University of East London. My dissertation was on the use of open source software in developing countries: if anyone would like a copy please email me.

Most of the copies of Microsoft Windows being used in Nigeria are pirate versions (including organisations such as GTZ). This is understandable in most cases: a licensed copy of Windows XP costs about 20,000 Naira, i.e. 1 - 2 months salary for an office worker. Microsoft charge the same prices in Nigeria and other developing countries as they do in Europe and the United States, although the cost of Windows XP in the UK equals about one days work for an office worker. This is understandable because it's so easy to arbitrage software, i.e. buy it where it's cheap and sell it where it's expensive.

A lot of big companies are turning to Linux and other open-source software as an alternative to Microsoft. The downside is that there is a steep learning curve, although it is getting to be more user friendly. Linux is an excellent way to learn about computers and operating systems. I predict that it's going to take off in the future, as Microsoft start to protect their property rights in countries like Nigeria, therefore I would recommend budding IT entrepreneurs to get a copy and start playing with it.

consulting

2006-11-12T12:06:00.000-08:00

accountability

2006-11-08T00:19:00.000-08:00

While I was working at the GTZ office in Abuja, the office decided to purchase some new computers. The Nigerian IT Officer and myself both recommended that these should be mid-range models, which would be "fit-for-purpose", i.e. email, browsing, word processing and spreadsheets. This advice was over-ruled by Ed ("International Consultant") who determined that top-of-the-range PC's should be purchased, each PC costing about 1,000 Euros more than the standard model. There are about 20 PC's in the office in total.

Ed is an IT wannabe, the sort of person who always upgrades to the latest model of mobile phone. etc. Maybe that's why he need to get paid so much.

1,000 Euros is not much in terms of GTZs' budget (one days "work" from a consultant), but when you realise that this money is paid by German Taxpayers intending it to help poor Nigerians then it's not hard to imagine how this money could be used more constructively.

I'm planning to visit the GTZ Head Office in Eschborn in a couple of weeks to discuss the workings of their Abuja Office. I'll keep you informed.

A little light relief

2006-11-05T22:40:00.000-08:00

One of the best things about working in Nigeria is peoples sense of humour; strange that we never hear about this in the West when reading media reports about Africa.

Anyway, here's a link to a post on a site called E-Budo.

This is a discussion site for people involved in martial arts. The first time that I visited Africa was almost by accident. My Shorinji Kempo teacher is a WSKO (World Shorinji Kempo Organisation) instructor, which means that he is sent to various countries to teach seminars. On this occasion the venues were in Kenya and Tanzania. He invited me to accompany him to "carry his bags".
I've travelled a lot in Europe and to Japan and the U.S.A. and Canada, but never had a desire to go to Africa; however I found something there that really attracted me. It's hard to quantify, but was really concerned with the spirit of the people; somehow I felt a real connection.
History tells us that Africa is the Motherland for us all; where humanity originated.

Authenticity and credibility

2006-11-03T11:49:00.000-08:00

There’s an article in todays’ UK Guardian Newspaper about the inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee. The article states “He singles out the rise of blogging as one of the most difficult areas for the continuing development of the web, because of the risks associated with inaccurate, defamatory and uncheckable information.”

A very important point, and relevant to some of the issues that I’ve raised here.

The question of authenticity and credibility is crucial: I’m happy to send a copy of my resume to any-one interested in checking this out (as long as you promise not to use it to 419 anyone).

I’ve worked as an IT consultant in London for companies including Sony, Texaco, Polygram, Morgan Stanley, and EDS, which I feel gives me a valid basis to comment on the activities within the EoPSD project. Before coming to Nigeria I also completed an MSc in Internet Engineering at the University of East London; coincidently a college with a lot of Nigerian students.

It’s interesting to see that the EoPSD website has now been tidied up, including the removal of the C.V. of one of the consultants acting as “project advisor

People are listening ?

2006-11-01T22:43:00.000-08:00

This morning I checked the EoPSD website and see that there have been some significant changes; a lot of the marketing bullshit has disappeared.

Perhaps the managers at GTZ are responsive to constructive criticism?

International Development is a complicated area; there are no easy solutions. As well as the money-grabbing consultants I did meet people at GTZ who seemed to be genuine in their desire to work side-by-side with Nigerians, not try to impose a foreign ideology on them from a position of supposed superiority.

Since returning to London I find that I miss Nigeria more and more; the kindness, good humour, love of children, and respect for older people that we seem to be losing in the so-called “developed” countries.

more about EoPSD/EaGPP

2006-11-01T02:09:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Jeremy who mentions this blog at his own naijablog (linked at the right).
I've been reading his blog for a while, and find it interesting to keep in touch with what is happening in Naija. Nigeria has huge potential, which is why organisations such as GTZ are looking for influence there. GTZ is a limited company which usually takes on projects for the German Government, although it also works for other organisations.
The finance behind EoPSD is interesting: 60% is from the German Government and 40% from other sources, although it's not clear who these are.
This is reflected in the management of the EoPSD project which is controlled by the two "project consultants". If I were a senior manager at GTZ I should be very concerned about the effect that this is having on GTZs' image internationally.

VSO have now terminated their contract to supply people to GTZ due to the attitude of the EoPSD managers. The final straw was when GTZ were offered the services of a Nigerian living in London who has a lot of experience in minerals (rocks, not soft drinks).

GTZ complained about paying for a Nigerian specialist; they also complained about paying for the Kenyan specialists also supplied by VSO.

It is always east to make accusations of racism, but the attitude shown here by the "project consultants" raises some serious questions.

"The kindness of consultants"

2006-10-29T22:59:00.000-08:00

At GTZ in Nigeria I was part of a project called EoPSD

EoPSD stands for "Employment oriented Private Sector Development", although a better name might be EaGPP, standing for Ed and Gabby Pension Plan.
Ed and Gabby are two "Development Consultants" who were part time "project advisors" to GTZ. They are paid at short term consultant rates (1,000 Euros per day), although the project is scheduled to last between 5 - 10 years, hence EaGPP.

The title of this post is ironic: one one occasion Ed asked me to work at the weekend, and promised to buy me lunch if I did so. As a VSO volunteer I anticipated a rare treat such as a pizza; at a cost of 2,000 Naira not normally affordable on a VSO allowance. Actually Ed sent a driver to buy takeway from Mr Biggs, the Nigerian equivalent of McDonalds. This cost him about 350 Niara, saving him 1,650 Niara, or about 10 Euros, i.e. 1% of his daily income. I hope he spent this money wisely.

To be fair I have to say that there was also a full time consultant at GTZ who headed up the team working in the financial sector with community banks and MFI's. In contrast to the two part-timers he was very generous to all the VSO volunteers (there were seven working at GTZ at various times), and showed us a lot of kindness.

It was interesting to see how "International Development" is a business; I wonder how the typical German taxpayer would feel to see how their money was being spent; for example the EoPSD website was developed by a German consultancy firm in collaboration with the two part-time consultants (who do not have any experience in this area). Before going to Nigeria I worked as an IT consultant in London and have an MSc in Internet Engineering, so I can confirm that there are Nigerian firms with the skills to create complex websites. I would therefore have to ask why this expensive (and largely non-functional) website was developed in Germany.

Good news from Africa

2006-10-01T20:37:00.000-07:00

The image of Africa presented in the Western media is generally negative. It would be nice to encourage more Africans to use the web to counter this, whether by blogging, creating websites, etc.
One good source for news on Africa is the BBC World website.

why have I started a blog?

2006-09-24T05:11:00.000-07:00

There is a quote that sticks in my mind: "there are two superpowers in the world today - the United States of America and global public opinion"
The aim of this blog is to change the world, by influencing other people, and giving them the opportunity to influence me. The title of the blog refers to my experience as a VSO volunteer in Abuja, Nigeria. I went out to Nigeria in March 2004 and returned to London in March 2006. It was a fantastic experience; contrary to the image that we get from the popular media in the U.K. Nigeria is a great country, corrupted and exploited by a few selfish and greedy people.
Being part of VSO was, and is, also a fantastic experience. In Nigeria I met VSO volunteers from Holland, The Philipines, Kenya, Uganda, Canada, The U.S.A, New Zealand, Germany, and probably some others that I can't remember.
To get the blog started, here is a link to an article in todays Observer .
my VSO experience was unusual, and interesting, in that I was working for GTZ; the German Agency for Technical Co-operation. The aim was for a partnership between VSO and GTZ in Nigeria; unfortunately this didn't happen. I'll write more about this in future blogs.