“This is what Anne was working on and this is what Anne is working on”

26 07 2007

I’ve realized that I haven’t spoken much about what I’m actually doing in Malawi, so here goes…

If you have been following this blog, you would have read a post called “So this is what Anne is working on and this is what Anne should be working on…” That situation has now changed to “this is what Anne was working on and this is what Anne is working on.” I came to the realization that my happiness is directly proportional to myself and to borrow the words of the wise “Be the change that you want to see” (Gandi) which speaks volumes on the changes to my work.

After learning a lot about the field work from my counterpart, Llewellyn, I was able to spend a week in the office about a month ago to learn about TLC’s operations in the “bigger picture” realm. Remembering what my job description should be, I did some digging to confirm the purpose of why I was to focus on these activities. Lo and behold, I found the information that I was looking for and immediately went to work on my impact plan.

In a nutshell, my impact plan looks like this:

Provide feedback directly from the field on the monitoring and evaluating tools that the EWB LTOV created before her contract expired. By working in the field with the monitoring and evaluating tools, I’m able to translate the lessons learnt in the field to the office. This way, the organization knows how successful their projects are and have information readily available. What’s important is gathering knowledge to know the direction of the organization as a whole and what type of impact it is having on their beneficiaries.

2. Provide feedback and strategies on loan repayment based on my field experiences on the Chia Lagoon Project, specifically focusing on treadle pump loan repayment. Loan repayment is important because, well, imagine you lent $100 to 10 of your acquaintances with the expectation of them paying you back in about 1 year’s time. At the end of the year and you only received about $4.26 in return from a total of 10 farmers. Exactly. My role here is to document some of the best practices to help increase the 4% repayment rate. What’s important to note is that TLC uses a revolving fund where the funds paid back are invested into the farmers again by providing more inputs (fertilizers, treadle pumps, seeds, etc.) If the loan repayment rate is low, it hinders the sustainability and the goodness of the revolving funds.

I would say that the work has been going quite smoothly. I’ve gathered data and information from the field coordinators working directly with treadle pumps and irrigation activities and I have also gathered information from farmers (let me tell you more about that in the next post!) I believe that I have the necessary information to write valid recommendations on both of the points above.

Anyway, the reason why I’m only focusing on two main areas is because 4 months is a very short time period for a volunteer to have significant impact. I realize that not all my ideas will be adopted by the organization, but hopefully, I’ll be able to have some impact on the organization’s capacity, which will help them monitor and evaluate their projects properly and efficiently and also help them recover some funds to help make the revolving funds sustainable.

I’ve just described the actions that I’ll take to have impact. In reality though, EWB focuses on building organization capacity which I’m currently doing by building key relationships within TLC. In these relationships, I hope to emphasize the importance of certain habits that will develop into long term benefits for TLC.

I’ve included pictures for your viewing pleasure. These snaps were taken from a recent TLC Field Coordinators training where all the Field Coodinators arrived in Lilongwe (about 50). At this meeting, I created the Monitoring and evaluating presentation and helped facilitate the loan repayment workshop. I have never attended an orientation meeting with such passionate ideas being thrown out there. I have never seen loan recovery issues being debated with such heated passion.