What I do!

I guess I haven’t been so great at explaining what it is that I am doing here exactly! So here goes....

When I signed my contract I was told that I would be working mostly with Ulla (my supervisor who is the second in command after the ambassador) on the Aid Effectiveness Agenda. Essentially what ‘aid effectiveness’ entails is a series of conferences/agreements between partner countries (those that give money ie Denmark, Canada, the US, France, Sweden, Switzerland etc.), the national governments of developing countries, civil societies, multilateral organizations etc. that are supposed to find a way to make the billions of dollars that are spent every year more effective and get everyone working together more. In the past most development work (money that is being sent abroad) has been done on a very individual basis between governments and the push now is for everyone to coordinate better so that more results can be seen.

Burkina Faso is currently writing their ‘poverty reduction strategy plan’ which is essentially a national plan that covers all sectors (education, health, gender, agriculture, private sector, etc) and lays out what Burkina would like to do and how they would like to do it. All donors/partner countries are then supposed to take that plan and work with it to create programs that are in line with what the Burkinabè government would like to do.

The problem of course is that coordination between all these different actors is incredibly difficult. Everyone has their own way of working and their own rules/regulations. The government often does not have the time or the capacity to coordinate the hundreds of different actors that want to come and set up programs.

So, I am working on trying to figure out how we (Denmark) can help push this whole effort to work together more. How can we help the government take control and have the capacity to manage all the donors? How can we get the donors to work together more and cooperate?

It is really interesting but very theoretical and a very slow process. We are talking about it now and things are happening, but coordinating/harmonizing is something that will take years to figure out (possibly years and years and years).

Given how theoretical it is (lot of research of best practices from other countries, writing talking points of how we can lobby for more interest from other donors and the government etc.), I also get to work with the education team.

That is more practical work. The education sector is writing a new program that will run from 2011-2014. This means we are trying to figure out how the money will be spent, justifying it, explaining the situation etc. It is almost near the end of the process and I’ve gotten to work on some of the writing/documentation that will be included. There was a mission of consultants here a few weeks ago to evaluate the suggested program and make recommendations so we are working on incorporating all of that.

Then of course there are all the little tasks such as publishing news items on the website, re-organizing the file saving system, doing edits on things, going to meetings.

I am also following two projects that we have on climate change adaptation techniques and hopefully will get to go on a mission with one of those to see some different adaptation techniques that the organizations are supporting. Basically Burkina is already a pretty dry/hot country (especially in the north) and over the years the weather has been getting more extreme, water is becoming a problem, deforestation etc. So I basically just get to be a contact point with these organizations and I’m really looking forward to getting out and seeing some countryside :)

Well, that is about all there is to say about that!

Malaria!

Another experience to add to the list…malaria! Granted if you ask my parents they will say that I have been through that wonderful experience as a child… but now I get to have very vivid memories of my own!

I had been having some irritating headaches for the last two weeks that kind of came and went (depending on how often I popped an advil :)!) and it all led up to a few days of unpleasantness. Last Friday after work I came home feeling not so great and went right to bed…feverish. Saturday I was fine until we went out in the evening and then the headache was back with a vengeance and I just felt thoroughly exhausted. After a trip to the medical centre on Sunday the doctor told me that without a doubt I had malaria and my blood was FULL of parasites!

He gave me a bunch of drugs to take to kill the malaria, get rid of the body-aches and fever and deal with the nausea. Malaria is not a fun experience!! I think I lucked out because I wasn’t throwing up or violently ill but I definitely felt awful and entirely drained of energy. The big excursion was getting out of my bed to go lay on the couch in the living room!

Wednesday we went back to the clinic for a follow-up test and woohoo! All the parasites were gone! It was a little funny because I was there to have a malaria test, my roommate Sarah wasn’t feeling well so she came as well, and Sergine (my other roommate’s sister who is visiting) was also sick! I think the doctor thought there was some kind of epidemic in our house!!

The unfortunate part is that Sarah was really really sick and ended up staying overnight at the clinic! The verdict on her sickness? Dengue Fever! Incredibly rare here in Burkina Faso. It is transmitted by mosquitoes, like malaria, but mosquitoes that bite during the day. It is less dangerous because it can’t affect your brain (malaria can be fatal if not treated!), but it lasts twice as long and, after seeing Sarah go through what she did…Dengue is NOT something I would like to have.

Essentially there is nothing you can do to treat it so you just have to wait it out with incredibly high fever for 3-4 days…body-aches…headaches…nausea…vomiting…sore eyes…and when the fever goes away, it is replaced by a red rash all over your body that may or may not be itchy! And the fatigue stays throughout the whole ordeal. If you are extra unlucky the fever comes back after the rash for another 3-4 days!

Anyway, at this point she is doing much better with the rash going away and no new fever starting! The doctor at the clinic said they see 2 or 3 cases of Dengue a year…maybe. So Sarah was just really unlucky!

But all is almost entirely well in the house now and we can all get back to our regular routines!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend (to those who celebrate it!)