I get many questions (all joking, I hope) all asking if I ever do any work here, or if all I do is go on trips and have fun. I definitely have a lot of fun (I’m determined to have as many experiences as I can while I’m here) I do a lot of work as well. For anyone who thinks working for not for profits and donors is easy, let me just tell you, that is not the case. They have high expectations, and personally, I put even higher expectations on myself - it’s hard to give less than 110% when you know the outputs of your work could really make a difference and change lives.
I mostly talk about non-work related items on this blog because I don’t want to divulge too much of what we’ve working on in such a public forum - nothing is super secret, but everything we are developing is still in the planning/proposal stage and I don’t want it to be misinterpreted as a final plan. Plus, if I were my client, I wouldn’t want my business splashed over a blog that also talks about meat snacks.
However, after having said all this, I do want to share a bit of the work we’re doing, as, we had a pretty major milestone in our project a couple of weeks back. For those of you that don’t know, I’m working on a project called WIFA (weather information for all) that is focused on providing better weather information in Kenya, with a specific focus on smallholder farmers. A very large percentage (~70%) of Kenya’s economy is based on agriculture, and the increasing levels of climate variability and climate change have really hit small holder farmers hard. If they don’t have good access to accurate weather data, they stand to lose their entire livelihoods.
During the time we’ve been here, we have focused on documenting the current state (the current capabilities as they relate to weather, finding similar programs that we can leverage for WIFA, meeting with key stakeholders to determine interest in the WIFA program) and coming up with a recommended operating model for how WIFA could be implemented, along with an proposed implementation plan and business case for making it happen. From November to mid-January, we met with a lot of folks individually - it was time to pull all our stakeholders together and test our proposals and thinking with all of them in a group forum.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, our client from the States was in town the last two weeks of January to help us conduct the meeting with all of the stakeholders here in Nairobi. We had an amazing turnout - over 40 people attended, and the workshop was kicked off by the Agriculture Secretary. In Kenya, getting someone from an influential ministry to kick off your meeting is big news - there were lots of whispers of “is that the agriculture secretary??” as people were arriving and getting settled. We even had three farmers attend - I think that really brought the whole purpose behind the program to life for many people - it’s hard to argue the importance of this program when the intended beneficiary is outlining the reasons better weather information is needed right in front of you.
Most of the morning was spent introducing all of the players to each other, with all parties talking about the interest they have in WIFA. We spent the afternoon reviewing our proposals and then breaking into small groups to discuss specific sections. All of the participants were engaged and eager to share ideas, which to me is one of the biggest indicators of a successful workshop. Having all the parties in one room forced some of the larger issues into the public forum, where they could be acknowledged (which is half the battle). We got a ton of good information from all the participants, and the feedback on our proposals was positive - of course, there will be challenges, but it was so good to hear our ideas being discussed and ultimately accepted. We still have a lot of work to do, but this was definitely a major milestone for us!
From a personal perspective, it was great to be able to both give a presentation that outlined our proposal to the group (talk about scary - speaking to 40+ people, all with different interests and motivations) and facilitating one of the break out groups. This project continues to stretch me in so many ways - I’m learning so much every day. I’ll definitely be a much stronger person, work wise, when this is all said and done.
Now..on to incorporating the feedback we’ve heard...and making our proposals even better!
Here is Aliya (one of my teammates) leading a break out session about potential places to roll out our project - very exciting, because it means turning all these ideas into reality!
Here I am leading my breakout group - a little intimidating to be talking about weather topics - while my co-host of the breakout group was a meteorologist! Nothing like getting up to speed / proficient on a topic really quickly!
Vicky and Chungli with their breakout group...lots of good discussion, but man were we TIRED by the end of the day!
Vicky and I outside our meeting room - if you squint, you can see "Accenture Development Partnerships" on the name plate!
The Agriculture Secretary kicking off the meeting - very cool! It's so exciting that he knows about and is supportive of our project - hopefully it will help us to make this all a reality!
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