“A day late and a dollar short”

Friday, we’re back on generator power but the internet seems to have disappeared. But I’m not worried about that, because my mood has crashed and with it my motivation.

I have a fairly complex project to manage this month and I’m not doing anything. I’ve spent the last two weeks in work avoidance mode. Now, much of my gripes at work centre around having not much to do, or at least not much interesting work. So here I am with an interesting project, one which will let me feel like I’ve achieved something this year and I’m a lame duck. I conceived it, I developed it, I was instrumental in getting the funds to support it but when it comes to the implementation I’m nowhere. I wish that the project had got this far while I still had the energy to run it.

How have I got myself to this point? Well, here’s a brief narrative of the whole sorry affair, which I think is indicative of projects in this neck of the woods.

Early 2006:
In the beginning of 2006, I was asked along to a few meetings of the “then quite active, now defunct” ICT in Education committee to give inputs on spreading internet access in schools. The “then quite popular, now completely out of favour with GoR” Internet provider which was in discussions to provide said access, mentioned when they provided internet it would be up to the schools (or the ministry) to make sure they could use it properly, in terms of having trained teachers & technicians, adequate LAN infrastructure and such essentials as physical space of computer and electricity. This presented a whole load of interesting questions on which schools had what facilities, on their eReadiness.

One definition of creativity is the process by which a problem is turned into an opportunity, or so I claimed on my Berkely MBA application (they still didn’t accept me, the bastards). So I developed a little project for my university to conduct a schools eReadiness survey using final year students and/or recent grads. The idea was that as well as in inventory of IT equipment and general eReadiness, we’d also do a bit of Monitoring and Evaluation on the computers already deployed, as well as giving the students so real world experience and (if they were entrepreneurial enough) introducing them a potential customer base for their skills. And I could feel like I’d done something worthwhile, given that the report could also be used a basis for policy development and expenditure prioritisation.

Summer 2006 :
So the project plan was written initially Feb 2006 and presented to the Ministry in April. They agreed it was a good idea and much needed but said that due to procurement procedures it would be impossible to simple “hire” us like that, there would have to be a tender process. And of course they didn’t have a budget for it anyway, so the idea was shelved for the summer. Around the end of the summer I was approached by a private sector IT player with an offer to fund the survey phase of my project, via the university’s links with said IT player. All looked well but since promises are not cold, hard cash I didn’t move on it.

November 2006: We were asked for an invoice for the project in a real, big hurry and as a result of this I screw up the invoice amount. Even though I catch the error in less than 72hrs its too late although the Funder does suggest initial funds would be dispatched as long as I started using the first sum (this is because of the Absorption Capacity problem). Around this time an International NGO approach the Ministry offering to help with my little project. At this time I also tell the Funder to contact the Ministry to tell them they will support the survey with us as implementers. From a protocol point of view, we cannot inform them because they are our parent ministry.

Jan-April 2007: During this time there some to-ing and fro-ing between myself and the Funder and some unsuccessful attempts on my side to get senior management and the ICT people in the university involved in the project. Now that we are getting funds I will need help for the implementation, esp since my job has changed and I’m no longer with the ICT Centre.

May 2007 : The money for the survey arrives our account and we go see the Ministry about getting their blessing and support to implement. We cannot visit the schools nor are we likely to get cooperation from Headmasters without an official letter from the Ministry. We are told the Ministry cannot help us as they have not been officially informed of the Funder’s support. I thought this had all been taken care of in November, and now I’m exactly where I don’t want to be…in the middle of a political wrangle with some people’s noses out of joint. I give up on it for some months.

July- Mid Aug 2007: The NGO steps into the picture again to offer some much needed intervention in terms of back up on the survey development and as intermediaries between us and ministry – this is particularly urgent now as I may be leaving Rwanda in September. Starting the project appears to be more intractable than middle east politics. The Ministry have now been informed by the Funders and while we have been waiting for the written go-ahead from them, they then turn around and say that, in fact, they need a letter from us requesting a letter from them. Arrgh! I again get disheartened and try to ignore the project hoping I’ll be out of Rwanda before the pressure comes to implement.

Mid Aug- Present: I’m not leaving till Jan, so it looks like I have to deal with the project since, quite unfathomably, the university and ministry senior management seem to now be a big hurry to implement. I know the university is nervous about the Funders money being on our account for so long without being used. A chance meeting with the Funder’s representative shows that he also is getting pressure from above to show results from the donation by mid October. Le shit is hitting the proverbial fan. And I feel like I’m in a weird East African version of “Brewsters Millions”, having a considerable sum to shift through public coffers in an incredibly short time.

So I assemble a project team(not as easy as it sounds), send everyone the documents, inform them the timescales are tight and call a meeting. To which only the Ministry representative shows up, and he’s driven across town to get to us. Bleuch! I feel like giving up completely. Or not. I want to do this, I want to do something concrete and at the same time I want it as far away from me as possible. Its all a day late and a dollar short (actually several thousands but those counting?) and I wish to high heaven, I’d been able to get the project to this point sometime last year, when I was still enthusiastic about it.