Despite our successes with the 9 Community Health Clubs we started training in Umzimkhulu in January of this year, nobody has yet to come forward to support Africa AHEADs continued efforts in the Sisonke District of KZN. In addition, with our project in Durban only half-way completed, there is unfortunately a severe lack of work for me in South Africa at the moment. Therefore, the decision was made about one month ago that Christy and I should pack up our lives and head up north to assist our sister organization, Zimbabwe AHEAD, in their efforts to break into the mainstream of Zimbabwe’s health and development sector.
After last year’s horrible cholera outbreak, Zimbabwe AHEAD was recognized as one of the leaders in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector because of the significant lack of cholera in the areas where it operates. As the cholera outbreak devastated communities without appropriate health and hygiene education, those areas with Health Clubs (even those started over 10 years ago), were taking all of the necessary steps to avoid cholera’s transmission (hand washing, solid waste management, etc). In response, UNICEF and the other international organizations operating in Zim stated their interest in supporting such a successful, indigenous organization. For a variety of reasons, this support has not been forthcoming. One such reason posited by myself and Africa AHEAD’s director’s is Zimbabwe AHEADS lack of, how do I phrase this without upsetting anyone…, a white face. Ok, I just said it, but we believe it is true. Anyway, this is one reason I have been asked to travel north; to assist ZimAHEAD in becoming not just a preferred NGO in the WASH sector, but a leader and innovator who can work independently of the larger, more established international NGOs who, for better or worse, obtain the majority of donor funding in Zim.
To assist ZimAHEAD in reaching this goal, I will be traveling with 14 Nokia cellular phones. These phones will be our first line of offense in this battle. How, you might ask? Well, through an innovative research tool that allows surveys to be conducted via cellular phones and then uploaded directly to a central online database. The Mobile Researcher platform cuts the overall time needed for field-based research in half and when we prove its efficacy in a place as hard pressed as Zim, it is hoped that the Unicef’s, Oxfam’s and other big time players will wake up and take note. As if a successfully demonstrated methodology that stimulates sustainable hygiene behavior change is not enough to impress! As usual, I digress…
The second role I will play is to assist the Program Manager in Zim in obtaining regular and timely support for training new Health Clubs and supporting the health and development endeavors of those clubs previously established. As indicated above, many of the big players in this sector, despite their verbal offerings of support, appear hesitant to put significant support into ZimAHEADs programs. My job will be to keep the pressure on these players and assure them that the provided resources will be utilized appropriately. The hope is that we can break out of the current paradigm where ZimAHEAD is merely a secondary service provider beneath a larger, more established international organization. There is no reason that ZimAHEAD should and could not be a primary provider for Unicef or DFID (UK) or USAID (USA). My goal is to make this vision a reality through proper advocacy and demonstrated efficacy of appropriate monitoring and evaluation.
So, in short, I am heading into ‘Africa’, where the game is different. When I first began working in South Africa I realized immediately that I was working in the idealized state, where government funds and oversees development initiatives (with a little help from foreign donors in our case). At first I thought this would be refreshing…boy was I wrong. Now I’m heading up to Zim where I will no longer have to deal with the headaches of inefficient government. In fact, government might as well not exist at all. Now it’s back to development as usual and I have to say, I’m interested to be able to make the comparisons. Check back here for my thoughts and muses on these two different systems of implementing health and development in Africa.
