Panelists, L to R: Anupan Khanna, Prof U Shankar, Prof MS Swaminathan, Shantanu Mitra, Prof Sudhir Chellarajan

In Chennai recently to attend a conference organised by the Madras School of Economics and the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics, I was honoured to be asked to participate in a panel discussion (Challenges in Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation: Research, Training and Policy Possibilities) chaired by Professor MS Swaminathan, the agriculturalist largely credited with the Green Revolution which transformed agricultural yields and food security in India. Although there’s considerable debate about the legacy of the Green Revolution, there’s little about the status of Prof Swaminathan, a truly legendary figure named by Time magazine as one of the 20 most influential Asians of the 20th century. (Find a summary of the conference here)

Many people nowadays talk of the need for a “second Green Revolution” to cope with the threat of climate change to agriculture. Swaminathan remains closely connected to live policy issues at the age of 85, most recently, as is clear from this interview, in the debate within India about genetically modified (GM) crops – a difficult and complex issue which could have an important bearing on the resilience of Indian agriculture to future climate change.

So I listened particularly carefully to his comments during the discussion, in which he talked of food security and water security as the most critical challenges due to climate change. Among the many points he made: that local action will be crucial for successful adaptation to climate change; and that greater “climate literacy” would be needed to enable this to happen.

Villagers showing a “resource map” they had created for their village – the green patches represent land newly irrigated under the project

Illustrating this point, the conference had heard earlier from a farmer from Andhra Pradesh who had been trained as a local “climate risk manager” under an initiative of the professor’s own MS Swaminathan Research Foundation. The job of these individuals is essentially to monitor important climatic data and disseminate it in real time to farmers; farmers accessing this information have seen their yields increase.

Just last week, Prof Swaminathan’s words came to mind when I found myself in Dindori, a remote rural district in central India, with rates of poverty and malnutrition among the highest in the country. Visiting largely tribal villages and talking to field-level staff, I saw how the DFID-funded Madhya Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Programme, working through institutions of local government, is building the resilience of poor communities through, among other things, helping them improve water availability, boost agricultural productivity, and diversify their sources of income. See this PDF for more information on DFID rural programmes in India.

A biogas plant now providing clean fuel for cooking, and potentially lighting, to a household without electricity

Many households have also been helped to install biogas plants which use manure – readily available locally – to generate clean cooking gas which is piped into their homes. District Coordinator, Dr Sailesh Shakalya, and other programme staff took me to visit the household whose biogas plant you can see in the photo. Inside, whilst making chai for us on her new, clean and efficient biogas stove, the lady of the house explained how the new device was saving time previously spent gathering firewood, and had also reduced the indoor air pollution which, as noted in my last blog is responsible for so much ill-health across rural India.

The programme struck me as an excellent example of climate change adaptation in practice, illustrating the large overlap between good development practice – especially in areas already suffering from climatic stresses such as drought – and resilience to climate change.

All this has been achieved, however, without explicitly addressing the “climate literacy” that Prof Swaminathan talked about. It left me wondering how much more effective the programme might be if it did so. Work is just getting underway on a similar programme in another state, West Bengal, which I hope will enable us to answer this question. Another illustration, if one was needed, of how climate change forces us to re-examine “traditional” development practice and learn new lessons.

Ministry of Health and partner break out session

The build up to one of the big twice yearly policy discussions between the Ministry of Health and its partners was well underway last week. The policy dialogue, known as the CCS (the coordinating committee for health),  will be held tomorrow on the 11^th March. However, on Monday and Tuesday last week, health partners had a workshop with representatives of the Ministry of Health to discuss issues such as how to strengthen the partnership and improve joint working, information that we will incorporate in the meeting tomorrow. We also considered how to monitor whether both government and partners are living up to the commitments we made in July 2008 when we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) governing the way we should work together. Mozambique’s MOU is a lengthy document of 14 pages when presented in both English and Portuguese together. The document took intensive negotiation to draft and agree, but it now provides an important and useful framework to govern the relationship between the Ministry of Health and its partners.

Dr Langa and Etelvina relax at lunch after the mornings discussions

The meeting was at the hotel VIP, situated next to the DFID office, so I was able to walk the short distance to venue. The blast of hot air on the walk to the hotel was welcome after sitting in the air-conditioned climate of the DFID office. The hotel is a good meeting venue as it has large meeting rooms with lots of break-out space. I’ve attached a few pictures from the meeting. Amongst the Ministry of Health participants was Dr Julio Langa who was part of a 9 person team that I visited Xai Xai hospital with during the joint review last year. It was good to work with him again and he made some very useful observations on ways of motivating Ministry of Health Staff, principally by acknowledging and praising good performance whenever it occurs. Julio works with the National Institute of Health Sciences and I have also provide a link to Google's English translation of this site. It strikes me that most organisations could do more to recognise and acknowledge good performance. It is amazing what positive words and a supportive environment can do to improve the atmosphere and productivity in an organisation.  The staff in Mozambique’s Ministry of Health do a tremendous job, in often difficult circumstances, and one of the key messages next week will be to thank them for their energy, commitment and ideas.

This morning I was at a meeting where Muhammed Dayyamu, the Kano Ministry of Education school census manager, was succinctly reporting back the excellent progress.  While the rest of us were stuffing back the turkey sandwiches and recovering from New Year Eve's excesses back in January, the Kano data entry team had been busy, very busy.

School census manager, Kano

Within 6 weeks they had entered data from over 6,600 schools and had established that they were a lot closer to knowing how many schools in the state there actually are. An additional 88 senior secondary schools and 174 private  schools had been 'discovered', while in some areas schools had disappeared: the Kano municipality had 10 less junior secondary schools than first thought.  Everybody 'got' why having a master list of schools and keeping it active was important, if only for tax collection purposes from the private schools!

Compare this to finding out about schools in the UK.  I wanted to know more about schools in Hampshire (UK) recently. A quick search via the council website and not just school lists appeared, but catchment maps and OFSTED inspection reports full of learning outcome data, school specialism areas and improvement plans.

School information at the click of a mouse

In addition to completing the data entry, there was also some checking and quality control being introduced, including a verification exercise.  This is more important than it might sound - massive distortions that make a lot of information useless is commonplace.  Just last week I went to a school in a neighbouring state that had quadrupled its enrolment of a plan, probably to try and get a larger budget.

The next step as I emphasised to Muhammed and the local government staff at the meeting was to turn the magic handle and actually collate the key statistics on students, the gender gap and the like.  This is the information we are still starved of, to help states like Kano expand and improve their education system.

Hopefully I can report soon on how many kids are in school in Kano and get my 'results focussed' managers off my back!

Thirsty work for Ian and Rabi

On the road the other day and decided to swing by and see how the rain harvesting scheme at Gidan Mutan Daya primary school, Katsina was getting on now, over 3 months into the dry season. When I last visited the tanks had just received the first rains and we were curious to see how long into the dry season they could provide clean water for the children, especially girls to use. A previous attempt to sink a bore hole had failed to locate water in this dry environment.

Lizard Lab

Full of optimism I arrived around noon on a blistering hot day, but ominously the teachers started to smile sheepishly and as if by magic a clutch of pupils ran across the playground, clutching buckets in search of water as they left school early. One of the primary girls Rabi and I clambered up and peered into the tank, nothing but a lizard den inside: an ideal school biology laboratory exercise perhaps, but not much needed H2O.

The teachers explained that the tank never filled up in the first place, the water leaked out from the joint to the drain pipe, enough to fill buckets, but not the reservoir. "What did you do fix the problem, surely it would have been simple to solve this?" I asked. The responses were vague, "We called he installer", etc..., but at the end of the day the school / community hadn't bothered to try to make it work.

Still Walking for Water

It's difficult to know what to say / do in these situations. We talk a lot about community engagement and capacity building, but often 'Things Fall Apart' all too easily. Hopefully come June and the next rains the school based management committee will try to get this scheme working, at least none of the pipework had been stripped for other purposes yet!

It is important to look for the positives, I wonder how the other 30 similar schemes fared? I'll try  to find out next time...

Implementation of the Global Health Initiative consultation document from USAID

I have had a series of meetings with US government colleagues over recent weeks on the Global Health Initiative. This discussion document is an important indication of the new US approach to development. It sets out a new vision for US leadership in global health, with a very encouraging and deliberate focus on a new business model with a stress on country ownership, health systems strengthening, integrating services, prioritising girls and women, strengthening montitoring and evaluation, and stronger partnerships.   

The document includes a strong results orientation and a clear reference to making progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  It also gives a very useful description of how health impacts on other sectors and points out the benefits of improving health to the global community highlighting the benefits to US taxpayers and citizens. Improving measurement of health is one of the areas where the US will add value to the response in Mozambique.

Soon to be married: Sheri-Nouane Johnson

One of the people who has been involved in the discussions of the Global Health Initiative with health partners, is Sheri-Nouane Johnson. I give particular mention to Sheri-Nouane here as I have known here since we worked together in Bangladesh and, more interesting than that, she got married this week in Kruger National Park. I would like to wish her and Peter the very best. Sheri-Nouane is pictured here in a recent meeting of the Health Partners Group held in the DFID office.

Attending the 'discharge' ceremony (Credit: UNMIN / Chandra Shekhar Karki)

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, but lots has been happening here in Nepal. If I’d written before Christmas, I think that my blog would have been pretty downbeat. Up until almost the very end of the year there was very little progress on the peace process and it was getting harder to be optimistic (as I generally like to be!) about the way things were going.  Parliament was still being blocked, there were still strikes (bandhs) which meant total shut down throughout the Kathmandu Valley – no motorised vehicles of any kind, the drafting of the constitution was well behind schedule and it seemed that the key players didn’t really want to talk to each other.

With a new year, comes – potentially – a new beginning. Now I don’t want to sound naïve, but there has been positive progress in the last few weeks. To name just a few, just before Christmas the Maoist Party stopped blocking parliament, so for the first time in months Nepal has a fully functioning parliament. The long awaited High Level Political Mechanism – which is supposed to resolve the really knotty peace process issues such as the future of the 19,600 ex-Maoist fighters – has been formed with the participation of the three largest political parties, and they are talking (always a good thing!). And lastly – and I think potentially most heartening – the discharge of the so-called “disqualified” combatants from the camps has been completed peacefully.

Disqualified Maoists queueing for the discharge process at MCS 6 Surkhet (Credit: UNMIN / Chandra Shekhar Karki)

There are about 4,000 “disqualified” – really a strange term to use – of which around 3,000 were under age when they joined the Maoist army (they were child soldiers during the war, even though many are now over 18), and about 1,000 were late recruits to the Maoist army (they joined after the fighting was officially over). I went to the far west of Nepal last week, to a place near Surkhet, to witness one of the discharge ceremonies. It was very interesting and really quite moving. Quite a few of the “disqualified” had already left the camps, but there were still over 600 in this camp alone who were to be discharged.

All the “disqualified” were registered with the UN monitors (see the photo) and given an identity card, which certifies them as an ex-combatant. The card also has a telephone number on it which these young people can call any time in the next year and get advice on what to do next. There are four “packages” available to them to help them reintegrate back into civilian life: vocational training; training as a health worker; setting up their own business or going back to school. The UK has helped fund these packages, which are offered by the UN and its partners on behalf of the government.

Ex-Maoist combatants prepared to leave (Credit: UNMIN / Chandra Shekhar Karki)

At the ceremony, there were some speeches (you can see me on the podium with the UN and Maoist commanders) by the Maoist Commandant of the camp, the Deputy Commander of the Maoist Army, and the Head of the UN in Nepal. They were then each given a tikka (red mark on their foreheads) and a garland of marigolds, and sent towards the buses which would take them to the nearest town from which they start their way home and to a new life.

I watched the faces of these young people. There is some anger amongst them that they fought for what they believed in and now they are being discharged and sent home and being told that they are “disqualified” – the term in Nepali is apparently even more negative, meaning almost “unfit”. Some of the young men had been drinking, causing a bit of trouble and breaking chairs to vent their frustration and anger the morning we arrived for the ceremony. The ceremony however passed peacefully and the looks on most of these young faces as they passed me to go to the bus was sad, lost, many tearful, some defiant, some clearly very apprehensive. Understandable when you consider that most of their adult lives had been fighting for or living in a camp under the control of the Maoist army. They probably had little idea what was waiting for them outside the camp. My heart really went out to them, especially the young girls, with young babies, of whom there were quite a few. Take a look at this excellent photo essay from UNICEF which brilliantly captures the process.

Ready to load (Credit UNMIN / Chandra Shekhar Karki)

The discharge of the “disqualified” is now over. We can’t really say if it was successful or not yet, as that will depend on how these young people are welcomed back to their villages and hopefully reintegrated into civilian life. I really hope that they all manage to forge for themselves a more peaceful existence in a peaceful Nepal.

This is one important step forward, but a huge challenge awaits, which is to resolve the future of the remaining 19,600 ex-Maoist fighters still in the camps, and to help them move on to a new life.......

Nice face, shame about the ear.

I managed a short trip to Swaziland last week. Just one night in Mbuluzi Game Reserve was enough to re-charge my batteries. It takes just an hour and a half to drive to the Swaziland border from Maputo, and 10 minutes beyond the border is this small, but beautiful, game reserve.

With over 300 bird species to see and none of the dangers of the Big 5, it’s a great place for walking and cycling to see the wildlife. My kids really enjoyed the freedom of being able to walk up close to animals. This giraffe, with its torn ear had a very expressive face!

Luxury lodge, for the price of a B&B!

The accommodation was also great, we stayed in this fantastic 3 bedroom chalet, booked just a few days before the trip. It was just a night away from Maputo, but enough to set me up for the focus of this week as we begin to gather information to evaluate the health improvements achieved in 2009.

David Powell and Franziska at GFATM debrief

I mentioned the visit of the Global Fund to Mozambique the other week, and I introduced Alberto Pasini. Alberto kept up a high pace of meetings during his visit, and we were all feeling a little weary by the time we had the final de-brief at the Netherlands Embassy on Thursday morning. For the debrief Alberto was joined by David Powell, who is the Senior Financial Adviser for the Global Fund for southern Africa (David is pictured here talking to Franziska Freiburghaus of the Swiss Development Cooperation).  

The Netherlands Embassy, in addition to being a great bit of architecture, has a well deserved reputation for serving the best ‘official’ coffee in Maputo. This normally prompts some speculation about whether it is the coffee or the subject matter that leads to its well attended meetings. However, on this occasion the Global Fund debrief had significant pulling power. Given the size of the Global Funds commitment to Mozambique over the next 5 years (over $450 million including round 8 and 9 funds), there was a huge level of interest in understanding how the flow of Global Fund money to Mozambique might be improved.

The delayed disbursement of funds in 2009 have been a source of concern amongst official, partners and civil society and have been a rallying point to action to minimise the risk of future delays. Voluntary Pooled Procurement of the significant quantities of medicines contained in the proposals may be a way forward in terms of securing timely release of funds for a substantial part of the funds. However, we still need to find ways to ensure that significant funds flow through and help build the government systems that the Sector Wide Approach is committed to strengthening.

By the end of the week I was need of a short holiday, and a trip to Swaziland was the solution - but more on that later....

We considered how to keep human development high on the agenda and safeguard our programmes from the impact of the global recession and competing priorities for funds and political attention during a UK election year. Climate Change is a good example: carbon pricing and technology adaptation are hugely important, but what about education and family planning for African girls (and boys)? If Lagos does expand with an additional 10 million souls, many are going to end up in flood prone slums: smaller, smarter families have to part of the long term solution.

M-PESA Kenya mobile cash transfer

Some topics on strategies, ‘cash on delivery’ and aid effectiveness can get a little dry, but learning what works: (e.g. activity based learning in Tamil Nadu) or what challenges some of our staff have had to overcome, really adds spice. My unfortunate colleague in Kenya turned up for his first day in the office, just as a fraud was quickly being investigated in the country's education sector. Then the health team in Zambia recounted their newly formed expertise in forensic audit, gained whilst trying to track donor budget support funds. Meanwhile, our despairing adviser in DRC displayed pictures of huge bundles of cash for teacher salaries leaving Kinshaha in the back of mini-buses, for want of a better system to pay the staff. ‘How about mobile phone e-cash transfers?’ came the response from the M-PESA savvy Kenyans.

Prof. Robert Chambers (Credit: IDS)

One of the retreat's highlights however came from an encounter with IDS’s Prof. Robert Chambers who by chance was in the hotel and readily agreed to lecture us pen-pushers on the somewhat dirty subject of Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS). Prof. Chambers, a champion of grassroots initiatives such as Participatory Poverty Appraisals, is firmly in the Development ‘Hall of Fame’ and age has not diminished his drive and intellectual interest. ‘Did we know in the Nairobi slums you could get clean water from an automatic solar powered pump via a mobile e-payment?’ he enthused to a slightly shell shocked audience.

Getting the message across on sanitation in N. Nigeria

Burning with energy, the CLTS approach that is scaling up across Africa was described. Communities walk together in their neighbourhood seeing the reality of open defecation, while facilitators make the point that with no sanitation in effect they are surrounded by 'shit’. Unprompted, a local leader ignites and resolves to take action and (without donor support) a participatory programme of pit latrine construction starts that can deliver dramatic health improvements. It’s thought that tropical enteropathy (damaged gut lining from constant exposure to harmful bacteria) is a major factor in child malnourishment and inhibits growth. Being ODF (Open Defecation Free) compliant has become a badge of honour for many villages.

In Nigeria the CLTS approach is about to be strengthened through a new DFID financed sanitation programme in conjunction with UNICEF and I returned ‘really getting’ what it's about.  I’m looking forward to the day when local Hausa leaders adopt this approach in Northern Nigeria, anyone who has gone for walk around the colourful but often smelly markets will know why!

Dr Celia and Dr Isaura in the working group

Last Wednesday was Heroes Day in Mozambique and a national holiday. The web-link gives the background to the day, which commemorates the lives of soldiers lost in Mozambique’s Independence war, which ended in 1975. For me the day off was an opportunity to recover from the previous day’s intense and tiring workshop on how to evaluate the performance of the health sector.

I have mentioned in previous blogs (here and here) that we are reviewing the method used to evaluate the health sector, and Tuesday’s workshop which was held on the 9^th floor of the Ministry of Health, brought together Ministry officials, representatives of the National AIDS Council and development partners to discuss the challenge.

Working group on the format of the annual evaluation

There were various working groups which discussed the process of information collection and analysis and data validation. I have attached pictures of Dr Celia and Dr Isaura who were in a group discussing the format the report should take. I have mentioned Dr Celia before, as she is leading coordinating the annual evaluation. There is also a picture of Celia and Isaura in the midst of working group with health partners Celeste Kinsey for Canada, Hilde de Graeve for the World Health Organisation, and Geert Haghebaert for the European Union on the left of the picture.

Working group on data collection, with Etelvina, Mindy and Dr Mouzinho

I participated in a working group which discussed data collection and verification, along (on the right of the picuture) Etelvina, who I have introduced previously, Mindy Hochgesang of PEPFAR for the United States Government and Dr Mouzinho, who is responsible for community health services at the far end of the table in a pink shirt.

The meeting was an opportunity to consider how to ensure that this evaluation helps to support and build capacity within the Ministry of Health and National AIDS Council to strengthen routine monitoring and evaluation systems.