White fuzzy weeds

Joining International Alert as Country Manager for Liberia Part 2

Peace building is a completely new "technical sector" for me in terms of my actual experience in the Aid Establishment. So, joining the Liberia office for International Alert has been given me a very unique opportunity to learn about peace building. In the industry sense of it. 

I started my first work day in town. International Alert's national Programme Officer met me at NATC along with an Economics for Peace expert from International Alert's head office. There was a meeting scheduled with one of the companies that International Alert Liberia is engaged with in downtown Monrovia.

It was ironic to be in a meeting with a company representing an NGO instead of an IT services company, something which I have been doing since 2009.  During the meeting, I was really a quiet participant, observing how my colleagues interacted with the company's top manager. 

Coincidentally, many of NATC's past and current clients were in the extractive industry and at least one is a plantation. Some of these companies pulled out of Liberia such as BHP Billiton and Putu Iron Ore Mining Inc. I managed to get some lucrative supply and service contracts with such big companies. I learned a little bit about how companies operate, the sheer expertise and highly skilled  planning and projection that's required and, what challenges and risks companies operate with. I had the chance to visit the camps, meet geologists, learn about the social corporate responsibility teams, learn about environmental studies companies had to undertake and so on. There was also political challenges such as being called to meet with government officials regularly for regular paperwork or to respond to news of conflicts with communities or other allegations. Because I had befriended often times almost the whole management, I would hear of problems the company would have because there were pressures to recruit people from the area but often times the skilled labour from areas outside of Monrovia was even poorer than from Monrovia. I also remember hearing about the limitations of the clinic that was set up by the company and, how it couldn't serve everyone in the company.

I spent more time with 2 iron ore mining companies so my knowledge regarding this extraction is better than challenges/operations of palm oil plantations (I have one palm oil plantation client). I understood that these companies initially go through an exploration phase where highly detailed analysis and projections are made before any extraction and processing even takes place. The Agreements are quite complex and, even though there are hefty fees to be paid, a lot of under the table hand greasing also has to keep things going. While one of these companies may have not been so sincere about environmental protection, one of them seemed to walk the talk when it came to community and environmental protection. All in all, I got a sense that these companies had to tread quite carefully, maintain relationships and manage their reputations.

Despite such close encounters with companies and positive impressions, I found International Alert's model of engagement with the extractive industry something new to understand. I was told that International Alert does not do the 'blaming and shaming' type of advocacy and, rather tries to work with all parties to a conflict.

I had a lengthy and interesting chat with the expert from London who explained that International Alert believes there will always be conflict and, it is only be engaging all parties to it that peaceful outcomes can be envisioned and produced. This is Alert's  notion of peace building. So this entails providing conflict-sensitivity training to companies; promoting dialogues between the companies and "communities"; and even providing consultancies to companies. Where is the government's role in this whole process? I was told that the government is also included in the whole work but often times governments don't ensure consultation and protection of "communities" through the whole process.

The first few days and weeks have been quite interesting in terms of learning International Alert's approach and work. In Liberia, they've been operating since the mid 90s.

My induction at the London office was quite a treat. I was able to visit London after about 7 years. What a long time! Not only that, I went back with Kavita and, was able to stay at my brother Tariq's place and spend some good time with my sister Saira and Tariq.

During the induction, I was able to meet all the department heads and, many other colleagues as well. It was quite a packed 3-4 days at the office in Clapham. My sister and brother took care of Kavita during the day while I was at the office. One day she didn't want to go with Saira so I had to bring Kavita with me to the International Alert head office. Poor thing was so well behaved and quiet for the whole morning. She stayed in the recreation room and, then eventually I brought her to the Africa office where she was entertained by the communications officer while I was in a meeting with my boss's boss (my boss is the West Africa manager while his boss is the Africa manager). I could hear that Kavita was demanding that the communications officer put on "Frozen" for her. I kept apologising but the Africa manager was quite kind and did not mind, even when Kavita popped her head into the meeting room.

It struck me through the induction that the intellectual cream, the experts, the technical experts, the policy makers, the fund raisers are all based in a head office while the Country Offices, such as ours in Liberia, house a different set of folks. Not many of them have been around that long and, are implementing projects that haven't been designed by them. I am not quite sure how this model benefits the Country Office.

I was not so crazy about the required security training which was 4 nights away at a training facility an hour outside of Oxford. I dragged my sister with me so Kavita could be close to me.

It's been about 4 months and, it's been quite a busy time. When I joined, I found myself with 2 reporting deadlines for donors. It was quite an overwhelming task to put together a report with the team without having been there at all. I also had to go up to London. I have not even had the time to go visit any of the projects in the "field." I have tried to network as much as I can to get a sense of what's going on in Monrovia and "map out actors."

It's quite interesting to be in this world again. I am giving myself prep talks to be patient with the organisation, with the NGO world and to really learn what are the socio-economic and political issues that "civil society" is currently grappling with. 

Settling back into life in Monrovia

I arrived back in Monrovia from on 3 May after being away from about a month. It always takes a while to settle back into Monrovia after being away, especially if one has been away in a country with far more advanced infrastructure and pleasures of limitless consumerism. 

Folks always remark they don't miss the consumerism (ah, but they do) but as much as they miss culture like being able to watch a film at the cinema or visit a museum or enjoy concerts. But these cultural delights also have to be consumed. Sure, sometimes they may be 'free' in advanced societies but many times they are not. 

But apparently, there was a Joss Stone concert in Liberia while I was gone. 

For the last few days of my induction and security training with International Alert's head office in London, Haresh joined Kavita and I for a mini London break. We had a good time together and traveled back together on the newly resumed KLM service to Liberia. The experience was fantastic. The crew was genuinely friendly and smiled with sincere smiles, unlike the stiff faces of the coiffured and slicked Emirates staff. They also looked like real people which leads me to wonder whether Emirates has launched a test pilot of robotic air crew. 

The 3 hour stop over at Schipol Airport was an enjoyable experience. The airport is modern in the real sense of the word: beautiful art, comfortable sofas and seats for weary travelers, and a playground for children. The tables in the food court had in built charging stations to charge one's devices. 

Coming back to our life in Monrovia was not so easy. The first night we had to sleep at a hotel because we didn't have light at home. It took us more than a month to restore the LEC. We spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars repairing our back up generator twice and, hundreds more in official and unofficial fees to the LEC. 

I nearly forgot to mention that on our second day back, our staff at NATC banged up our car, damaged 2 other cars and, cost us $ 10,000 and more. What happened was that they were meant to take some small bags from the NATC office to our apartment (walking distance), an activity that has happened thousands of times every evening. Somehow, my staff gave this task to our technician who doesn't know how to drive and even while Haresh was at the office, the office manager took the keys from the desk and convinced the technician to drive. This technician is a Pakistani, without a driving license. Was he dreaming? He decided to drive and while reversing, rammed the car into 2 standing vehicles, one with a passenger. The wreckage was so bad you wouldn't have believed it. Worse, one of the cars belonged to some folks in the Cooper clan. Thankfully, we were able to resolve the whole mess with the aggrieved parties but it cost us an arm and a leg. 

This same team couldn't get our light and generator back on in our absence but had the presence of mind to drive when not knowing how to drive. 

You can appreciate what a foul state of mind I was in for quite a while. 

Things at International Alert have also been quite hectic so much so that I've not had the time or energy to slip back into my weekly ritual of evening walks, cooking at home and, having friends at home. 

The work at International Alert has been busy with following up donors, addressing funding crises, and working on a proposal in response to a donor call. The proposal writing process (we had to abandon the process half way) was truly a soul sucking experience, especially as we didn't give ourselves enough time. I did learn a lot about some new "thematic" areas that touch upon the work that we're already doing. I think I appreciate a lot more at what a strong local NGO sector is in Liberia although it can be said that after all these years, 'we' have not done enough to build up the professional capacity (what the technical industry requires) of local NGOs. 

I did have the privilege to meet a delegation from one of our donors (Sida) that was in town to assess things in light of UNMIL's phase down. The whole delegation was made up of women which was highly inspiring. It was interesting to be in a room with local and international NGOs with this delegation at the Swedish Embassy sharing experiences and opinions. 

Given the enduring lack of infrastructure, social services and security in Liberia, NGOs and the international community needs to innovate and invest in creativity, thinking of ways to leap frog over obsolete technology and routes and, find faster/newer ways of delivering basic infrastructure and services to Liberians. 

So, I'm back with my life in Liberia, trying to the best with my 3 jobs: NATC, International Alert and Haresh. Yes, I have to manage Haresh, too.  

Life in Monrovia is simple. During the week days, I make the long trek from Randall Street to Congo Town, dropping Kavita off at Kid's Nest en route to my office. She loves her school and is the ideal, obedient and engrossed student. At home she makes demands for endless cartoons and, doesn't eat her food properly. But at school, you would never know. 

So, we live our life in Liberia and, continue to wonder will things change or not? What's in store for our business? Will the economy improve and grow? Will infrastructure improve? Will security improve? Will the elections be peaceful? 

Joining International Alert as Country Manager for Liberia Part 1

I joined International Alert Liberia as Country Manager on 1 February. I saw the vacancy back in September or early  October 2016 and, applied and was confirmed by early November. It took a couple of months for the contract and recruitment formalities to be agreed and finalised and, I joined as head of the office here in February, a few days after returning from Pakistan from holiday. 

I've lived in Liberia since 2003 and worked with WFP-UNJLC and UNDP until 2008; took a year out to pursue a masters at SOAS in London; and been running an IT company since 2009. 

The time ebola struck Liberia and indeed the region, I started to think about reviving my development career. Ebola was a  real existential crisis: I was away in Pakistan for about 8 months because folks told me it was better to stay away and, that in itself created feelings of anguish and guilt. I was also separated from Haresh and, he even had an ebola scare himself. It was time to think about putting my eggs in other baskets. If I revived my job career, I would have an alternate source of income and even have the option to start moving out of Liberia in case things got worse. 

The general existential and moral crisis of course has not been resolved. Ebola and the suffering it wrought exposed to outsiders a barely existent health care system barely managed by a state. As the death toll increased, many aid workers living in the bubble they do in Monrovia, fled the country. An emergency was imposed and, everyone was fighting a war. International airlines pulled out and only 2 airlines served the whole country. Despite it all, the Liberians managed to control and halt the epidemic. Unfortunately, the ebola epidemic coincided with a general global market slump and, the fall of iron ore prices forced some of the mining companies to pull out. Things in Monrovia have normalised of course since the ebola epidemic but the fractures and vulnerability are still here. One can have an enormous sense of helplessness and anger when one thinks about what little postwar reconstruction has actually taken place. 

Against this personal crisis, I joined the big bad Aid Establishment in 2015 when I saw an advert for a Partner Support Director position at Mercy Corps Liberia. The project I was part of was an ebola sensitisation  project: Ebola Community Action Platform. I completed my 6 month contract and, unfortunately, was not renewed for the second phase of the project. I was told I would be better suited at a think tank. 

In some ways, I was glad to be out because I was not really intellectually stimulated per se and, wondered how we could better use $12 million in a country without critical life-saving medical equipment; and, how sustainable was this work without hand-in-hand collaboration with government counterparts. 

I was too glad to see the post of Country Manager for International Alert. I read as much as I could about them and, bombarded my interviewers with my rants about the socio-economic-political crisis in Liberia. Somehow, they hired me and, I began my new stint with a London-based peace building NGO. 

It's been about 3 and a half months since I joined.