EPI - Networking

One of the most important lessons I've learned this summer is that successful organizations need to network top-down, bottom-up, and middle-out. This means we need support from the government and other large organizations, the village leaders and villagers, and organizations similar to ours such as NGOs and universities.

Top-Down

I have had the opportunity to work closely with the Ministry of Education in Ghana, particularly Stephen Adu (the head of the ministry), and leaders in the Curriculum Resource Development Division (CRDD). The first time I met with them, I delivered a powerpoint of the organization to the nine circuit supervisors of the regions in which the pilot project will be operated (Ga West, Ga East, and Dangme West). The pilot project will include six schools. Five of the public schools are in the greater Accra area, yet the schools had to be carefully selected to make sure they will take care of the equipment and use the lanterns for good. The Ministry helped us in this regard by providing district supervisors to escort us to 18 needy schools in the three districts, from which we ultimately chose five. Later meetings with the ministry included getting letters of support in order to apply for the Social Welfare certificate, to see where the science lab can fit with the Ghanaian curriculum, and so forth.

I was also able to attend a small portion of the Lighting Africa Conference, sponsored by the International Finance Corporation (IFC). IFC conducts all kinds of research into electricity needs throughout Africa, including types of lamps people in various areas prefer at night. The conference was actually a competition in which organizations try to solve Africa's electricity problem by providing creative sources of power generation. From this conference, I learned that what we are doing is not unique in terms of electric lighting, but only in terms of power generation. Most contenders involved solar panels. Others were interesting, like an exercise machine that powered a tv--so as long as you exercise, you can watch. Some groups had information about powering various electronic devices that we hadn't yet considered, such as TVs and cell phones. What if Empower Playgrounds was able to charge villagers cell phones for the same fee they normally have to walk all the way into town to pay (typically 50 pesewas/cents) and then filter those proceeds into a school feeding program or to fix a hole in the school roof? Cell phones require a minimal amount of energy compared to the lanterns and the schools could use the income. Furthermore, the issue of carbon financing was brought up at the conference, which inspired some new thoughts. Basically, organizations that emit too much carbon can purchase carbon credits by donating to organizations that reduce carbon emissions by replacing them with other sources. Empower Playgrounds, by providing children with lanterns, is essentially replacing bobos and kerosene lamps which are harmful health-wise. Anyway, the conference assured me that renewable energy IS a major concern in Ghana, once I looked at all the statistics. The conference was sponsored by the World Bank and held in a five-star beach resort. I later met with IFC's Program Manager, Cyril Kattah, to discuss the project. He was very supportive and said they unfortunately want to fund businesses rather than NGOs, but that he would partner with us and recommend us to organizations that are looking to do some good. Perhaps we can receive some free lanterns through this partnership.
http://lightingafrica.org/
http://www.ifc.org/carbonfinance


Middle-Out

My meetings with the World Bank were awesome! Kathy Bain is the leader here. Apparently, 1/3 of the budget for Ghana goes to infrastructure, which I think is good. In my opinion, not much builds countries faster than good roads! How do you get anything in or out without them, including food! 60% of people in rural areas have access to water, which is pretty good. Energy and civil reform are the two biggest challenges to growth in Ghana. There is a food shortage in Ghana currently, and the price of rice has increased 50% in the last three months. She is trying to get more money to subsidize fertilizer, distribute seeds, and create a public works program to rebuild irrigation that was lost in the floods and droughts in the north. It will provide employment and help fix irrigation problems. One main challenge in Ghana for them is that there are no systems in place to measure what regions are in the greatest need, so it is hard to know where to help. I started asking Eunice, the education expert and a Ghanaian, a lot of questions. She said there are 400 schools meeting under trees. The schools with the holes in the roofs are better schools. She said 25-30% of children are not in school. She suggested the schools compete a little for the mgr. I met with Eunice again on three more occasions and she was always able to provide a useful perspective concerning Ghana's educational needs, what will and won't work. She enlightened us about the federal law that prohibits anyone from asking children at public schools to bring money for anything. I don’t think we will be charging for a merry-go-round. She said after the installation we could go to the PTA and ask if they would be willing to contribute for maintenance. She was in favor of charging for lantern use, however. She said it will encourage ownership and the community wants to have pride and feel as though it is contributing (which isn’t the sense I’ve gotten from most of the communities). She told us staggering break times in order to allow more children to play is not feasible because the teachers will take advantage to take a longer break time, and that it is too easy for children to pretend it is their break time when they are supposed to be in class. At schools where too many children are in the village and they all share one building, sometimes school will take place in shifts. The morning shift kids will wander around the village during the morning and if asked, will say they are on the evening shift and vise versa. Another helpful suggestion was that one teacher, one community member, and one student should be there watching and helping and that we should leave the community some tools so they can help with maintenance. An idea that sparked was that instead of paying, the parents of students who receive lanterns can take turns monitoring the playtime of children during the evening to measure how many hours they play and also make sure the kids are playing safely (for the first little while). Eunice liked the project because she said students will miss some days of school here or there and then they will drop out if they miss enough days, but playground equipment will entice them to come. She also suggested we contact successful people that have come out of these villages in order to see if they would be willing to donate one to their home village. She gave us a lot of other contacts, as well.

We visited USAID which was interesting with its statistics, but I still wasn’t sure exactly what programs it was implementing by the end—besides a free lunch program at some schools, distributing mosquito nets, and printing out books for children in their native language (they believe they will learn better if they read in their native language first and then switch to English). I learned that 70% of the population in Ghana in the three northern provinces live on less than $1 a day. Ghana is doing very well compared to a lot of surrounding countries. HIV/AIDS is only 2% and life expectancy is 57 (very good compared to some countries in Africa I have visited). The main problems that I see are access to education, clean water, roads/transportation, and employment opportunities. It wasn't a very viable partner, but still good to see what programs are being backed by the US government.

The West Africa AIDS Foundation visit was very impressive. I liked the directors a lot; they are a married Ghanaian couple. I worked with them a bit to discover how to establish a strong NGO as far as finances and auditing is concerned. In fact, they recommended the auditor I ended up using for Empower Playgrounds. I could tell the head woman, who is a doctor, cared so much about her patients. She told a story about a baby with AIDS. The husband had come in (he is HIV-positive but did not want the wife to know) and told them to get the wife and baby to come test without telling them he sent them or that he is positive. The baby tested positive, and the baby died a few days later. The wife agreed to go to counseling about HIV, but when it came time for the physical test, she refused. The WAAF doctor said many times wives will be afraid to tell husbands to use protection even if they know the husband is being promiscuous, because it is culturally unacceptable, or what will she do if he leaves her.

Osu Orphanage was only productive in terms of the viability of installing equipment not only in public schools, but also orphanages. There did not seem to be enough other resources, such as reading materials, to viably do this at this particular orphanage. It was sure fun to play with the kids, though.

We visited SOS-Tema, which is an impressive place with great facilities and landscaping. The kids were much more independent than at the orphanage, though still friendly. We could tell they received much more love and care. There are 10 orphans and a ‘mom’ in each house who make a family. There are 133 SOS Villages worldwide. We saw the kids doing their African drumming and dancing; they were all gathered just for fun. It is an incredible program. I would have a hard time as a donor deciding whether to give to the orphanage that clearly has a greater immediate need, or an organization like this which has more overhead but is more efficient and gives the kids a much better education and opportunities in the end.

We met with Samuel Asare at Global Sustainable Energy Solutions (GSES). He was very helpful and gave us a lot of contacts. He also brought us some coffee and was perplexed when all three of us took water. He has been involved in government evaluations of lighting projects in rural areas and was quite interested in the project. He was in the DENG building which is run as a business and sells solar panels.

The Energy Foundation is an example of a fruitless attempt at networking, but obviously I have to meet all I can--because I never know which ones might end up being helpful! Kofi thought it was a good project but seemed semi-eager to get home since it was towards the end of the day.