M&E Course at the University of Stellenbosch

Last year, I did a postgraduate diploma in monitoring and evaluation from the University of Stellenbosch. Since I had been working as an MandE practitioner for several years, I was quite excited about the course. My work environment really had the feeling of a social startup - a very dynamic and creative environment. While it was great to feel on the cutting edge of innovation on M&E, I was also familiar with the less exciting donor log frames, and wanted to get a sense of what more traditional M&E work looks like. The course came well recommended by some colleagues who had taken it a few years ago. It seems to be nearly the only offering of its kind in South Africa, so I jumped right in. The demand for the course is clearly high, with nearly 100 of us enrolled, ranging from new graduates to mid career professionals, many sent by government or their employers to learn a much needed skill. It's a shame the course was largely by distance, since networking with other students would have been one of the more valuable aspects of the course. 

While I did learn some monitoring and evaluation basics over the course of the year, I was tremendously disappointed by the quality of the course as a whole. The syllabus and readings were solid and thoughtfully selected; but that's pretty much the end of the good news. There were 3 contact sessions throughout the year. I went to the first two, but by the time the third one came around, I was so disillusioned that I gave it a miss. The lecturers were totally unresponsive, and we were graded more or less exclusively on how many references to various readings we used in each sub-section of assignments. While I'm all for objective grading criteria, this smacks of the demise of the American primary education system! At the post graduate level, such discouragement of original thought is ridiculous. 

Instead of spending the year learning about how to conduct a good evaluation, I spent most of the year trying to figure out what the lectures wanted.  After some very poor performances on assignments, I realised the quality of my argument was irrelevant, and it was better to submit something long, pedantic, repetitive, and obvious. This strategy served me increasingly well, and in the end I wrote a very, very long final evaluation report….It stuck religiously to the guidelines of the assignment and the best examples from previous years - and beyond that, I very little thought into it. It had about 10 times the organizational background and one tenth the analysis I would expect of any professional evaluation. The final product was so unhelpful that I rewrote it completely to be of use to the organization that volunteered to be evaluated. It was picked as one of the 'best examples' from the course, and will be passed on to next year's students. This was one of the few times I was horrified to have done so well on an assignment - I would have much preferred to fail! But instead, I lost any remaining faith I had in the value of the course. 

This course exists for people who will be working on M&E in our country - an absolutely crucial skill with service delivery crises at every turn, and with a newly created ministry of M&E. I feel like this new cadre of professionals is being sent the message that M&E is a tick-box exercise. That it's more important to cover your back by nitpicking about details, than to step back and think critically. 

I'm sure the explanations for my experience of the course are many - the course grew at a rapid rate (several years ago, when my colleagues who recommended it were studying, there were about 30 students). The professors were overloaded, trying to balance teaching with consultancy work. Since a large contingent of the students were foreign and it was mostly distance education, it may have been seen more as a money making tool for the university than a serious academic endeavor. Whatever the reasons, for the future of the profession in the country, I hope the university steps up its game in future years! 

Rates bills

It's no secret that the city of Johannesburg has had an ongoing billing screw-up of epic proportions. I suspect I'm benefitting from it....but it makes me feel for the people (who must be out there somewhere) on the other end of the billing stick.

Every month, I get my rates bill in the mail. My "current charges" each month are anywhere between R5 and R20 a month. Really? I know my flat was cheap, but....maybe there's some minimum threshold to owe rates?  Or maybe some neighborhoods (like Yeoville, where banks won't give you a bond to buy) are exempt? Either way, my monthly bills appear arbitrary, and nonsensically small.

But, the plot thickens....Every month, I tell myself I'll pay up when my "total due" goes over R100 - because really, making a payment for R17 isn't worth the bank charges. So, every month I get a bill that has a total amount outstanding, the current charges, and then the charges that are 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days overdue. Each month, the amounts that are 30 and 60 days overdue accumulates to around R40, and I get a menacing notice saying the City of Joburg is concerned with the arrears on this account, and an immediate payment is required to avoid cut off of all services and legal action.

The catch is, no matter how long I go without paying, the amount that's 90+ days overdue stays at 0. Either the city is very forgiving, has a very short memory, or realises that collecting R5 in rates isn't worth the printing cost of the bill. All in all, I'm probably cheating the city out of about R150 a year by not paying. But it seems bizarre that they just quit asking! And if they do get their house in order and decide to collect the last 5 years of back rates I owe them, it still wouldn't break the bank.

Add it to the list of things I wish I understood; maybe it's time for a field trip to City of Johannesburg's billing office; anybody know anybody who works there?

Weekends in Jozi

I'm trying to figure out what weekends mean to me.  After years of working from home, on a 'when it needs to be done' type of schedule, weekends in my mind are really only equated with the best times to avoid banks, parks, bars and shopping malls, because they will be crowded.  Other than that, I could happily mistake any Saturday night for a Tuesday night. Various things along the road have strengthened this, including infamous Westdene Monday night Parties, as longstanding chaotic travel schedules.

Recently, the Dad was in a funk because I didn't give sufficient attention to weekend family time.  My first reaction was...'give sufficient time to what??' But, he patiently explained that most people in the world orient their lives around weekly jobs, children's school schedules, and other things that make Saturdays and Sundays unique.

My first reaction was one of horror - that I may have to define my life according to capitalist-system imposed norms that I reject. Actually, that's still pretty much my reaction.  But I am starting to notice a bit more, the charm of being socialised to a weekly rhythm - appreciating the soccer players in the park every Sunday morning, planning participatory cooking projects on Saturdays because the 6 year olds downstairs   will be at my doorstep expecting entertainment. 

Some day, if I have a kid in school, and a more 'normalised' working schedule, I might start defining my life this way. For now, I'm just trying to figure out what it means that the people around me already do....I wonder how pervasive this is?  I suspect less so than someone in a routine job would have me to believe.

Meeting Day One.

I've been very excited about organising a conference this week, as a first departure from my job of many years....

After the 'reliable' driver arrived 45 minutes late, we were nearing our destination in Braamfontein, when some random man reached in the minibus's open window, unlocked the door, and got in, made the driver pull over, repeatedly shouted at us to stay inside and keep our doors locked, and an 'animated' argument ensued with a whole gang of people who were waiting. As it turns out, we had 'rented' a minibus who usually drives a normal route, and the taxi association wasn't impressed by his deviation.

We went on to watch Dear Mandela, a documentary about the ANC's attack on Abahlali.....It was spectacularly made.

I'm afraid the combination of experiences may have managed to terrify the visitors I'm supposed to be hosting....I'm hoping the next few days will be much less eventful, and allow me to feel better organised.  This is not a great foray into working independently....

Working with consultants

Duncan Green at Oxfam just blogged a musing about how to work with consultants.  It's a combination of tips and dilemmas, that generally offers 'things you already know but probably don't always do' types of solutions (such as, have clear Terms of Reference).  Anyway, his post got me thinking....the network I've been working with doesn't get everything right, but I do think we've come up with a kind of organisational 2.0 approach to consultancies that has served us well.

Depending on the nature and structure of the network or organisation, it's pretty likely that somewhere out there,  a couple degrees of separation away, is an ideal skills set for what you need to get done.  Doing a project evaluation? I bet some partner organisation on another project has an M&E officer who has great technical skills and would love to explore a new area of work.  Paying the organisation for their time is very likely to be cheaper than hiring an external consultant, the organisation gets some free staff development (which they probably don't have the time or resources to prioritise) and you have the opportunity to strengthen institutional connections.  It brings in a good balance of 'close enough to our work that we have some quality control', and yet doesn't always involve calling up the same voices, or paying a fortune for something that's not useful.  Everyone wins, and you're more likely to get a result that speaks the right language.

Secondments are fabulous.  If your organisation work globally and you want some regional research done, you can be guaranteed that there are regional organisations who would also like more interface with the global perspective, or vice versa.  Talk to people! Often, think tanks, funders, networks, and others, have identified similar research gaps or priorities. Someone's probably talking about the same sorts of things you are, and would be keen to collaborate on a solution.  Not only is it cheaper for everyone in the end, but the result is inevitably better.

On working with students....I think we've had some of our best and worst organisational contributions from students. It works well if you always keep in mind what students are good at, and what you need (more things you know but may not always do). We've gotten some amazing results coming out of staff meetings with a few 'wish list' bits of work that are creative, ambitious, possibly slightly tangential to our core work, and nobody has the time to develop.  Draft a 1 page description, turn it over to the right set of graduate students, and magic can happen. If, however, you have a specific piece of work in mind and not enough capacity or resources to carry it off, bringing in student support is usually disastrous.

Since I'm now moving to the other side of the consultant / NGO fence, the first gripe I have with NGOs is not communicating enough. I know you're busy. And have a consultation process to go through. But please answer my emails. It's really important if I'm going to adhere to your timelines.

Pets and by-laws

Being on the body corporate of my block of flats has been a real learning experience. I am quite happy that in the two years since I've been in this building, I have managed to move for the terrified recipient of nasty notices about various unauthorized (and usually accidental!) transgressions, to being part of a largely amicable community of people trying to find the best ways of living together. So far, our biggest conundrum has been parking (which, being without a car, I may have a problematically unusual perspective on), but that's a post for a different day.

Todays dilemma is about pets - familiar territory for many people in flats, I'm sure. The general building policy is that dogs are not allowed in the building, and that owners may have one cat. However, in a particular case of rule jiggering, a new owner has just arrived with two small dogs. They are cute, and nobody seems inclined to boot them out. However, a request has come in for two more dogs in the same unit (both of which, we are led to understand, are very small and quiet). This led to research on pet ownership bylaws, and the discovery that only two dogs per 'dwelling unit' are technically allowed by the City of Johannesburg. I can only assume this is not widely enforced, and I would further imagine there are cases in which that's more restrictive than it needs to be; but there you have it, only two dogs without a permit. In the case of our block of flats, it makes sense - units are pretty small, and don't have gardens.

The matter gets more personal, however, since I recently lost custody of my cat, and am in the market for a new pet. I'm trying to make the decision based on as many factors as possible - new baby on the way, its Dad is a dog person, time and presence at home, flat rules, etc. I haven't gotten beyond the thinking phase yet, but candidates include a cat, small dog, chinchilla, and little pig. The little pig option has gotten me to explore more city bylaws around animal ownership. It seems as though the bylaws applying to pets that are not cats and dogs are in the health and safety regulations. These are geared to people raising animals as a larger scale enterprise......Which means as far as I can tell, you can only keep 2 dogs in a flat, but up to 9 chickens!!  Hmm.....

Spontaneous Pool Party

Yesterday, I was snatched by friends for a spontaneous trip to the swimming pool. I'm pretty amazed that I have friends that can supply, at precisely 6 minutes notice, a maternity swimming suit, beach towels, lawn chairs, umbrellas, and entertainment for little girls of varied swimming abilities. The Roosevelt Park swimming pool was my Johannesburg Discovery of the weekend. In the midst of gripes about home affairs and power cuts, it was a nice reminder that this city has an impressive array of public facilities that are exceptionally well maintained and well run. I just forget to take advantage of them sometimes.

The whole place was spotlessly clean and well maintained, it wasn't too crowded, everyone was very friendly, there were enough shady and sunny spots on the lawn to make everyone happy. And it was free!   These little hidden spaces are part of what makes this city wonderful.

Home Affairs

I'm thrilled to be a permanent resident in South Africa, and have the opportunity to get a South African ID book. When I applied, PR status was granted in absolute record time (it took about 6 weeks), and since that was the first permit I had applied for in a few years, I was starting to believe that things at the Department of Home Affairs were improving. My first experience with Home Affairs was in 2005 (prior to that, I had gotten permits while out of the country). A study permit reputed to take 30 days to issue, took almost 2 years. Since then, there has generally been gradual improvement with each subsequent application.

I've always managed to deal with home affairs with relatively good humour; it's part hazing process (weeds out the chancers; you have to really, really, really want to be here to get through it), part collective cultural experience (like complaining about Telkom), part participant observation research for my PhD. That said, when I went in to Harrison street last year in June to apply for an ID book, I wasn't heartbroken by the thought that it could be my last time in that building. Ha!

Since then, my application has been lost three times; I am now tied to the Harrison street office, because apparently once one application is lost, you must reapply at the same office or risk having a duplicate emerge some day (and, as the helpful call center lady said, you really really don't want that). Some office in Pretoria that processes permanent residence ID applications was moving in June last year (and possibly still is). Nobody knows if or when it will function. Neither the online feedback system nor the ministerial hotline have elicited any response. The call center tells me I must go back to Harrison street and reapply for the 4th time, even though there's no indication that my last application ever existed (I'm told that the reference number is 'impossible', even though I have a receipt with it!).

What could it be?  Some racket with the guys who take passport photographs (I've gone through 8 of them now)? Really bad luck? I'm planning to go back for another round of fun on Friday.

I'm also willing to bet my unborn child will get a US passport before I have a South African ID.... (I hope I'm wrong!)

Power Paradox

This afternoon, just in time to prepare dinner (of course), the power in my flat went off. This caused slightly more running around than usual, since the person who usually has the keys to the trip switches was away....but at least it's not winter, when power cuts mean freezing in the dark.

In the end, a call to City Power was needed. On the whole, service from City Power is impressive. I may not like having to call a "customer care center" when I have a power cut, but they sent a vehicle around in about an hour. Everyone was efficient and professional; after checking our meters and establishing the source of the problem was outside the building, we had lights back on in about half an hour.

I spent that half an hour watching the rain, and chatting on the stoep to the head of the neighborhood community policing forum. Knowing nothing about electricity, I asked him why our building is on two different grids (power to the whole building never goes off, it's always either to units 3, 6, 7 and 9, or the rest of the flats). This seems odd, and one grid definitely has a more stable power supply than the other. He couldn't explain to me why our building would be on two grids (though, it's quite convenient that someone in the building usually has power), but he *did* point out that the reason my flat experienced more cuts than the other half of the building was because of the illegal hookups of the building across the street.

I don't generally have a problem with illegal hookups - power costs a fortune, and in a rare failure of the South African justice system, there seems to be a lot of hesitation around considering most public services human rights....this whole gray 'progressive realisation' area. Particularly in this part of town, most buildings that have illegal hookups already have several layers of quasi-informal tenancy, ranging from spaces that are slum-lorded to those that are permanently squatted. Illegal hookups are obviously a small part of a much larger picture, and I'm pretty sure the neighborhood isn't going to benefit by making sure the guys across the street don't have power.

That said, if it's a chronic problem throughout the winter (as it was last year), it will become quite obnoxious; if I don't want to report them, what can I do? See about lending them a good electrician? Try to get on a first name basis with the City Power crew, since I'll be calling them out on a weekly basis? Look for a place to live that has natural gas?

Carless in Jozi

Some days I feel like a spokesman for the taxi industry. I do not have a car, and don't want a car, in spite (or because) of the strong insistence by most middle class Joburgers that a car is an absolute necessity. I have many reasons for not wanting a car; but it's one of the many things that being pregnant is making me re-evaluate. As is the thought of having my mother come to visit for a couple months. I'm confident I could negotiate taxis with an infant....but can I really ask my mom to navigate Joburg public transport? And, the fact that the concrete gardener is happy to have decided to get a car....the power of peer pressure!

I got to know Johannesburg as a broke student, and as a quasi-legal immigrant (never illegal, thankfully! But not able to open a bank account for a long time, for example). And so much of the energy and vibrancy and music I came to love about the city exists almost only in contrast to the sterile, sprawling, high walled, middle class suburbs. It's a place where you can explore, break boundaries, learn something around every corner....but only if you're willing to live a bit outside of 'accepted practice'. Because Johannesburg has an equally stifling and restrictive side - with everyone sticking carefully to certain neighborhoods, and nobody drifting too far from their comfort zones. I'm scared that getting a car would make me feel more restricted than liberated.  Not having a car is, after all, the best way to prevent hijackings.

Cars are expensive. They're bad for the environment. They're unsustainable. They need insuring, and you have to worry that they could be stolen. They break down at inconvenient times and need fixing. They mean I walk less - and I love walking. When I am in someone else's car, I find myself rolling up the windows at certain intersections - intersections that I'd walk through without hesitation. It seems like so many of the world's problems are caused by people having stuff and needing to protect it....what a soul-sucking thing to be pulled into.

Not having a car has become a trademark eccentricity. I'm sure it occasionally irritates friends, because they do give me lifts late at night, I am often late (or very early) (for everything) due to unreliable transport....but I've found a rhythm that works for me, that lets me understand and engage with (very exclusionary) space here in a way that feels authentic, and I like it.  I like knowing that public transport does work - and I like being affected by the taxi strikes, thunderstorms, and other things that it seems so tempting to insulate yourself from as soon as you can afford it.

But then, when Rose Taxi's says the car will be there in 10 minutes and it takes 30, I wonder if I'll feel the same affectionate smirk if I'm stuck out in the rain with a sick baby. Or a diaper needs changing, or a tantrum is being thrown, and I just Need to Get Home Now. I wonder if I'll be able to walk home from the grocery store with bags and a baby in tow. Everyone sort of cryptically says 'things change a lot' when you have kids; I wonder if this will be one of them? 

Plastic Predicament.

The baby is now approximately -3 months old, and brightly coloured plastic crap is already taking over my flat! Help!! It's not that I don't appreciate everyone's thoughtfulness, and desire to bring presents and welcome Blob into the world. And I understand that trying to ensure everything entering my house is organic, handmade, all natural, is an exercise in futility. And I understand that nobody should be expected to shop for baby presents at the elitist, up market outlets that sell said organic, handmade, all natural gadgetry....But there has to be some middle way?

First, there are the health and safety concerns; BPA is scary, and equally scary is the stuff that hasn't been discovered yet. It just seems logical that nasty chemical manufacturing processes should, well, create nasty chemicals. Plus the recall of so many made in China kid products....Then, there's the 'sanity' element. Must every brightly coloured plastic thing make loud annoying noises? Even if it's not designed to, I can testify that the 5 year old next door can find a way of making the most innocuous looking plastic thing squeak and honk. And there's the clutter issue. I'm pretty sure plastic blocks are specifically designed to make the floor look as 'busy' as possible....part of the visual appeal when you're 5. I'm not sure why I'm convinced I'd be less annoyed with wooden blocks, but I am.

The Dad insists its perfectly okay to tell everyone coming to a baby shower that we don't want plastic presents; that seems in violation of my midwestern sensibilities. Meanwhile, I wonder about the accumulation of plastic crap that must be happening in every household with a small child; where does all of this stuff go to die when kids grow out of it? And most importantly, how can I avoid the problem entirely (apart from moving house on a yearly basis; which is a pretty good solution to accumulation...)?

#5: How you work matters.

Researchers are never surprised when methodology makes a huge difference in shaping results....but somehow, campaigners often are. 

If you claim to work as a coalition, consultation is vital. It's hugely expensive, inefficient, frustrating and time consuming. It's a pain to work across multiple timezones, with people who have varying access to technology and speak different languages. There are always technical issues, and political issues.....There is always a pull to do more online, more in English, make decisions more quickly....and giving in to that is deadly for results. The difference between working with and working for is huge; you can't do one, and expect the results of the other. 

For years, it seems like I work with email; and need to constantly remind myself that there are people on the receiving end. People who have families, perspectives of their own, bad days, lots of demands on their time, power outages, sometimes threats from their government for being an activist....Communicating, all the time, is essential; even if much of the time it feels like you're just throwing messages into a black hole. In our messaging, we talk about putting people first.....but it actually takes constant focus, feedback, diligence, and training to do it. Meeting people, face to face, is invaluable. 

In a coalition, there is rarely an equitable distribution of who does the work, and who gets the recognition. Sometimes, that doesn't matter. Sometimes, it can threaten to tear apart fragile cooperation. Saying thank you makes a world of difference. Nobody makes all the difference, but everyone makes some. 

Airport hotel conference venues don't lead to as much creativity and collaboration as places with sunlight and space to walk around.

I think I knew all these things before I started this job....but seeing them play out every day has definitely taught me how to work better.