All protocol observed

I had the pleasure of recently attending the first ordinary session of the third pan african parliament, for a post 2015 consultation on governance. Like any institution, it has its own vocabulary and ways of working; one is saying 'all protocol observed' when thanking the relevant chairperson, people who have spoken before, etc. My initial reaction was that this was quaint and charming - until they wouldn't let my baby through security in the interest of 'protocol'. Don't get me wrong - I wasn't trying to take an infant into the parliamentary chambers.  There is a large administrative office block, a huge lawn, and plenty of space around the parliament itself, so I didn't think it would be a problem to have the baby close enough to feed.  A good friend was kind enough to come along and take care of the baby for the day. It turns out, she (and the baby) had to spend the whole day sitting in the Gallagher Estate parking lot because of protocol.  I missed half the meeting because I had to hike up through security every time the baby was hungry. I wonder what else 'protocol' dictates in such forums, and who else it excludes. Given how we go about making decisions, the outcomes shouldn't be any great surprise. 

Lawyers are scary

In an effort to prepare for all eventualities (and taking advice from friends who have gone through nightmare divorces), I'm trying to drag The Dad along to a mediator to develop a parenting plan, and set up a joint bank account to pay for Baby. I have seen two lawyers in my life, one is my uncle who always took care of everything remotely financial/ legal/ etc. in the family, and other other is the immigration lawyer I hired to help get permanent residence in South Africa (after 2 study permits, 2 work permits, and a gazillion tourist visas, it was the best investment I ever made).

Most people I can find in Joburg who help develop a parenting plan are divorce lawyers. Which is sensible, except neither of us have ever been married....There seem to be a few other ways to go to get the service done, but not that many that expect you to be amicable in the process. FAMSA will allegedly help (though I've now phoned 3 times and not managed to have anyone get back to me), as will the Family advocate at the department of justice (though they apparently have nobody to pick up the phones there on Friday). Apparently, social workers can do these things....but where does one find social workers in Joburg? Presumably you can't just corner anyone with a degree in social work. Add it to the list of things that I wonder how people 'normally' do.

A Day At the Office

I just spent half a day at an office. A real office! It was the first time in years (honestly, 5 of them), and I found it exceptionally enjoyable. Doubly enjoyable, because I could be there, and not share in their stress. Everyone is preparing for a big conference, and tensions were running high. People were running up and down, there were last minute meetings with raised voices as the details of everything were being finalised. The telephone switchboard quit working mid-morning, and Telkom had to be called in. There were only 25 people in the office, but from the buzz, you'd swear it was twice as many.

Through it all, I got to sit in a quiet little corner, and plug along at the piece of work I had to do, offering occasional sympathetic head nods as people ran by upset and tense.  It made me realise how much organisational bandwidth gets consumed feeding the organisation. I felt that in my previous job - like I only spent half my time actually doing things and the other half being consumed by vague organisational imperatives (circular email conversations in which everyone and their dog is cc:ed. Trying to schedule a teleconferece, in which a minimum of 2 attendees are travelling at any given time. Trying to figure out who has the mandate to make a decision about whatever) I don't have a solution to this - when organisations grow, they need switchboards (which sometimes break, and cause havoc), cooperation (which takes time) and systems (which are sometimes slow). I was just happy to be around it, and not part of it for the day, and hope to continue sitting smuggly and productively in a corner. 

Hurry up and wait

As an aspiring consultant still with my NGO employer part time, it's very interesting to see both sides of under-capacity at the same time. In the last two weeks, I've had two phone calls from organisations saying they *urgently* need something to be done this week, and am I available *immediately*? Happily, the only thing work interrupts at the moment is gazing at my expanding navel, so I sign up without hesitation. The problem is, my agreement is inevitably followed up with silence.

I know that silence; I'm responsible for it on the other side of the fence. It's the silence of a last minute reconsideration of the work plan; of an unexpected disagreement in the board; of a hangup on finances; of the crucial project designer catching flu. When I'm on the NGO side of the fence, this silence gives me some breathing space to catch up on the backlog of 100 other things that need to get done. When I'm on the consultant side of the fence, it gives me the chance to sit on the balcony with a spoonful of nutella and try and sort out realistic expectations for Life After Baby.  At some other point, it might make me anxious and irritable - it's very hard to plan your workload! But for now, it's a good lesson in zen.

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.

#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. 

#2: Summits are Not for Me

It impresses the pants off people to have passes to UN meetings, pictures with heads of state, rub shoulders with Bono, and other seemingly important things that come with the summiteering that's inevitable in global campaigning. It's widely accepted (but somehow not widely talked about) that successfully engaging at these summits is devilishly difficult, and very expensive. It's also an unfortunate reality that, even though it rarely provides results, it needs to be done just the same. These are the kinds of things that drive we evaluation people nuts - we know costs are high and results are limited, but the work must go on, even at the expense of more effective and cheaper work elsewhere. 

They're almost never the time and place decisions are made - outcome documents were usually negotiated ages before, and while there's occasional wiggle room at the actual summit, big breakthroughs usually happen much earlier in the process. 

They're designed to make public mobilization difficult. They're often held in inaccessible places, information about the logistics of the meeting is often released at the last minute, there are usually a gazillion side events taking place. It's almost inevitably an organizational nightmare. 

They're not a great place to get your message out. There are so many people doing so many different things, that even if there is consensus around your message, and  you're well resourced, well coordinated, and so on….your message is very likely to get lost in the noise. Plus, no matter how diligent the preparation, one recent global event (like the Greek debt crisis) often dominates discussions (and therefore press coverage).

So why bother? Partly because it impresses people, and can therefore contribute to organizational legitimacy. It's great to be able to tell funders you met with Ban ki Moon, and have speakers from your organization addressing the General Assembly. Partly, to be part of a club. This is where global campaigning organizations go, so it's where a lot of networking and outreach happens. International travel is expensive, so these events, when people are all face to face, are when a lot of important planning happens (even if it's often an afterthought). And partly because it's often the culmination of a lot of other more important work, and making space for that is important. You need to 'be seen' at global summits to be part of working groups and planning processes where more substantive work gets done. I wish everyone could frame them for what they are, though, and save all of the expensive, bedazzling media hubris. 

In spite of all the complaints I have about summits, I recently discovered that they do build useful skills; at a recent overcrowded and disorganized concert I went to with a colleague, we were super stars at figuring out which queues we needed to stand in for which tickets, and how to get access to the right sections of seating! 

5 reflections on 5 years in MDGs campaigning: #1

1. Success isn't necessarily what I thought it was.

It's just not sexy to say I'm working on evaluating the global coordination of national  civil society campaigns on the ratification of the optional protocol of the international covenant on economic and social rights. In comparison, my PhD research sounds riveting. Revolutions aren't inspired because a bunch of people read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Even people who are professionally immersed in the field don't keep track of every regional and thematic protocol and declaration. But, this is the level at which government commitments are made, so accountability starts there. Even for die hard policy wonks, it can be tedious wading through jargon and budgets to figure out what governments are actually going to do, and what can be done to influence it.

Somewhere, in the back of your head, you always know that all of these sub committees, statements, teleconferences, and working groups are supposed to mean something, in the real world, to people. There are occasional flashes of clarity, when your neighbor's daughter is going to be able to finish matric because the age of the child support grant has been extended, or the church around the corner can afford to offer a second free meal in the community each week because taxes on some basic foods have been reduced, and you realize this is why we all sit in meetings about MDG 1 and 2 progress….These moments are rare, and creating them is actually a specific kind of work. In addition to my 'actual' job, it's been virtually a second job to learn how to see, and reinforce why, the little bit that my organization does matters to people. 

Finally, policy change is often a gold standard in a campaign's effectiveness. It is great when it happens; it's hard to accomplish, and makes a convincing story. But it's not the only thing campaigns can achieve. It's really impressive to be able to say that Russia's health care system is now much more accessible to people with disabilities because of a campaign. It sounds less exciting to say that this campaign is one of the first times civil society in Russia has come together to advocate collaboratively on issues outside of each organization's technical specialty. This may turn out to be irrelevant; or, it could be far more important than a  specific policy change. We're not very good at measuring lots of things. That doesn't make them any more or less important. 

After these 5 years, I am finally confident in saying that we have done some amazing things to make the world a better place. This is in spite of a range of frustrating inefficiencies and mistakes along the way. But there are also times when I have to admit that we don't know what works; or, in fact, for various reasons can't do what works. Statements of solidarity are good for the morale of the people who issue them; sometimes they may do something more, sometimes not. Sometimes, stories about 'things that worked' come back to us; sometimes it feels like energy is being thrown into a void, and we don't know if efforts were wasted or not. As the resident monitoring and evaluation person, it has been my job to make sure we have structured ways of thinking about our impact, we know what our outcomes are and have evidence about how we can work most effectively to achieve various sorts of things. This has been important, and I think it's an area where knowledge is growing very, very quickly. But one thing I never would have thought I'd say five years ago, is that there are things it's okay to take on faith. Donor reporting happens in log frames, but outcomes happen in people's lives. That may not change the way I do my job, but it does change where my motivation comes from.

You can't see through the phone

The job search is going much better than expected. So well, in fact, that I've switched modes from 'Oh no! I'm about to be an unemployed single mother, my life depends on finding someone, anyone, who will hire me!' to realising that I need to think a bit about where and how I want to work.

I have been thoroughly spoiled by several years of complete freedom in my job; no physical office, and no fixed hours. I've internalised this working culture so much that the idea of going to a place, most days, to do something I could most likely do equally effectively from home at midnight on a Tuesday, seems ludicrous. Not that I think every job in the world should decentralise; more that I'm not sure I'm psychologically ready for a normal office job.

I realised this well into the recruitment process for a couple of positions. Plus, while telephone interviews meant that the issue of pregnancy didn't come up at all, I also realised that I really wouldn't feel good going on maternity leave a couple months into a new position. It's nice to know that legal protection is in place to allow it....but it would also be very disruptive, to me and the organisation, and I can imagine it creating a lot of bad will on all sides.

There has to be a better solution...something that will allow flexibility to stay with the baby, prevent me from going broke, and not make anyone feel cheated. I suspect the solution will be back to school for a year of PhD progress, if I can scare up any money for it.

Bottom line: I think I might be nuts for not taking the first job I was offered.

Job search with a belly

I found out the same week that the organisation at which I've spent the past four years of my career is running out of funding, effectively ending my contract in March. And that I'm expecting a baby. I had been thinking I was up for a change, but I was thinking more along the lines of getting a cat. Or a house plant. Well, life's full of adventures! I have loved working at GCAP; it has been an ideal fit for me; but I'm feeling increasingly positive about the idea of getting new experiences as well. GCAP's financial woes are typical of the sector at the moment; and advocacy organisations particularly. I wonder what the knock-on affects for civil society will look like in a few years time?

Job hunting when the economy is getting so much bad press is intimidating. The prospect of job hunting while 6 months pregnant equally so. I have only started the preparatory work, seeing what organisations in my line of work are hiring and updating my CV. But, it should definitely be an interesting ride. In America, many people advise you not to disclose your pregnancy during the job search, since it puts the company hiring you at risk for illegal discrimination. While such discrimination is equally illegal in South Africa, apparently after your 5th month, you are legally required to disclose your pregnancy to your potential employer (not that there would be much hiding it, in my case, unless the interviews were all telephonic....). I'm curious to see how it will be received. I certainly don't expect to be offered my dream job until after the baby is born (though I may be surprised).

secret society of NGOs

I wanted to compare pictures of the World Vision office and the mayor's office in this blog post, but I wasn't allowed to take a picture of the mayor's office. So, this is the World Vision office. If anyone knows someone who works here, please hook me up; I'm dying to learn about what goes on there, and am unable to get permission to talk to anyone inside, even with my litany of documentation.