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.