Hooray, a new post with the surprising title "Why Caroline leaves Vanuatu next month and what she will be doing next"

In a post to this Blog on 29 January I already told you about the lack of commitment and enthousiasm I have encountered here from the beginning. And for those of you with whom I have been e-mailing regularly my departure won't come as a surprise. I remember writing an e-mail to my former colleague Odile who has extensive experience in international development as early as three weeks after my arrival in Lakatoro, asking her: "Nobody seems to be doing any work here. Is this normal?". I guess with regard to any organisation where people are paid to work the answer to this question is: "No, ofcourse this is not normal". However, another answer might be: "Yes, in any organisation where management can not be bothered to show up for work 80% of the time because they are pursuing their private interests, it is only logical that employees more or less stop bothering too." Which is the case here.

My boss, the Secretary General, has one great passion, and it is not the development of Malampa Province, it is football. That's right, football. He currently holds two executive positions outside the Province; one in the Oceania Football Confederation, the other as president of the Vanuatu Football Federation. It is a well-known fact among the people in the province as well as among officials in central government that this takes up most of his time and attention. If he is not in the VFF office in Port Vila or attending some football match, he is flying off to Zurich or Tahiti for FIFA and OFC meetings. He himself told me "I really only stand with one foot in the province anymore". Which might not even be a big deal if he would transfer authority, including the power to make some budgetary decisions, to some-one else during his absence. Unfortunately this does not happen, which means that lots of things can not be decided upon and/or carried out until he returns, and nobody ever really knows when that is. One day he just shows up for a day or two and then disappears again for weeks. His second-in-command, the Provincial economic planner, then gets stuck with all the SG's commitments on top of his own work-load. This combination takes him out of the Province just as much as the SG. Plus I have been told that he has both a wife and a girlfriend living in Port Vila, so he too has little incentive to hurry back to Lakatoro when work overthere is done. The absence of these two men has enormous impact on such a small organisation with a core of approximately 25 employees.

 

Now, one might say: "But you were recruited to train the staff, what do you care if management is there or not? You should be able to get on with your work regardless." True. But for a few small obstacles. For one: no budget for training or any training related activities (such as transport to go and talk to people) what so ever. Zero. Nil.

Second: no real training need. All the staff members that I have interviewed to make a so called Training Need Analysis turn out to be rather competent for the job they are doing. Except for one or two people who either have recently been promoted to a new position or clearly have been recruited for other reasons than suitability, I was pleasantly surprised by the relevance of everybody's education and experience. So after the fifth interview or so with one of the Area Council Secretaries I tentatively put to him:

"When I look at all the things you just told me, your education, your work experience and trainings you have been given in the past years, it seems to me you don't really need any training. What do you think?"

"Yes, I don't think so too!" he answered quite cheerfully

"Hmm... then what am I doing here?" I wondered aloud

Still quite cheerfully he replied: "Yes indeed, what are you doing here?"

"Hmm... Quite."

Apart from this, the most interesting thing that came out of all the interviews was how incredibly grateful people were that some-one finally took the time to talk to them and take an interest in their work. Nobody ever does that.

(On a more personal level one of the great things about the interviews was the amazing stories you hear about peoples lives. For instance, our cleaning lady told me that her grand-parents used to be cannibals: "Oli kakae man!". Cool!)

So it did not take long to put two and two together: the staff of Malampa Province is actually quite competent for the work they are supposed to be doing, but nobody can be bothered to take an interest and manage them because they have other priorities outside the Province... They do not need a trainer, they need management, that's 'all'.

In the autumn I discussed this state of affairs with VSO, indicating that I wasn't happy to commit to this placement for the full two years, but I would initially commit for six months, trying to improve the management situation. Some objectives were agreed upon between VSO and the Province, such as that the SG and planner would be present in the Province more and be available for on-the-job people-management training by me, but ofcourse this never happened. During the first quarter of 2007 both were in Lakatoro a grand total of ten days each.

 

"But, are there not other ways to get involved, perhaps on a more grass-roots level?" some of you have kindly suggested. Unfortunately there are very few. I have been told by people who have worked in other developing countries that Vanuatu is distinctly different in this respect. Oh, there is plenty of opportunity to do things (remember: 'black man time/white man time'?) but the drive of people to get up and do things themselves (with or without me) is very (s)low. Which is fine; it is up to them ofcourse. And as far as I am concerned it is understandable too. Vanuatu is a pretty good place to live, and has been for the past 10.000 years. I have actually become quite cynical about for whose sake Vanuatu is being 'developed'. Is it for the ni-Vanuatu themselves, or is it for the sake of Australian and New Zealand's influence and desire for stability in the region? My salary, as well as those of my VSO colleagues working in similar positions in the 5 other provinces (and encountering very similar problems) is paid for by AusAid, the national Australian aid agency as part of their 'Good Governance' agenda.

 

So off I go. You can imagine I am quite disappointed by all this. This is not exactly what I had in mind when I applied to VSO all those months ago! I know it may sound soppy, but I really had hoped to be able to contribute something useful, somewhere where it might be needed. I don't feel I have done that at all, although some of my colleagues here have been kind enough to assure me that I have. Therefore I have decided to re-volunteer and I have asked VSO to find me another placement in another country per 1 January 2008 - they need between 3 and 8 months to find a new place anyway. 

And in the mean time I will travel. From 24 June I will first spend two weeks in Sydney, after which I will jump into South East Asia for 5 months. Whaaah!!! Exciting stuff - and a little bit scary as well! The plan is to travel slowly (on the nail, Jeroen!) through only three (four) countries: Indonesia, Malaysia (Singapore) and the Phillippines. But who knows: for most SE Asian countries you can just show up at the border and buy a visa, so detours can easily be made.

Anyone spending their holiday in the region and interested in meeting up for a couple of drinks: do let me know!