A Team Begins to Coalesce
Yesterday afternoon George Sempeho, who heads MDG initiatives in Tanzania for UNDP, Michael Ward from KPMG and I met for the first time. And George, who is smart, genial and politically astute, brought the missing ingredient to the table: a powerful political network. George made a quick phone call and got the Commissioner of Finance from Zanzibar (also former head of the Zanzibar Investment Promotion Association) and asked him to come to Dar for a meeting on Thursday. We then plotted out the process for hiring a the permanent project manager and discussed the stakeholder engagement process.
After George left, Michael and I talked because he needed to make a report to the KPMG team about our progress. And he seemed genuinely enthusiastic about it. He also mentioned that the Norwegian guy, Geir, who works for him and had questioned Jeff’s approach to development when we were first introduced, was impressed with our conversation. Geir is heading up fund administration for a huge DFID project and is cynical (or perhaps just forthright) about corruption and mismanagement. Anyway, he told Michael that he was glad to see someone who came to this work with a change management background and a behavioral perspective (it sounds a little like an overestimation of my abilities). But it’s the first time I’ve heard anyone other than Jeff say they’re glad I’m here.
This morning I got up early – 6 am wake up call – so I could run when it was cool enough. Went exploring behind the hotel as Ali suggested. It was great – cooler and mercifully cloudy. I ran up a long but gentle hill, past large, well-groomed houses behind high gates, past schools and lots of aid-related organizations. Saw plenty of people walking to work, mostly in the opposite direction. Most of the women were covered – rarely in a full burka, but long African dress, with shawls covering their arms, shoulders and often their heads. Lots of school girls in uniform. Everywhere I saw billboards touting the benefits of education – a good investment.
