February 09, 2006

Putting things into perspective

I was sitting in a chair in a loooong meeting with a large donor about how to manage stocks of essential anti-malarial drugs that will be sent to 25 isolated health zones.

To defend himself about lateness in sending these drugs, the presenter showed the following slide:

General Context of the DRC
-post conflict country--considered a fragile state
-large surface area of the territory and poor infrastructure
-absence of system of distribution at the national level
-complex drugs that require good management systems
-limited experience of donors in distributing medical materials in the DRC
-national and international pressure to deliver positive results fast


I call it Gems from Donor to Justify why Shit isn't Getting Done.

Strangely, it made me feel better about my project because I realized that I could claim exactly the same things.

7 comments:

Carl said...

You could claim those things, but you don't.

Unless you develop an ambition to get into senior management.

Anonymous said...

A true Dilbert moment, and a good lesson in how the world works (or doesn't work) . . . .. "The dog ate my homework" lives on in a more advanced form. -e

Anonymous said...

Hi 007

I was wondering if you could meander over to the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles and take pictures of «Le monde des contes, des théâtres et de la Bande Dessinée» (assuming that they allow pictures and that you have the time and the inclination)

According to an issue of L'Avenir "Le Centre Africain de la culture populaire et Entre Deux Monde lancent avec l’appui du Centre Wallonie Bruxelles et le Centre culturel français le concours de la bande dessinée sur le thème de « Chroniques kinoises »".

I am sure you already know it but just in case here is the address and phone numbers of Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles:

21 Avenue de l'Equateur, Kinshasa-Gombe
Tél : 00243-88-14516
00243-9999-82134
00243-89-36258
00243-9999-82697

007 in Africa said...

Hi Lorraine, time permitting, I will certainly hop on over there and take pictures. Am planning on coming in to the office this weekend to prepare my next field trip next Tuesday so might time might be at a premium. Sounds very interesting though.

Anonymous said...

Hope you are able to find the time. The exhibit is suppose to be there for a while. En tout cas, bon voyage and walala bimpe!

TheMalau said...

My beloved mother is WHO ResRep in Cameroon, and Mali before that, and she always told me how she could simply marvel at the sheer dramatic talent of her colleagues to basically pull shit out of their asses, to justify - to use 007's expression - shit not being done. And I actually got to witness that first hand once... Carl you are right, senior management really know how to twist themselves in a pretzel to justify their slacking.

BRE said...

Hi 007, hoping all is well with you on your latest Road Trip. I saw a post over at The World Bank Group PSD blog (Private Sector Development) that might be of interest to you and your colleagues involved with the delivery of health services.

The post is about Transparency International's latest Global Corruption Report 2006 with a focus on corruption and health. You can download sections of the report in small bites (xxxKB) or the complete report (6.3MB). Here is the link to the Feb. 01 post:
http://psdblog.worldbank.org/psdblog/2006/02/global_corrupti.html