Idiosyncrasies of Dev NGOs

Let me be clear, I like the work my organization does here and think it is powerful stuff.  My colleagues turn around businesses and make them successful.  They convert producers from low margin bulk cacao to high margin fine cacao.  They improve the quality of coffee by matching financiers with opportunities to invest in additional processing.  Good work.  However, I’ve also noticed some interesting aspects to how we go about our work.

For one, we pursue many goals in alleviating poverty: increasing human and financial capital, increasing productivity, finding new markets, and financing cooperatives to capture greater margins at the producer level.  It is this last piece that gives me pause.  How did we decide that farmers deserve these margins and not the businesses?  I get that producers are poor but don’t think that justifies $20+ M USAID projects helping them and excluding the functioning intermediaries.  They also need to provide for employees and their families.  And to be callous, they are frequently harder and more adept workers than the producers we help. 

This type of zero sum game occurs elsewhere also.  For instance, a good friend of mine was working on a project to improve bean production in Nicaragua.  Working for the same organization as me actually.  At one point she mentioned to me that the Nica producers had a cost advantage over Honduran producers (not a shock) and could potentially export to Honduras.  This would help Nica producers but would take even more market share from my fellow Catrachos (Hondurans).  And now, I am proposing recommendations so that Honduran apiarists can replace Guatemalan honey imports.  If I were in Guatemala (where we also have an office) I’d probably be looking at how to increase production there.  I’m all for the best producer taking a market but does it make sense for me to take a country focused approach?

Also, I think working in the non-profit world dulls knowledge of the profit motive.  I’ve frequently heard, “If we could only get the banks to loan” or “We need intermediaries that don’t just think of themselves!” These entities aren’t bleeding heart aid agencies; they are businesses.  If a bank makes bad loans, it goes out of business.  If an intermediary turns altruistic and foregoes profit, he’ll be out of a job soon enough.  Instead of wishing for things that won’t and shouldn’t happen, we should be looking for solutions that work with the market forces that everyone responds to.  I tried to do that in my plan for the potato industry despite some of the push back I got to focus on financing and respecting contracts.  By no means do I think I know best but I do know that businesses generally need to make money.

Okay, last thought, I swear.  We as an NGO take an interesting view of our fellows down here.  For one, we view them as competitors.  I even heard a co-worker describe another NGO as having a monopoly on the honey industry.  A monopoly on helping poor honey producers for free?  Yes, we get aid dollars based on projects that we design and execute and yes, we currently don’t get any for working in the honey industry, but how silly.  You would think that all aid organizations would be interested in cooperating and sharing their unique strengths in the interests of HELPING THE POOR.  Which is my second thought.  We don’t really share our lessons learned here.  We have a “competitor” down here that does very similar work to our own and recently completed a great project.  And we know nothing about how it went down.  Again, shouldn’t they share that info with us?  I wonder what would happen if aid agencies ever saw that they were actually close to eliminating poverty.  Maybe Sachs has thought about this already.

Again, on the whole, we do great work, but, it is interesting to see some of the more peculiar aspects of development.  For one, we think we are qualified to make decisions about who deserves what money, both at a local and national level.  And, while we don’t believe that for-profit institutions should be self interested, we are ourselves.  Peculiar peculiar.

An Insight Into Aspiring Development Professionals

Over the past few months I've done a fair amount of research into policy schools.  Along the way, I found an interesting study on how a certain school viewed diversity.  Even better, the study linked to an excel file of survey responses with quantitative rankings and free text comments.  Brilliant. 

I of course saved this file and started exploring the content.  The prompt asking for opinions on fellow students was far and away the most interesting.  My favorites are below.

For starters:

“The students are below par, almost embarrassingly so...”

“...Teach for America alumns should not be given as many spots in the class.  Their "experiences" do not contribute anything valuable to classroom discussions.”

Playing the race card:

“From an Asian student's point of view, a good portion of HKS students have serious problems with anything involving numbers, such as stats and econ. It is simply shocking to see their middle-school-level math.”

But (aside from Asians) the other countries are really dragging the smart, hard working Americans down:

“A little less diversity and a little higher standard of quality wouldn't go amiss.”

“Fulbright students from abroad are brining down calibre of school and reducing the 'value' of our program even in those countries.”

The second quote really catches my eye.  We know that our snooty writer is English (or is pretending to be; c.f. "calibre") and these Fulbright students have found a way to brine down the quality of something.  Didn’t realize you could “brine” something intangible.  Also, questionable if this even matters since we are only talking about the program's supposed 'value'.

And the riposte:

“Students sometimes take themselves too seriously and bring ego into the classroom.“

“No need to recite your experience ad nauseum before each comment.”

“Students tend to be narcissistic and long winded.”

And probably my favorite:

“Some of the younger students whine more than I think they should.”

Future of development and policy right there.  Hopefully they'll let me in.  And for my nerdier, data minded friends, links!

Check out the study here.

Or focus on mining the data here.

SEA -> SPS

...and I'm back.  A lot of things have changed as of late.  Ready?

1. I quit my job as a consultant

2. I flew back to Honduras

3. I signed another contract to continue my work here

4. I'm now working on the Honduran apiculture industry

5. I started playing volleyball again

6. I bought a Mac (which apparently was designed to be as inefficient as possible with Office)

+ adding some other beautiful elements to my life.

It was such an exciting feeling to see the San Pedro from the plane as we made our descent.  I've only been here a few months but I've already spent more consecutive nights here than anywhere else in the last 1.75 years.  In the sadly comic story of my life, it is a home.

And it was a hot home.  Something about that direct sunlight really heats a place up.  I had been working up to it over a week or so:

Eastern Washington      20F

Seatlle                           40F

Los Angeles                  60F

San Pedro Sula            too hot

but it was all to no avail.  Fortunately (not really) the weather has changed and we've had some cool rainy days.  Probably mid 70s to mid 60s.  It's been nice for an adjustment to the temperature but really puts a damper (almost literally) on the joy of riding my motorcycle.  

So.  Welcome back to all those that are freshly returned to work or school and happy 2011.  Stay tuned for more exciting news. 

SPS -> SEA

After 2.5 months in Honduras I’m back in the land o’ the free and the home of the brave!  What a different world here! 

First, it is so cold.  My last morning in San Pedro Sula was 80 degrees with blue skies.  Slightly different than the 50 and 30 degree weather here in Washington.  And there is snow.  No snow in Honduras.

Secondly, I know people here!  So many good friends to see and such little time.  I’m used to friendships based on 2 months or less so it is a luxury to sit and talk with people that have known me well for 5 or more years. 

And the beauty of the city is staggering.  Rainier out the airplane window, the Sound, Queen Anne lit up at night, 99 through downtown, Greenlake at midnight.  Stunning.  San Pedro is nice but it just can’t compare.

And the food.  Oh the food.  Trading in the Wendy’s, McDonald’s, and Quizno’s options at the City Mall for pancakes covered in blackberries, seafood paella, duck soup, pasta, and eggnog crème brûlée is more or less a dream come true.  I haven’t had beans or corn tortillas in days!

Technical Assistance

One of the more commonly used methods of development down here is technical assistance.  Many organizations, including mine, hire skilled technicians and agronomists to teach small business owners and farmers how to do their jobs better with the aim of allowing them to better their own lots.  Teaching them how to fish, so to speak.

This effort has had success here, especially with those "clients" that already have some human and / or financial resources on their side.  However, it can at most only make up a part of the development that these organizations are trying to achieve.  Farmers may not be able to afford the tools they need to employ to take advantage of what they have learned.  Or, they simply might not listen to the technicians.  Unfortunately, this happens more often than one might expect.  One of my colleagues tells me that many of his "clients" don't listen to him simply because he acts like one of them.  He doesn't wear leather boots, ride around in a truck with tinted windows, or use the informal "vos" form with them.  In addition to not always being effective, it is expensive.

It is no cheap thing to hire technicians, train them in specific crops, and get them out to the fields with the farmers.  Given the separation between producers, a technician can visit three, perhaps four producers in a day.  To maintain confidence with the producer, he needs to visit at least once a month, but preferably every two weeks.  This means that one technician can deliver personal assistance to only 40 or 80 producers at a time.  Just to give you some perspective, there are 4,000 potato producers and approximately 100,000 corn producers in the country.

Platinum is Nothing at Hotel Pinar

The day after Thanksgiving I found myself in Tegucigalpa staying at one of the finer establishments in Honduras, Hotel Pinar.  I mean check it out, even the soap is welcoming.

So I thought to myself, these naïve Hondurans are far too trusting, I’m going to take advantage of their hospitality and steal the TV.  I had sprung for the room with cable ($10 total) so I figured I should get my money’s worth.  Much to my chagrin did I then find out that Hotel Pinar had bested me.

Oh well, I figured I would just steal the sheets off the bed instead.  That would show them.  Shoot, one step ahead of me again!  The old hotel name on the sheets trick.

At that point, I decided to throw in the towel on stealing from Hotel Pinar and take a shower.  Unfortunately this little site greeted me.  Why would the hotel provide a small plastic bowl with the shower?  I had a suspicion, and yes, there it was, bucket shower.

Well played, sir.  Hotel Pinar - 1, Gringo - 0.

La Esperanza (Casco)

In my travels, I’ve also spent some time in La Esperanza proper.  When I was in España, they used the word casco to describe the historic center of the city that was formerly walled in (it also means helmet, and I’d love to talk about this topic more but don’t want to bore anyone).  It doesn’t exactly work here but I like the continuity so we’ll just deal with it.

There was one specifically notable day in La Esperanza where I met with a government official, an agrochemicals retailer, and a coyote (potato chain intermediary).  These interviews were very valuable and not exactly easy to set up but I assume that you aren’t as interested in the revenues and costs of producing potatoes in-vitro as I am.  So let me just provide the color.

I met my government official at the main terminal in La Esperanza, fresh off my bus from San Pedro Sula.  I figured I had a little bit of time and went to grab some lunch at the “comedor” next to the busses.  I love eating fried chicken, beans, rice, and vegetables for 40 lempiras.  Coffee?  Yes please.  Okay, that will be one quarter.  Sounds fair.  Adan showed up a little late to the meeting so I had time to review what I wanted to ask him in advance.  We had a great chat and he offered to put me in contact with someone involved in seed production.  Then he gave me a lift into the center of town for my next interview.

Eric (there’s that name again) works for Cohorsil and provides local farmers with any agricultural inputs they may need.  He stepped away from the front counter and started to talk about his role in potato production.  It was a productive meeting and made all the better by the fact that we could watch the Spain – Portugal whenever there was a noteworthy play.  I actually felt bad for Ronaldo when his own teammate robbed him of a truly amazing goal.  Eric had a lot of good ideas and information, plus, he alerted me to a new group that I hadn’t heard of before.

At Cohorsil, I met Rynaldo and he took me to see Don Lancho, one of the area’s largest coyotes.  The coyote plays a very interesting role in agriculture here, providing seed, inputs, a buyer, and an informal social safety net to the producers.  They are frequently demonized, but, in my mind, they are just responding to incentives like everyone else.  As we rolled up to his little compound, Rynaldo mumbled something about “student” and “Washington”.  Apparently Don Lancho didn’t want to talk to any NGOs or other companies about his business so I had to pretend I was a student still.  I asked Rynaldo how we would explain knowing each other but he had an answer ready: “Just tell him, something”.  Great, thanks Rynaldo.  But the meeting went very well.  First time I’ve met with someone wearing a muscle shirt and with me wearing a backpack.  Plus our meeting room was a pickup truck bed.

I spent the night at Rynaldo’s before leaving the next day for some more meetings in Tegucigalpa.  It was a good way to start my week and gave me a lot of valuable information.  Unlike my previous projects, the knowledge I need to get is scattered all across a country, locked up in people's heads.