Learning routes: the quintessence of knowledge sharing

The IFAD social reporting blog ran a series of blogposts called “Africa meets the new world - Procasur learning route…. Well, guess what, the “Learning Routes” colleagues came to Rome!

Over the last two days I had the privilege of sitting in on two brainstorming and learning and sharing events organized by our Procasur and Latin America and the Caribbean colleagues.

In the true spirit of learning route, these meetings were a great source of inspiration and a unique learning opportunity.

It is very hard to explain a learning route as these are experiential experiences. You have to live one to understand and appreciate it. I believe they are the quintessence and great embodiment of knowledge management and knowledge sharing.

You’re probably wondering what I am talking about….. If you’ve been on learning route you’ll now know the difference between learning from seeing something in action and reading about something in a report.

Learning route methodology covers the three stages of learning – that is learning before, during and after. In a way it is also a form of peer assist.

When you face a challenge and feel that someone must have already faced it and overcome it, you do not need reinvent the wheel and solve it by yourself, you can present your challenge and learn from those who have already been there and done that.

One of the extraordinary characteristics of a learning route is the fact that you learn from people… That’s right, you learn from the real experience of REAL PEOPLE. It’s that a treat….

How many times have you read a report and wondered how much of what you are reading is really grounded in reality and how much of it is written just to show that the targets and indicators have been met!

In a learning route you engage in a conversation with the actors – be it the farmer, the policy maker, the representative of the local government, the rural development worker, the artisan, the mother, the nurse. And all these people are willing and are keen to share their experience, knowledge, know-how, challenges and fears. So in a learning route you have the opportunity to bounce off ideas, hear and learn from a myriad of perspectives. You have an immense portfolio of experience and knowledge at your finger tips!

Learning routes are a great example of double learning loop and a personification of knowledge sharing in ACTION!

As you may know in a single learning loop, the emphasis is on techniques and making the technique more efficient. This means while exploring the technical side you focus on following routines and some sort of present plan. A double learning loop on the other hand, involves questioning the role of the framing and learning systems, it is more creative, reflective and reflexive. A double learning loop is about incremental learning that improves the answers, helps the learner to modify his/her mental model and allows the learner to make informed decisions in a rapidly changing and uncertain context.

In a nutshell, experiencing a learning route allows the learner to explore different solutions for a given challenge and definitely helps you clear up the cobwebs!

My take home messages

As I was listening to colleagues exchanging ideas and sharing their experience, I realized one of success elements of Procasur and the Learning routes are people managing this programme. They are PASSIONATE and COMMITED. They are proud of what they are doing and believe 300% in what they do. I wonder if the programme would be what it is today with a different set of people…. Probably it would be something different…. So this reinforced my thinking that it is the PEOPLE driving KM initiatives that make the difference!!! Kudos to Ariel, Juan Moreno, Roberto and all the others!

Perhaps my biggest wake up call was the fact that we desperately need to put in place learning routes mechanism in IFAD itself. We need to get much better in sharing and exchanging amongst ourselves and within our own four walls. We are surrounded by inspiring and knowledgeable people, yet we often resort to outside resources rather than looking inside.

We need to scout for and identify our own local talents and use them as our learning route guides.

I often hear people saying, we need to put in place incentive mechanism to encourage knowledge sharing – and I must admit so far, I’ve failed to understand what this means…. Listening to the exchange made me think, what is the incentive for the learning route local talents to share their knowledge? And if their incentive is to learn from others, isn’t that a good enough, if not a noble incentive for the rest of us?

I really felt privileged to have participated in these conversations and I sincerely hope we can institutionalize internal learning routes so that FINALLY we start breaking down the silos!!!

Untimely loss of a friend and the impact of social media on human relationships

On Thursday 29 April 2010 at 11:27am I got an email - the subject was :( and carried the text below:

“In Memoriam: In utter disbelief, with the heaviest of heart and unimaginable sadness, i heard today of the passing away of my dear friend and treasured colleague, Ramin Rafirasme. Life brings tears, smiles and memories. The tears dry, the smile fades, but the memories live on forever..........”

I read the message three times….. and indeed in utter disbelief, I thought this cannot be true. Ramin and I had chatted on-line less than a month ago.

[02/04/2010 19:43:26] Roxanna Samii: ramin jan how are you doing? hope both you and your son are feeling better. We definitely missed you the other night at Sara's

[02/04/2010 20:09:15] Ramin: I am ok Roxy jan. Just moved to a new place, Pz. Risorgimento. Still need a bit of time putting things together in this apartment. But between opening boxes and familiarizing with the new neighbourhood, I am having fun learning how to use Skype and Social Networking tools. Might be useful also for my students.

He was really excited about lecturing and teaching journalism at university in Rome. He was also excited because he was getting his head around social media tools. He had started a new life, a new beginning and was looking forward to a brighter future.

I starred at my computer screen for about 20 minutes feeling totally numb, I finally reached out for my cellphone and called Ramin’s number, hoping that he would answer the phone. I kept thinking, this is not true, this cannot be true… But then, Hafez, Ramin’s son answered….

Alas, on Wednesday night, Ramin left us for a better place……. After I hung up with Hafez, I remembered something I had read some time ago: “to die is not the worst thing a man can do. To live defeated, that is the worst. Life without life, is no life”

Ramin was someone who loved to live. He lived everything fully. He did things wholeheartedly and at the same time, he never took himself too seriously. He was what the Italians call “solare”. He was witty, charming, had a great sense of humour and a great Iranian political analyst.

I remember in June, during the post election riots, when we met, I asked him, Ramin Jan what will happen now? He looked at me, smiled, shrugged his shoulders and said: “Roxy jan nothing will happen, nothing will change”.

Ramin, a seasoned journalist, an astute political analyst and one of the very few people who fully understood the socio-political dynamics, knew better….. While initially I thought he was out of his mind, with time, we all realized that indeed he was right…. Nothing really changed.

Ramin’s demise made me also realize how the very social media he was embracing, adopting and using has changed the way we deal with grief, sorrow and in general, how technology has modified the way we related to each other.

My latest interaction with Ramin was on Skype. I found out that he had passed away through an email. After talking with Ramin’s son, what did I do? I sent a direct message on Twitter to my friend Gauri Salokhe and subsequently shared my grief and sorrow on Twitter

Just found out about the loss of a colleague and friend. Made me think of the missed phone call and the missed visit :((

I then received the nicest and most considerate tweet from a very special lady by the name of Bonnie Koening.

We all seem to be living on the fast lane, no time to stop, take stock, bereave, mourn, be with ourselves…. No absolutely not…. Couple of hours later, I was facilitating a workshop, but my mind was really on Ramin and I tweeted:

Facilitating world cafe for our technical advisory + policy division is helping me not to think too much about the loss of my colleague

Back at my desk, in the evening before calling back Hafez to find out about the funeral arrangements and calling it a day, I sent a series of emails to friends and colleagues giving them the sad news…..

Thinking back, I find it extraordinary that I did not pick up the phone to TELL anyone but found comfort by hiding behind my computer screen. In retrospect, I find that very sad.

Later in the evening, I received an email from Ramin…. This was really spooky….Of course, it was Hafez sending an email from Ramin’s hotmail account. That email made me realize that today our most valuable assets is not our money in the bank or our home, but our on-line identity. Our virtual presence is now our public face and our preferred mode of communication is to communicate with each other on-line.

A decade ago, we had to only take care of our material assets – our money, home, land etc. Today we also have to take care of our “unmaterial” assets – our on-line identity - and make sure that our loved ones know our userids and passwords to our Facebook, LinkedIn, Blog, Twitter, MySpace, Ning site!!!

I then visited Ramin’s facebook’s page, where I found Jahanshah’s blog post which is a beautiful obituary. Jahanshah truly seems to have been Ramin’s twin and definitely someone who knew him very very well.

Ramin’s Facebook page is now becoming the place for his friends and family to come together and mourn the untimely loss of a dear friend.

Ramin jan, may you rest in peace. You’ll be missed tremendously and will continue to live in our hearts and mind.

Roohet shad! We'll always remember you, happy, smiling and full of life!

Eritrea fishery sector: An untapped and renewable gold mine

I first visited Eritrea in 2008 and it was love at first sight. In December 2009 when I landed in Asmara airport, I felt like I was back home. I spent my first couple of days visiting the irrigation schemes in zoba Debub and then went east to zoba Northern Red Sea where I visited Massawa, the capital city of Northern Red Sea Zoba which is the centre of Eritrea’s fishing industry. Massawa is one of the hottest places on earth, with temperatures soaring well above 40C (104F) and 80% or more humidity for much of the year. Yet, like rest of this beautiful country, it has its charm.

Eritrea is a relatively rich country in terms of natural resources. It has gold, potash, zinc, copper and salt. What is perhaps less known is the fact that Eritrea also has significant fisheries resources and that 20% of the coastal population’s livelihoods depends on fisheries. However, unlike the gold or copper, fisheries resources, if properly managed, can continuously provide food, employment and income to the coastal communities.

Eritrea’s 1,200km coastline is highly favourable for artisanal fishing offering rich and varied fish stocks and sheltered fishing grounds. Unlike artisanal fishers in other parts of the world, Eritrean fishers have not overexploited their resources and could potentially increase their catch from the few thousand tons per year to at least 40,000 if not 80,000 tons per year.

Their fish stocks include lizard fish, threadfin breams, and catfish (soft bottom demersal); snappers, emperors, grunts, job fish and groupers (hard bottom demersal and reef fishes); sardines and anchovies (small pelagic); tunas, mackerels and sharks (large pelagic); shrimp, crabs, lobsters (crustaceans); and squids and octopus and cuttlefish (cephalopods).

“Eritrea’s fisheries sector has the potential to contribute substantively to our national food security and can play an important role in reducing poverty in coastal areas”, says Andom Ghebretensae, Director-General Regulatory Services. “Currently we have 3,000 licensed artisanal fishers. Eritrea’s coast not only is rich in fisheries resources but also has great potential for tourism.”

The Government of Eritrea has long recognized this potential and in collaboration with a number of donors such as the African Development Bank and the European Union has built EU standard landing and processing sites. These sites are fully equipped with processing and storage facilities, where trained personnel weigh, process and grade the catch.

Eritrea’s fish exports may have been low in recent years (approximately 234mt in 2008), however, thanks to the upgrading of landing and processing facilities, today Eritrea is eligible to export fish products to European Union countries.

Eritrean artisanal fishers aspire to become entrepreneurs
Eritrean artisanal fishers use two types of fishing boats – houris or sambuks. Houris constitute 80% of the fishing fleet. These are wooden boats and measure anywhere between 8-13 metres. It has an outboard engine and can take up to five people on board.

Sambuk, 16 metre wooden boat with an inboard engine, constitute approximately 9% of the fishing fleet. Sambuks can take up to nine people on board.

The remaining 11% is made up of fibreglass reinforced plastic boats imported from Saudi Arabia or Yemen, although some are also being built in Eritrea.

“I have a traditional wooden boat called a houri which I bought thanks to a 5 year loan”, says Ahmed Hamid, an artisanal fisher. “There are three of us and with our boat we can go between 8-10 kilometres from the shore and we can always count on an average catch of 800 kilos”.

“During the fishing season – which is approximately seven months – we make about 2-3 fishing expeditions per month. We use small nets and usually stay out in the sea for an average of 10 days”, explains Hamid

“We buy ice from Massawa Fish Landing centre for 0.80 nakfa per kilo and use it to preserve the fish on board”, says Hamid proudly. “We sell our entire catch to National Fisheries Corporation which then sells it to processors such as Erifish. They buy the snappers for 22 nakfa per kilo and the groupers go for 25 nakfa. And we use 20% of our catch to repay the loan”.

On the landing site, Hamid and his fellow fishers unload their 800 kilo of first class tuna, snappers, emperor and groupers in big blue containers. Their catch is immediately taken next door to the EU certified Erifish processing plant, where a team of 24 people degut, process and packaged the fish for export.

“I have everything I need on my traditional boat – a cellphone, my medical kit and a transistor radio – but I would like to buy fibre glass reinforced boat, so that we can stay a maximum of a month and come back with an average catch of 1.5 tons”, said Hamid with a smile. “And I look forward to the day when I am able to sell part of my catch freely on the market”.

Fisheries sector can help ensure national food security and provide investment opportunities
In Eritrea, meat is the preferred source of protein. Fish consumption is estimated at 0.5-1kg/person/year which is low compared both to the average Africa consumption, estimated at 8kg/person/year.

“We need to encourage our people to eat more fish and to consider fish as an alternative source of protein”, says Seid Mohamed Abrar, Director, Office of the Minister of Marine Resources.

“We have high market value fish and we can fish approximately 80,000 tons per year without any risk of depleting the fish stock”, says Abrar. “By exploiting our fisheries resources, we can contribute to ensuring food security for our coastal population and help the artisanal fishers to improve their livelihoods.”


This is why the Government of Eritrea requested IFAD’s assistance to design a fisheries development project to support artisanal fishers in the Red Sea coastal regions.

“The IFAD-funded Fisheries Development Project under the auspices of the Ministry of Marine Resources will reorganize and strengthen fishers’ cooperatives and support artisanal fishers so that they can increase their incomes and improve their food security”, says Abla Benhammouche, Country Programme Manager for Eritrea. “This project will help Minister of Marine Resources to make the fisheries sector sustainable and at the same time reduce illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing.”

The Fisheries Development Project will build the capacity of fishers such as Hamid and equip them with modern fishing techniques and better and secure boats and fishing gears. At the same time, the project will encourage private sector initiatives to add value to the processing and packaging process, also build the capacity of Erifish to better market the catch domestically and expand their export markets.

To support private sector investment, artisanal fishers such as Hamid will be allowed to sell 20% of their catch to private processors and traders, with the prospect of increasing this percentage as private sector further develops.

Last but not least, private sector investment can help transform Eritrea’s Red Sea coast into a flourishing tourist resort, offering spectacular diving opportunities and uncontaminated beaches. “We can become a viable rival to other Red Sea resorts such as Sharm el-Sheikh”, says a proud Abrar.

Legacy of a visionary American biologist: Mangroves for all
During World War II Dr Gordon Sato, a biologist spent some time in a concentration camp called Manzanar in California desert. During his internment he developed his vision of eradicating hunger by enabling African nations to feed themselves. He invested half a million dollar of his own money in the Manzanar Project.

This visionary philanthropic scientist conceived this project as low-tech solution to hunger and poverty and to combat the impact of climate change, when climate change was neither on the international agenda nor on the talk of the town!

The project started during the 30-year war to win independence from Ethiopia. Sato first joined the Eritrean fighters in 1987 and introduced fish farming. He succeeded in growing fish and providing high protein food for the wounded. After the war, he focused on issues related to economic development and applied what he knew best - biological principles - to develop a self-sufficient economy in a country that is prone to drought and famine.

However, soon he saw the potential of mangroves to increase food production all the way up the food chain.

In an interview, Sato said: “I was in an area with mangrove trees, and I noticed the camels eating them. I got the idea that the trees could also supply food for sheep and goats. There was lots of available space for growing mangroves, so it seemed like an obvious solution. Initially, I had to figure out how best to grow them and how to make the mangroves good food. We found that mangroves would be adequate food for livestock, as long as they were supplemented by a small amount of fish meal prepared from fish waste.”

Years later, thanks to the Manzanar project and Sato’s legacy, Eritreans are using fresh leaves and dried mangrove seeds as livestock feed. This project has also taught herders that the seaweed that washes up on shore can be dried, processed and used as animal feed.

Ammanuel Yemane, Manzanar project manager, takes pride to showcase Sato’s teaching. Sato and his team reached the conclusion the mangroves were growing in areas where rainwater was washing into the sea. The rain was providing nitrogen, phosphorous and iron - elements lacking in seawater. The team buried the seeds with a piece of iron and a punctured bag of fertiliser rich in nitrogen and phosphorous and saw the mangroves flourishing.

Today, Yemane and his team work with women, men, herders and fishers of Hirgigo village to teach them how to use the same technique to plant mangroves so that they can effectively address sustainable resource issues such as providing food for livestock, protecting the fish and preventing deforestation. “The village is now learning to manage the mangroves and we can recover the lost mangroves in approximately 6 months”, comments Yemane

The IFAD-funded Fisheries Development Project will join forces with Yemane and his young group of dedicated and passionate Eritrean to support the rehabilitation of the mangroves and to:

• build capacity of fishers to develop viable and sustainable business plans
• teach fishers how to protect marine natural resources such as the coral reefs
• teach fishers to form cooperatives
• organize exchange visits

A brighter future
Through out their history Eritrean people repeatedly have shown their resilience and resoluteness. It goes without saying that they will be able to unleash the potential of their untapped gold mine - their fisheries sector – in the most sustainable manner and as a result contribute substantively to improve the livelihoods of the coastal population and create a vibrant local private sector.

Watch short video of Eritrean fishers unloaded their first class catch

Social media is rural development’s best friend!

The advent of social media and Web 2.0 has democratized how citizens interact with people in power, be it members of parliament, donor organizations, international bodies, civil society and the media. Social media tools have paved the way for citizens to build a “personal” relationship with their rulers and their peers. These tools allow everyone – those in power and the normal citizens - to create and share content and add value to the political, social and economic debate.

Those reading this blogpost know very well that Web 2.0 started as a massive social experiment. Today we’ve gone beyond the experiment. Social media and Web 2.0 are now part and parcel of our daily lives and thanks to this revolution, citizens in urban and rural areas are in an unprecedented position to have their voices heard!

Last February 2010 I had the honour and pleasure of talking with CNN’s anchor and correspondent, Jim Clancy on how social media has changed mainstream media. During our conversation, Clancy pointed out that mainstream journalists use social media to “mine” information and to “get the temperature”.

Over the last months, we’ve seen how citizens in countries where social media tools are banned have found inventive ways of sharing their message with the outside world. We have also seen that restrictions on the export of technology related to the use of internet-based communication have been lifted in the US to boost free flow of information in Iran, Sudan and Cuba. Since these tools are open and accessible, they’ve become a catalyst for transparency and accountability. And thanks to their egalitarian nature the farmers in rural areas, just like the urban activists in capitals have the same opportunity to have their voices heard.

Social media is allowing development workers to capture in real time emerging needs and trends and at the same time allows development workers to disseminate their messages and appeals in real time. A case in point is the appeals via Twitter for the devastating earthquake in Haiti.

At the same time, more and more development organizations are using a variety of social media tools to report live from events and to solicit comments and feedback. For example, last month, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), used a number of social media tools and social reporting methodology to report live from the third global meeting of the Farmers’ Forum and the thirty-third session of its Governing Council. IFAD’s social reporting team, composed of 10 volunteers, attended the various sessions and brought the meeting live to those who could not attend, through Twitter, photography, videos and through IFAD’s social reporting blog.

Together with Clancy who moderated a high-level panel discussion on "From summit resolutions to farmers' fields: Climate change, food security and smallholder agriculture", the IFAD’s social reporting team solicited questions via Twitter, which Clancy then fielded to the panellists and the audience, one from @mobimonkey and another from @mongkolroek.

For me, IFAD’s social reporting experience demonstrated how social media tools contribute to giving development a new participatory approach which goes beyond just words but is rooted in action.

If yesterday, we only needed to engage with governments and with grass-root communities, today, we have to engage with all those who wish to engage with us and have something to say. What has changed is that as development workers we have to continuously and consistently be “listening” to what people have to say.

Before the advent of social media, we could have afforded brushing off comments made in third-tier media. Today it is hard to ignore a farmer’s organisation blogpost or a comment on Twitter, because ignoring a comment or an observation can have a negative snowball effect. This means we need to be equipped to deal with feedback and criticism in a constructive and timely manner. This also means that today more than ever, development is a joint effort and there is an extended development community which includes all actors and most importantly the people who we serve and need to reach.

I believe that if international and development organizations fail to embrace social media they will become irrelevant in no time. We not only need to have our ears on the “social media tools” to hear and see what others are saying about us, about our partners and stakeholders, but also have to use these tools to influence policies, to set trends, advocate for eradicating rural poverty and advocate for smallholder farmers and the poor rural people whom we serve.

In concluding, I believe that social media is perhaps one of the greatest allies of development workers. Today we can get our messages out immediately through Twitter and through blogs. Our PowerPoint presentations are available on tools such as Slideshare, photos from our projects and programmes are readily available through Picasa and Flickr and everyone can see our achievements and challenges through our videos available on YouTube and Blip TV. At the same time, we have the opportunity to hear first hand and listen in real-time to issues and challenges as they emerge. We are in a position to get FIRST HAND information. We need to harness all this wealth of knowledge to fulfil our mandate of eradicating rural poverty and ensuring food security for all.

Interview with CNN anchor Jim Clancy: How has social media changed mainstream media

This week I had the honour and pleasure to meet CNN's Jim Clancy. Yesterday, I asked if I could interview him about social media. Jim, being very modest, said he does not know much about social media.... But I can tell you he knows A LOT and he's an advocate for social media.

This morning he kindly agreed to grant an interview. You can't imagine my excitment. A little nobody interviewing the famous Jim Clancy.

It was a pleasure to work with Jim. He is such a pleasant and humble person.

The unique challenges of #Haiti’s emergency logistics

Over the last days I’ve been so frustrated by media reports out of Haiti pointing fingers at aid workers and my UN colleagues. I’m lucky enough to have a sister who did her doctoral thesis on logistics of humanitarian organization during disaster response. So I asked her to write a piece explaining the complexity of a relief operation in Haiti’s context.

Here is what she had to say:

As the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake unfolds, the media highlights the lack of adequate response by humanitarian organizations to the needs of the population. ‘Logistics’ and ‘coordination’ are often named as the two areas where humanitarian organizations have failed in. But don’t humanitarian organizations have the experience to mobilize relief resources and stage an adequate response? After all they have been confronted with large-scale and complex disasters such as the 2004 Tsunami and the Iraq and Afghanistan emergencies before. So, what can explain the delay in relief efforts by humanitarian organizations? I will first try to illustrate how humanitarian organizations operate and then put their efforts into the context of the Haitian earthquake.

The operations of humanitarian organizations
Most humanitarian organizations typically specialize in one area of relief assistance (food, medicine/medical assistance, shelter, non-food items, etc.) and/or population group (children, refugees, etc.). They are usually not involved in rescue efforts which are conducted by specialized national emergency teams or military forces. Therefore, they cannot be expected to respond to all the needs of all the survivors. What is even more important to appreciate is that the success of any disaster response effort does not fall squarely on the shoulders of humanitarian organizations. This is because humanitarian organizations do not operate in a vacuum but depend on a number of stakeholders to stage their disaster response.

For each disaster, a humanitarian organization establishes its own emergency supply chain. This disaster-specific supply chain consists on a number of activities to be carried out by a range of actors. Humanitarian organizations can be retained responsible for the timely activation and coordination of these activities that continue to depend on the capability and contribution of seven networks of actors. These are the media, donors, relief item suppliers, recipient country, neighboring countries, military forces, and implementing partners. The media through coverage of a disaster often activates an emergency supply chain and is a source of information on its development. Donors provide funds, goods, services and people. Donors together with private sector suppliers provide relief items. Donors, recipient country, neighboring countries and military forces provide logistics assets. Implementing partners, that is the local and foreign NGO community, typically acts as distributors.

In terms of activities, soon after a disaster, a humanitarian organization carries out a group of activities. With a view to plan its relief effort, it assesses the needs of the population and prepares an initial appeal targeted at the donor community to mobilize resources. After having mobilized cash, people, services, information, relief items and in-kind donations, it ensures their transportation to the disaster site. Both procured and solicited in-kind donations are stored in warehouses before distribution to the population. It is worth noting that planning does not occur once, that is, at the outset of a disaster but is a continuous activity.

The humanitarian community has long identified coordination and logistics as two critical areas for disaster response success. The UN’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), established by the UN’s Secretary General in 1998, functions as a coordination platform for the humanitarian community during all emergencies. OCHA provides a number of common services to the humanitarian community. It is the secretariat for four coordination mechanisms and tools: the Consolidated Appeal Process, the Central Emergency Relief Fund, the UN’s Disaster Assessment Coordination teams, the Humanitarian Information Centre and Military and Civil Defense Unit.

The complexity of more recent humanitarian crises has led to the unbundling of logistics from generic coordination. For over a decade, the humanitarian community activated a specialized temporary facility: the UN Joint Logistics Center. To ensure predictable leadership and accountability in key disaster response areas, in December 2005, the policy making organ of the humanitarian community, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), endorses the cluster approach which implies the activation of clusters in nine key areas, each to be led by a humanitarian agency. Given its experience in emergencies, the World Food Programme (WFP) is designated as the lead agency not only in the areas of food assistance but also logistics and emergency telecommunications.

Haiti before and after the earthquake
Now let us step back and take stock of the Haitian reality prior to the disaster and the effects of the earthquake on the country.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere and ranks 148th of 179 countries on the United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index. Prior to the disaster, out of approximately 8.5 million Haitians, one million was already dependent on foreign aid. Haiti does not have any military force which implies lack of army and military assets (e.g. heavy duty equipment, helicopters). Due to the history of the country, some of the functions of the government and its institutions have been overtaken and carried out by a host of NGOs.

The epicenter of the destructive earthquake which struck Haiti on 12 January 2010 is 22 km from the capital city of Port-au-Prince and 15 km from the other major urban centers; the most densely populated area of the country. (The capital city alone accounts for 2 million people). The earthquake is estimated to have killed 200,000 people and left behind an unparalleled number of severely injured survivors requiring medical attention and assistance. An approx. 3 million survivors, most of which inhabitants of shanty-towns, that is, the poorest of the poor, require everything from water, food to shelter and psychological support. As the quake has hit the capital city, government, UN, NGO community and private sector operators have all suffered from human losses and damage to their infrastructure such as offices, shops and equipment. The port, airport and the road network are severely damaged. The capital city’s water supply and electricity systems have collapsed, leaving millions of people without access to safe water. Only one hospital in the city appears to be functional. With a disbanded police force and significantly reduced UN security workforce (100 staff still unaccounted for), there is no force to ensure safety and security.

A logistical nightmare
The response of the international community to the disaster is heartening both in terms of speed and size. Therefore, there is no question of goodwill or lack of resources to stage a relief effort despite the fact that the daily needs - from food, water to shelter - of 3 million people and medical care to the injured have to be met. An effective response is being held back by the logistical challenges confronting those on the front-line. Operators deployed for the occasion are aware of how these challenges can quickly trigger into mass revolts, further undermining any possibility of an orderly relief effort.

What becomes clear from the above is that humanitarian organizations cannot be held responsible for logistical failures. The sheer infrastructure devastation left behind by the earthquake and lack of local manpower and equipment to remove rubble from roads and repair critical infrastructure undermines significantly the speed and scale of any relief efforts to be staged by the humanitarian community.

Luckily, soon after the disaster, the damaged airport control tower was repaired to allow aviation operations to resume. Given the limited size and capability at the Haiti airport, the humanitarian community obtained the necessary authorizations to fly relief items to the Dominican Republic. However, the international response to the disaster has congested the two airports delaying the delivery of key equipment and supplies even to the aid operators already on site. Given longer repair times, the port continues to be out of use. As a result, vessels already at the coast are not in a position to off-load their cargo of relief items.

Lack of on-site transport assets such as trucks and dwindling supply of fuel further limits the ability of humanitarian organizations to transport goods from the airport towards the population. Moreover, given the overall destruction, the humanitarian community requires time to identify storage centers and set up secure and safe distribution centers. As mentioned above, usually the large UN relief organizations depend on the NGO community for distribution of relief items. As the earthquake has also affected this particular set of actors, the humanitarian organizations need to fly-in or identify qualified staff to man these centers. Finally all the above has to be carried out in an insidious and volatile security environment.

Coordination in the context of a dominating donor
Response to a logistical nightmare is effective coordination. The success of the humanitarian operations depends on i) how well the community manages the logistics bottlenecks caused by limited infrastructure and high demand on its use, and ii) how effectively it can prioritize the movement of people and goods necessary to avert any social uprising.

In its lead capacity on the logistics cluster, throughout the Haiti crisis, WFP will manage the passenger air service, provide information on the transport network and coordinate the operations of the humanitarian organizations among each other and that with the Government of Haiti. Given the huge contribution of the US through its military, it also needs to coordinate and de-conflict the humanitarian community’s response with that of the US military. This leaves behind private and bilateral donations. As far as the EU is concerned, Italy appears to take on the coordination role among European countries. It is unclear who will deal with the other donations, which if not coordinated will only add to the chaos and aggravate the situation at key entry points such as airports and ports.

The speed and scale of the US’s response to the disaster in terms of funds, goods and military support is unprecedented. This is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing as the US military will have the means to reestablish a safe and secure environment for humanitarian organizations to operate in and bridge the command and resource gap left behind by the Haitian government. It is a curse as with its huge resources it will dominate the relief effort, overshadowing others, and monopolize the use of the limited logistics assets as exemplified by the current ‘exclusive’ use of the Haitian airspace.

Conclusion
I hope by now we can all appreciate the complexity of humanitarian response during disasters. Humanitarian organizations are not only conditioned by the environment in which they operate, but also by the actions of other actors. In Haiti, they are operating against all odds. But let us hope that donors with resources required by humanitarian organizations actively participate in the coordination initiatives led by the UN. This is the only way to ensure that relief activities are coordinated, assets are shared and the use and movement of resources are prioritized, thus meeting the needs of the population.

Ramina Samii

Read more at http://www.insead.edu/facultyresearch/centres/isic/documents/TsunamiversusHaiti.pdf

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About the Author
Ramina Samii currently works for the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), an international development financial institution. Before joining OFID, Ramina worked as a researcher at INSEAD, the international business school. During her time at INSEAD, she conducted research on several topics including supply chain management with particular emphasis on humanitarian logistics. Her research resulted in the publication of articles in academic and practitioner journals as well as numerous case studies. It also constituted the basis for her doctoral thesis entitled: Leveraging Logistics Partnerships: Lessons from Humanitarian Organization.
Ramina holds a PhD in management from Erasmus University, Rotterdam School of Management and a Laurea degree in economics and business administration from the University of Rome, Italy.

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Post-script
I hope the readers find this blogpost informative and provide their comments. This way I can show my skeptic sister, that social media is indeed useful and an immediate way of getting your message and knowledge to a wide audience.

Impact of climate change on Eritrean agriculture sector

As world leaders gather in Copenhagen to seal the deal on climate change, I saw, first hand, the devastating consequences of climate change on Eritrea’s agriculture and livestock sector.

Crop cultivation and animal husbandry account for 60 per cent of rural incomes in Eritrea. Recent models and estimates show that the effects of climate change have an adverse impact on the country’s agriculture and livestock sector. Decrease in rainfall and a rise in temperatures has resulted in increased dry spells and decreased soil moisture.


Water scarcity is one of the many challenges that farmers and pastoralist face in Eritrea. The country has two perennial river systems, the Setit River, which forms the country’s border with Ethiopia and drains into the Nile basin, and the Gash Barka system, which collects the run-off water from the highlands. All other rivers in the country are seasonal and carry water only after rainfall, which means that they are dry most of the year. The country has limited sources of fresh surface water, and although groundwater can be tapped, it may be s quantity and quality may be poor.

Official estimates show average annual rainfall at 400-500mm. However, for the last two years, average rainfall has not exceeded 100mm.

Investing in blue gold improves livelihoods of smallholder farmers

To counter the devastating impact of climate change and to ensure food security for its people, the government of Eritrea is investing in the agriculture sector by:

• creating small-scale irrigation schemes
• building ponds, reservoirs and dams
• installing solar panels for water pumps
• installing drip, pump and sprinkler irrigation systems

For example in Zoba Debub the livelihoods of 82% of the 750,000 people living in this zoba depends on agriculture and related activities. Farmers in Debub like in Ma’ekel and other areas of Eritrea plant cereals such as wheat, barley, sorghum, taf, millet, maize and also vegetables – tomato, onion, carrot, potato, cabbage, lettuce and pepper.

In drought-prone Eritrea, livestock is a farmer’s most valuable asset. Animal husbandry is not only one of the main sources of livelihood for farmers, but it is also a form of insurance that enables poor rural people to cope with drought and other disasters.

One of the many challenges facing Eritrean farmers and pastoralists is to find grazing land and water for their livestock. The reservoirs and the surroundings provide an invaluable source of water and grazing land for livestock.

If you’ve ever visited Eritrea, you will be familiar with its arid landscape. You can imagine my surprise when driving through zoba Ma’ekel and -zoba Debub, against an arid and dry landscape, literary out of the blue I saw a beautiful body of water surrounded by hectares of emerald green and lush vegetation. These mini-oasis which are the result of Eritrean government’s investment in agriculture are THE source of livelihoods and food security for poor rural Eritreans.

The reservoirs can hold anywhere between 50,000 to 350,000 m3 of water and serve 200 to 350 poor rural households who are now able to irrigate their 15-35 hectares of agricultural land. Furthermore, the reservoirs and dams provide a secure source of grazing and water for livestock and also source of water for domestic/washing purposes.

These secure source of blue gold allow farmers to complement their rain-fed crops - cereals, sorghum and barely - with vegetables such as tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage, carrots, onions and pepper.

Eritrean farmers use a variety of irrigation methods ranging from drip to pipe and sprinkler and religiously adhere to the agreed irrigation schedule. Thanks to a favourable government policy, they have the luxury of not paying for water. However, they pay an average of 10,000-15,000 nakfa for a pump and those who have a fuel-run pump benefit from subsidized fuel.

The farmers are cognizant that their livelihoods depends not only on water, high yielding seeds and high-value crops but also on making sure that their pumps are well maintained. To this end they’ve established a revolving fund which is used exclusively for this purpose.

“Thanks to the reservoir now I have a secure source of water and can irrigate my 0.25 hectare”, says Woldo a farmer living in the Shmangus-laalay village. “Now I have three crops instead of one.” Woldo uses a combination of sprinkler and water pump. “When my crop was germinating, I used water pump, because sprinklers can damage the crop”, says Woldo. Woldo’s water pump is run by electricity for which he pays 24 nakfa per hour.

The 350 households living in the vicinity of this reservoir use this body of water not only to irrigate their plots, but also for their livestock and for domestic purposes such as for washing.


Before the reservoir was built, Elsa a mother of three, used to wake up at crack of dawn to go fetch water for washing purposes. Today, in tow with her donkey and her youngest son, she goes to the lake to collect water. While the water collecting technique may be rudimentary, it has saved Elsa hours of walking, allowing her to spend more time at home and to get involved in agricultural activities.

In the nearby village of Tesazege village, Athaneta and her brother are cultivating 0.5 hectare of land using the nearby reservoir. “I practice crop rotation and for this crop cycle I’ve replaced barley with tomatoes, because I have a secure source of water”, says Athaneta with a smile. “I’ve already harvested 100kg and expect to harvest another 200kg which I sell for 2 nakfa per kilo”.

“Thanks to this secure source of water, my brother and I can be sure to have one cereal crop and two vegetable crops”, says Athaneta.

Habtemariam is a model farmer who has fully taken advantage of the nearby reservoir and exploited the potential of his 0.75 hectare land, managing to secure himself and his family a total 5,000 nakfa by planting cabbage, lettuce and carrot.

Eritrea has the potential of having many more lush, green-emerald mini-oasis allowing more farmers to systematically cultivate agricultural land, ensure their food security and earn a secure income.

The Eritrean government and donor agencies are investing and committed to invest more in agriculture. Now, the onus is on the world leaders gathered in Copenhagen to finally seal the climate change deal, so that Eritrean women, children, men, farmers and pastoralists can have a bright future and never again suffer from drought and famine.


Please sign the climate change deal so that these children and this Eritrean family and many more have a better and brighther future!