July 5, 2007 - Ethiopia

We drove into downtown Hawzien this morning in search of the Millennium Village Project (MVP) office. Hawzien is the location of a huge farmer's market that takes place every Wednesday and draws Ethiopians from far and wide. It is also the site of a national tragedy. On June 22, 1988, it was air bombed by the Derg government during a market day and 2500 Ethiopians were killed. We drove past a stella that was erected in the main plaza in honor of those who died...a rather sobering reminder of the not-too-distant past.

Today is Thursday and as we drove down the main street, I saw the remains of yesterday's market. People were still gathered to socialize and sell off a few bags of leftover grain. Pulling the car to the left, our driver parked right beside a huddle of women bargaining for some bags of grain, and we climbed out to an exchange of curious glances.

Tucked away from all the marketplace hubbub, in a courtyard off the main road, we found the MVP office. Out of all our site visits in Ethiopia, I think I can fairly say that we were all anticipating the visit to the MVP perhaps the most. Back in the states, we had read both praise and criticism of the prject and we hoped to see for ourselves what impact the MVP is having. In particular, I saw that the MVP has two big opportunities to be very successful and mainly two potential pitfalls. As an organization operating in countries throughout Africa, the MVP has an exciting chance to create a high level "development method" (a systematic approach for tackling development issues), with each regional staff tailoring the program to their local context. Basically, adding additional villages or replicating the program should not require re-inventing the wheel. Secondly, the name recognition and significant donor backing that Jeffrey Sachs and his team have received place the MVPs in a unique position to pave the way with new, innovative development solutions that can then be adopted by the government after five years, when the MVPs pull out.

That said, two major apprehensions I have are: 1) will the MVP be able to pull out in five years and leave behind a sustainable impact? and 2) Can the MVP, though it was initiated from far-away Columbia University, operate in a way that is truly bottom-up?

As we approached the MVP office, we were greeted by a somewhat perplexed staff. Unfortunately, they had been expecting us to arrive yesterday and the person given the task of showing us around had already left on another assignment.

Nevertheless, they agreed to hst us today and all six staff members and the four of us (Charly, Alex, Kahsai, and I) gathered around a table in the main office. On the whole, the staff looked a bit nervous and unsure what to say since their representative had left. However, once we introduced ourselves and each staff member began talking about his or her deparment, they became more comfortable and confident. In particular, I was impressed by the two women staff members, one who is head of Gender Activities and the other is director of the MVP's Education Activities. The MVP operates in five main areas: health, infrastructure, agriculture, water and sanitation, and education.

The allocation of the MVP funds is determined by the Columbia research team with 30% dedicated to health, 20% to infrastructure, 15% to agriculture, 15% to water and sanitation, and 20% to education. As Kahsai later shared, he said that he could not even imagine operating within these parameters. REST knows exactly what each kebelle has stated as their priorities and how the wereda have prioritized each kebelle to receive funds. It is these wereda priorities, rather than mandates given by USAID or Oxfam America, that determine the allocations of funds donated to REST. With the MVP's strict allocation of funds, I believe it will be more difficult to impliment a bottom-up development approach.

We finished our tea and headed out into the field. Our first stop was a nursery that was originally planted by the government and is now run by the MVP. This stuck me as somewhat strange, as I would have imagined the MPV to start a nursery and the government to then step in. However, it was exciting to see how the MVP uses the nursery as a training ground for farmers and identifies entrepreneurial farmers who are willing to set aside parts of their limited farmland for growing fruits and vegetables (higher value crops). In particular, the MVP shows them tricks of the trade for getting such crops to grow in the dry Ethiopian soil. We saw one apple tree that had been bent over to get it to grow side shoots, and papaya trees that had two small perferated clay pots on either side - a low tech drip irrigation system.

We didn't stay long because the day is short and our main objective was to see Koraro--the first and most reknowned village the MVP is working in. It is very remote--an hour by car when it is dry and inaccessible when wet. Although REST has done some work there in the past, it is not a priority of the wereda because they know it has very little hope as a good investment. They feel it is better for those villagers to move because Koraro is more resource poor than other areas and as a market center, it could never compete with Hawzien. We were surprised to see that the hospital in Koraro is expecting surgery equipment when some of the more basic immunization facilities were rather disorganized and dishevelled.

However, I was impressed by the MVP's involvement with Koraro's school. The MVP has initiated a school food program, where participating households donate 10 percent of their crops to the school in order to provide students with breakfast. We visited one Koraro home with a woman head-of-house. She was as proud to inform us of her involvement in the school food program as she was to show us her well-kept household (which was beautiful despite moving things around in preparation for DDT spraying).

As the afternoon rain moved in, we rolled out, stopping in a tiny bar for a round of farewell drinks with the MVP folks.

It was time for us to drive to Mekelle before nightfall. However, during our stay at the Gheralta Lodge, we had made the mistake of flipping through the pages of a book about the ancient Christian churches of Ethiopia. There was one curch we just couldn't pass up: Abreha wa Atsbeha. Literally carved out of stone, the church makes a cave inside the mountain! It was built during the rule of the twin kings Abreha and Atsbeha whose remains are believed to be housed in the recesses of the church. Overall, the church contains 44 stone columns and a beautiful dome, though most of it is now covered in a layer of soot (the evidence of a long-ago fire).

Although it was rather expensive to obtain the entry ticket to visit the church, the experience was well worth it - particularly meditating beneath the charred stone walls as the pitter patter of rain drifted through the church's magnificent blue wooden doors.

We celebrated our eventual arrival in Mekelle by sharing a wonderful meal with Kahsai and his family (a beautiful wife and two adorable kids) and Teklewoini (REST's founder and CEO). Dina, Kahsai's 11-year-old daughter, is a very outspoken and intelligent young lady. We had fun discussing global citizenship, America, and her plans of becoming a scientist of the planets.