Reflections on a USAID Development Journey #6: Madagascar Stories in Two Acts

Introduction to these informal notes

On Halloween 2022, I retired from working with USAID after almost 40 years, as a technical officer, a Project Design Officer and supporting the Agency in what was the former Bureau of Policy and Program Coordination (PPC) and then the Bureau for Policy, Planning, and Learning (PPL).  I also had a lot of fun working on renewable energy programs as well as Natural Resource Management (NRM) policy programs throughout Africa, as well as part of the reengineering team developing the Agency’s programming guidance and co-designed the Results Framework.  I also had a  lot  of work on training, knowledge management and a wide range of other things.  

One of my most fun jobs over the last several years has been working with a number of the PPL Communities of Practice (COPs), including the Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting COP and the Program Cycle Implementation COP, which are internal knowledge sharing spaces for USAID staff.  I decided to leave by summarizing some of my thoughts over the…decades, through a series of posts. Here are the posts, with just some irrelevant timing logistics deleted and grammar and typos corrected, as well as reducing the level of USAID-centric situations and acronyms. 

Please remember that they are informal posts, and represent my personal perspective, and do not represent USAID policy.

Following up on some of my earlier comments, here are a couple of linked stories in two parts, about data and logic over time. This first one is from an earlier email.  After these two I will swing back to one of my primary concerns - the impact on work from the timing of our business and staffing models.

Stage Setting - Madagascar 

USAID started to go back into Madagascar in 1983 after the Marxist government was overthrown. The USAID program was supported by the Regional Mission in Nairobi (REDSO) with 2 or 3 Foreign Service Nationals attached to the Embassy. And for the first year or so, there was no USAID Representative. Most of the programs, other than a small hydro activity I managed and some disaster relief responding to the impact of the odd typhoon or two slamming into the country,  involved PL 480 food assistance, which generated a massive amount of local currency. This local currency then supported a wide range of small grants throughout the country.

Later on, the USAID program grew to a full mission. And after a few years, the environmental program grew into a massive effort, as part of an even larger 15-year, World Bank-led, multi-donor effort.

Act 1. Map, Map, Who has the Map?

In the period from 1983-1988, USAID's environmental focus was on natural resources management (NRM), not on biodiversity. And as part of that NRM effort, the REDSO team carried out an assessment of Madagascar's resource base and its vulnerability to erosion, and approaches to address it by different communities. But we found a very useful coincidence. The PL480 generated local currency funds were allocated to a broad range of self-help projects throughout the country, and two-thirds of them were for forestry and watershed support spread over a wide variety of communities, with quite different organizational structures and cultures.  

The PL480 coordinator from Food for Peace decided to hire a local consultant to carry out a review of all of the 250 or so sites. The consultant developed an informal but quite detailed survey form and off he went with a driver to look at all 250 sites, the first person in USAID in over a decade who had seen such a range of ecosystems. In the early days of computer systems for staff, the consultant typed up all of his notes onto one-page forms and then set up a file cabinet with separate file folders for each activity. And then, as essentially a GIS precursor, he found a massive French map of the country, maybe 2 by 5 feet in size, and had it framed. He took multi-colored pins to identify the different types of projects (food aid, community forests, small scale water control, among others), and then coordinated the pin colors with the file folders. Low-tech but comprehensive - a developmental work of art.

Fast forward 3 or so years, the focus on the environment heats up, and we have now a USAID Representative eager to get more involved in the environment. On one of these later trips to the country, I asked about the famous map. "What map?" is the response. We all realized what an amazing data set this would be, but none of the new staff knew where either the map or the files were. 

Depressing, but time to go back to Nairobi. So I go across the way for a debrief with the Ambassador, we walk in, and there behind his desk is.....The Map!  But minus its pins. I go over the whole story, the amazing luck to have had the PL 480 consultant work carried out years before, and how delighted I was to have found the material once again! The Ambassador looked at me, looked at the map, and said: "so THAT'S why there are all of those damn holes in the map!"  Plus the file cabinet had been emptied, so they had room for office supplies.

Onward in the world of data collection…

Act 2. The Long and Winding World of the Environmental Program's Theory of Change (TOC)

So sometimes the problem is keeping a handle on long-term data over time. But another problem is how to maintain an analytic focus over the number of years.  In an earlier comment, I discussed the need for thinking beyond 5-year increments, but in the case of Madagascar, the multi-donor environment program was about 15 years in length.  

USAID designed a set of excellent, albeit unusually named, programs (SAVEM and KEEPEM) which were then followed by more, covering over 2-3 strategy periods.  But the paperwork for our programs necessarily were wrapped around a series of 5-year long contracts and grants, and so the logic for the programs became understandably intertwined with the grant and contract documentation, and the work then was managed carefully by Contract and Agreement Officer Representatives and led by Foreign Service Officers who would change positions every 4 years or so.  

By the very last period of time, there was only one person who had been there the entire time and knew the entire program and its intent. But it became difficult to explain the longer-term TOC as people came and went, since the timeline of the instruments and the timeline of the staff was considerably shorter than the timeline of the logic.

So even in a country where there was a well-considered, long-term plan, our business model and staffing model made it difficult to see the larger picture.