Back to my Roots

This week, I had a chance to go to Awassa, which is in southern Ethiopia, to visit some of our development projects. At work, I support the business/ economic growth team as well as our livelihood transitions team (which largely deals with food aid). I'm excited to learn about the work that each team is doing but it makes me want to actually get into the technical work as opposed to the support function that I'm serving right now. We visited one of our sheep and goat programs, where we've imported a particular breed of sheep and goat, sold them to research centers to multiply and cross breed with indigenous sheep and goat, and distribute to local farmers. That was interesting enough since I've never really seen sheep or goats up close before. We also visited a land administration project, where we've funded an organization to go into districts in the area and talk to landowners about their property boundaries. Neighbors discuss their boundaries and someone from the local government (and usually some "elders") help adjudicate any disagreements about boundaries. Then, two agents use a GPS device to upload the coordinates of the parcel boundaries and then it's uploaded into GIS (geographic information systems) software, along with the landholder's information. One of the issues in Ethiopia used to be the frequent redistribution of land under the socialist government, which ended in 1991. This policy continued under the current regime and only recently did the government decide that this wasn't really working. When land is constantly being taken from people, they don't have much incentive to invest in the land-- preserving soil quality, not depleting the ground water table, investing in quality infrastructure, etc. So hopefully, with this land registration/ certification system, people will be more willing to invest in infrastructure and environmental measures necessary for economic development and long-term growth.

This is the kind of stuff that I want to do. I've only been here six months and I am trying to be patient. I want to do things that are related to my background and am trying to find ways to attach myself to projects so that I can not only learn more about what we're doing and how we're doing it, but also build up my own skill set so that at some point, hopefully I can leverage said skills in the future. I can see myself moving more into either the Democracy and Governance office (which would allow me to do more with community development) or Economic Growth (which would allow me to put these degrees at work, focusing on a wide variety of projects). I'm excited by the possibilities but also a little frustrated with my current options. I just need to make the most of my opportunities, even if it is as a program officer. Everything is a learning opportunity :)