Puzzle Pieces

At the beginning of the summer, one of my goals was to find my place in the development sector. Much of what I knew about development, I had learned from my colleagues in the nursing faculty, EWB at the national and chapter level, foundation learning, and university classes. With my experience working with EWB, I had a pretty good picture of what roles I was interested in, such as fieldwork, research, practical work at a hospital, or managing meetings with donors and the national government. I told this personal objective to my coach during the long road trip up north to my placement in May, and he was super thrilled. Looking back in retrospect, I can make a good guess that he was not thrilled that I would find my answer, he was thrilled I’d set that big of a goal. To be honest, I don’t think any of us really know where our puzzle piece fits into development perfectly. My placement was based on both how Cat knew me, and how Jolly Ann framed the sanitation team’s strategy. It fit rather well, surprisingly, but whether it’s based on my flexibility or their finesse I don’t know. [I’ll go with their finesse]. I’ve had lots of learning experiences, but I still don’t know where my puzzle piece fits. If I am having difficulty finding a place to fit in EWB’s puzzle/approach, then how difficult will it be to fit into the entire development world?
I’d like to take a step back and explain what I mean about this analogy of the puzzle. The development sector is like a massive puzzle that cannot or has not been finished. There are pieces of every colour, shape, and size strewn over the floor. These pieces may say things like policy, donors, fundraising, fieldwork, research, corruption, trade, marketing, media, good intentions, publicity, money, matching t shirts, abandoned buildings, and the list goes on. Anyone who has experienced development work or the effects of it before would have another pile of word pieces to add. I feel as if through the evolution of EWB, they’ve chosen specific parts of the puzzle in which they wish to work with. You could say that each team strategy whether it be water + sanitation, agriculture, or enhancing infrastructure (forgive me if I’ve missed one of the West African ones) has its own part of the puzzle that it’s working on. We’re like a bunch of old ladies in a retirement home working on different colours of the puzzle. Don’t judge that vision, because I intend to be the puzzle making champion when I retire. From the water and sanitation team strategy I am a part of, we’re all working on the blue pieces that say key words like village volunteers, area mechanics, traditional authorities, extension staff, district support, the district water office, evidence based decisions, Ministry of Health, CLTS, and community financing. There are specific roles/pieces given to APS and also given to JFs. Unfortunately, when you are trying to put pieces together, or perhaps this is just from my experience with puzzles, 95% of the time the pieces don’t fit. That’s where the whole ‘failing forward’ idea comes in. So...that piece did not fit, e.g. volunteers are not actually dependable in sanitation, so let’s try leveraging the traditional authorities’ strength instead. Moreover, let’s publish a report on the work of volunteers in sanitation, so that other districts/countries working in sanitation will see the difficulty in forcing those two pieces together.
So how does this apply to you? Well, this post is mainly directed to those interested in working in international development someday. My advice for you is do not try change the system that you are working with, or add more pieces to the puzzle. Adding a new project or program just adds another layer to the deep pile of unorganized puzzle pieces. The empty buildings scattered across the country are just skeletons left over from good intentions. The matching t-shirts are sold and seen on the everyday farmer. The water point you fundraised for was placed 10ft from a pre-existing one. The development system is a pile of puzzle pieces that need critical thinking, coordination, and the willingness to admit failure in order to starting fitting together properly.
Karina