At the beginning of the week, a classmate arrives for his summer internship, which will involve managing the Humanitarian and Development Partnership blog.  My immediate office is now comprised of three Americans, a German and a Swiss.  Our office is also used by two economists from Burkina Faso, and one guy from Benin.  And after the retreat, I also know more people in the office, so I feel easier and more comfortable navigating the hallways at work.  The new house means I’m less isolated from the country and more familiar with my daily surroundings, which is good because it helps make life that much easier.  But it does sound a warning bell for me:  three weeks in allows time for patterns and habits to be set.  When I travel or visit a new place, I think it is important to be open, always, to the newness.  To think like a baby all the time, that’s one way to learn.

The various meetings looming during the week will expand my horizons a bit more.  The first is a roundtable reviewing progress made by the government on their Poverty Reduction Strategy since last October, when the government met donor agencies and governments in Brussels.  The second is a meeting of UN security officials from Chad, Sudan, and the CAR.

Preparation and anticipation for these events, on top of the small list of other tasks I have, will certainly keep me on my toes mentally.  The arrival of my classmate is another reason for relief, because he helps keep me out of the rut I know is coming.  To be more clear:  now I have an ideal (if somewhat expensive) living situation.  I wake early, do physical therapy, drink some tea and head to the office.  If I have time, I’ll wander near the office and look for bread to eat.  No one is selling fruit early in the morning, at least close to the office.  Then I work, and head either home to cook and hang with my roommates, or out to eat with my coworkers and/or their friends.  Again, there is little contact with local people.  I’m feeling more than a little bit of development-worker angst over this gap, which I feel is detrimental to the overall point of doing this work.  The fact that this roughly 9-to-5 lifestyle, an essentially white collar exercise in a place that is the exact opposite, seems out of touch enough to verge on being counterproductive.  Which is not to say that a UN, or NGO, work structure is a completely bad idea.  Organization is needed to coordinate the delivery of aid, the security and safety of employees, the acquisition of photocopiers and scanners and satellite equipment that enable the projects/missions to get out into the field, deliver aid or rig the water wells or whatever.  Steering the behemoth requires skill and coordination – but at a certain point the necessary layers begin to feed on each other and multiply.  At that point it becomes difficult to remain connected to the realities on the ground.

I have not explained this well, but the general idea is that in week 3 I’m worried about a rut.  B’s arrival helps.  B has traveled to developing countries in Latin America and has spent some time here and there, but hasn’t lived in a situation like the CAR.  And the situation is not good.  It is not the worse situation I’ve lived in, but it takes the constant (and welcome) questions from B to make me reflect more seriously on what is not working here, and what the long list of international organizations proposes to do about it.

First – what isn’t working?  If you’ve perused the Humanitarian and Development Partnership blog, you’ll have some idea of the challenges facing the CAR.  The political environment, in particular, determines nearly everything.  The current president took power in a coup five years ago, and was subsequently elected in 2005.  Most observers called this election fair and free, or as close to it as possible.  The president faces opposition from rebel forces in at least the northeast and northwest; these forces have been described to me as unsatisfied warlords who have gathered enough men, guns, and pickup trucks to cause the government headaches.  The government fought these rebels, who fought back.  Civilians got caught in the middle.  In the dry parlance of the humanitarian world, an insecure environment has prevented the inculcation of institutions necessary for real, sustained growth.  Which is to say, the people stuck in the middle, suffering as a result of both the rebels and the government suspecting them of aiding the other side, haven’t had access to basics like health care, education, food, water, shelter…

For a long time, no one cared about the country.  The UNDP and whomever else was here viewed it through the lens of development:  a landlocked country with few viable exports and nothing of consequence or interest to the outside world but a long, continuous, low-level conflict situation presided over by a stream of strongmen who were sometimes supported by the French. The trickle of money only recently turned into a flood, when someone had the bright idea to turn this thing on its head and introduce the country as a humanitarian crisis.  Different pot of money.  Different way to tug on the purse strings and hearts of the bureaucrats who can make a difference for the aforementioned shelter-less, potable-water-less citizens stuck in the bush between bands of men intent on protecting or obtaining someone’s right to sit in the presidential palace.

With the humanitarian spigot turned on, aid flow has increased from some several to 90 million dollars in the last two years.  So this begins to answer the question – what do international organizations intend to do?  The influx of NGOs in the last year has brought many of the organizations working next door in Chad and Sudan here.  Some focus on addressing the immediate concerns of the suffering.  Others focus on more middle-term solutions like disarmament, security sector reform, governance.  Longer term development projects are fewer, but as the other areas begin to improve microfinance, infrastructure, business development, and trade could flourish.

All of this begs a final large-ish question, which is something like is this the right government?  Damning human rights reports are available here and here, and the picture they paint is not pretty.  One perspective put to me is:  who really cares.  There is an opportunity here for things to get started, so let us take advantage of it.  It is not like the current government is sitting on it’s collective butt:  they have recently signed peace treaty agreements with their major foes, and are participating in many multi-lateral initiatives like the Paris Agreement (on increasing aid effectiveness) and the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative.  In a major political milestone, they were named as the fourth country to be put on the list for the UN’s Peace Building initiative, which will give them access to more money and support for maintaining the peace achieved through agreements.

There is a lot to be worried about, as in all delicate political environments.  Especially given the history.  But there is also a lot to be optimistic about, if you can see the potential and muster the energy to support the process.

This was my third week – reflecting, digesting, explaining.