Because All Good Stories Need An Introduction

Hello there! This is the first of what I hope to be many posts over the course of this summer. For those who don't know, I'll be spending three and a half months in Ghana as a Junior Fellow volunteer with Engineers Without Borders Canada. The following is a short description of what I'm doing and why I'm doing it.

What is Engineers Without Borders Canada?

Engineers Without Borders Canada (EWB) is an organization committed to reducing poverty in the developing world. The organization’s formal mission statement is to promote human development through access to appropriate technology. In reality this means a couple things. Firstly, EWB works to inform Canadians about the role that they can play to make this country more responsible to the real needs of those living in poverty. This type of public education is largely carried out by members of EWB’s 27 university chapters and 7 professional chapters across Canada. Our work in Canada focuses on the elimination of unfair trade policies between western countries and developing countries, on increasing Canada’s official development assistance and on the untying of Canada’s existing foreign aid. Secondly, EWB recognizes that there is a direct role for westerners to play in the developing world. By partnering with existing non-governmental organizations, local entrepreneurs, governments and other groups in developing countries, EWB strives to increase the capacity of the development sector by identifying the root causes of poverty and focusing on long term and sustainable impact. EWB’s overseas team is based in four countries: Ghana and Burkina Faso (West Africa) and Malawi and Zambia (Southern Africa). It is composed of Junior Fellows (university students who spend 4 months overseas) as well as Long Term Overseas Volunteers (university graduates who typically spend one to three years overseas).

Where Am I Going and What Am I Doing?

As a Junior Fellow, I will be living and volunteering in the Tolon-Kombungu District of Northern Ghana, 45 minutes outside the city of Tamale. I will be departing Toronto on May 7 and returning in late August. Once I arrive I will be responsible for finding a Ghanaian family to stay with. While living in my host community I hope to learn some of the local language (Dagbani and Konkumba), better understand the Ghanaian culture and some of the challenges faced by the Ghanaian people, and leave the people I meet with a better understanding (and possibly even opinion) of westerners.

When not spending time with my host community I will be volunteering with the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture at one of their district offices. The goal of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture is to increase the incomes of Ghanaian farmers on a sustainable basis. This is done primarily through the use of technologies that increase yields and through micro-credit loans that provide access to high-capital farming inputs such as fertilizer. Unfortunately, both the adoption rate of these technologies and the repayment rate of loans are low.

EWB and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture are partnered through a project called Agriculture as a Business. The goal of the project is to increase the effectiveness of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture’s existing programs by incorporating business and market messages alongside agricultural technology. EWB is in the process of developing a curriculum with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture that will include promoting record keeping, conducting profit analysis and market studies with farmers of their commodities, and facilitating farmer group development to better access loans/investment and markets.

Although the EWB and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture are involved with a variety of different crops, the majority of my time in Ghana will be spent working with rice. There are three specific projects I will likely be focusing on:

1. Rice Cooperative - NILRIFACU (Northern Region Intensive Lowland Rice Cooperatives Union) is a farmer group that is about three years old. I will be helping them gain computer skills, develop a rice packaging, labeling and inventory system, establish a selling point in the market and generally be better organized and function more effectively.

2. Comparative Study of Rice Varieties - NERICA (New Rice for Africa) is a project of the African Development Bank which seeks to introduce a new variety of rice that can be grown upland (no need for the intensive water of lowland varieties). Free seeds are already being distributed to farmers, but will the project work? Will the new rice really have higher yields? Will it produce the quality of rice demanded by consumers?

3. Eat Ghana Rice Campaign - A behavior change campaign aimed at increasing the local demand for Ghanaian rice. Ghanaians eat a lot of rice. A Ghanaian-Canadian I interviewed described Ghana as “more Asian than African”. The current social trend is to buy imported rice because it is whiter, free of imperfections and generally perceived as higher quality. Unfortunately, imported rice is not only less healthy than Ghanaian rice, but does not support the Ghanaian economy. I will be helping partner with market women, restaurants, schools, and other groups to promote the positive aspects of eating local rice.

Ghanaian rice and imported rice.

Why Am I Doing This?

There are three main reasons why I’m going to Ghana this summer:

1. I want to have a direct and positive impact on the Ghanaian people. While I recognize the incredible difficulties associated with creating measurable change in four months, I also feel that unless what I do overseas is directly useful for the Ghanaian people, I am not justified in being there (at least not in the name of development). I hope to bring the following characteristics to the projects mentioned above:

   • Knowledge of development theory, leadership and management techniques, and behavior change and social marketing.

   • Skills in information technology and management, giving and receiving feedback, and communicating with a western audience.

   • Attitude learned through use of the scientific method as it relates to rigorous analysis, methodology and documentation, as well as a concentrated drive and determination for success.

2. I want to inform Canadians about Ghana and the challenges facing people in developing countries. In contrast to having impact overseas, I think the opportunities to have impact in Canada are broad and limited only by my own efforts. I hope to share my experience with as many people as possible and to use the interest it generates to get people thinking about their own roles in promoting human development. I want to see more of my friends and family buying fair trade products; I want to see the government move closer to untying Canadian aid so that it goes to fighting the real causes of poverty rather than subsidizing Canadian industry; and I want to see an end to unfair trade policies that force developing countries to remain resource intensive economies rather than developing value-added industry.

3. Lastly, I want my experience in Ghana to change me as an individual. Never having been outside of North America, Ghana is a HUGE adventure and I hope to learn a lot from it. I want the experience to increase my understanding of the world and the people in it. I want to understand the challenges facing the people in my host country, but I also want to understand what gives them joy and what makes overcoming those challenges so important. Ultimately I want that understanding to forever alter my perception of the world and my responsibilities in it. Wherever I find myself in the years to come, I want the people I meet and the experiences I have overseas to remind me of the importance of overcoming poverty and the role we all have to play.

My intention is not to “save” the Ghanaian people, nor do I believe they need saving. On the contrary, I expect the vast majority of progress in reducing poverty in Ghana has come from Ghanaians themselves and will continue to do so. I also recognize the destructive legacy left to developing countries by western policies of colonialism, failed structural adjustment programs and forced trade liberalization. This being said, I still feel that westerners can have a positive role to play in development. I also think that bringing people together from different parts of the world, particularly north and south, is essential. Until Canadians have a better understanding of what it means to be Ghanaian and vice versa, progress on international issues will always be limited, and the same can be said for the larger western and developing worlds. In many ways I see the Junior Fellow program as a long term investment: its greatest returns will be realized long after this summer is over.