30 July 2008

Colleagues' blogs in Liberia

While visiting Liberia last week, I was lucky enough to stay with three blogging colleagues: Laura Bacon, Diane Mak and Preya Sharma.

All three are working in various government departments and doing their best to understand and contribute, in some small way, to this small but important country.

Most people seem to be keen on the work they are doing or that we did last year; but of course it's not entirely costless and our impact is highly variable (my biggest impact seems to have been not my main project, but IT skills training I did in my spare time!). So I am wondering: what, if anything, have other governments got out of short-term technical assistance and internships? Are there any lessons that would be useful for Liberia? What can be done to bring in people from the diaspora, who can usually get up to speed quicker than well-meaning foreigners?

3 comments:

Ainee Masood said...

Hey Rupert
I have been reading your blog from time to time.It is a channel into the old life.... Cambridge and MPAID. Here in Pakistan nothing has really changed. The consumer spending habits are very much the same despite a double digit inflation for the last two years and very high commodity prices. What has changed though is a hike in street crime. It seems like people here just choose to ignore the reality and no one whats to do anything about it. In all this your blog is a great way to get the MPAID thinking back.
Ainee

mindbodymaths said...

Hi Rupert
I'm recently arrived in Monrovia for a year (with partner who has job) and looking for something useful to do... was thinking about IT training - could you let me know where you were involved with this? Thanks. elizjvv(at)gmail.com

Kelvin Wang said...

Hi, it's nice reading your blog, I am Kelvin in China. You blog is a window for me to understand Africa. I want to make friend with you. And want to discuss some business issue mainly in Liberia. Contact me, Kelvin@kingquenson.com Kelvin9831@hotmail.com wait for your reply.