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Team Leader for UNDP's multi-agency Integrated Planning for Refugee Affected Areas ... Malawi in 1987
During the 1980s there was a complex civil war in Mozambique which resulted in a very large displacement of the civilian population in Mozambique with many of these displace persons becoming refugees in Malawi and Zambia.
I was appointed team leader by UNDP for a multi-agency team tasked with planning for the influx of refugees into Malawi so that the Government of Malawi would be assisted appropriately and the international community would have the resources needed to address the issues that would arise.
There is always a challenge in leading a multi-agency team in the UN system because all of the agencies have their own approach to how things should be done. I was representing UNDP in an area of activity that was usually the primary responsibility of UNHCR ... the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Fortunately I already had experience working with UNHCR, so was aware of the different operating cultures, and was able to organize the work in a way that respected the various approaches.
My own committment to the idea that the best development is local development also helped. Several members of the team also had the same mindset, and this became clear as the first draft of the plans were formulated. I am particularly grateful to the contribution that was made by DeeDee Angagaw of UNDP who brought a perspective to the work that was very relevant and normally missed by non-African male 'experts'.
One of the characteristics of this work was that early drafts of the study were shared with the local counterparts who were working with the team who then shared the thinking with key people in the government. The feedback from the government was relevant and useful and available early enough so that the information could be used in the ongoing development of the plans.
Another characteristic of the work was that the planning was multi-sector with a strong focus on the beneficiaries ... the refugees from Mozambique and the local populations in Malawi who were the affected hosts to the refugees.
When the planning first started there were already about 300,000 Mozambican refugees in Malawi. Six months later the number had increased to around 1.1 million.
The plan that emerged was something that facilitated fund raising and the use of funds for maximum benefit. Unlike many plans there was nothing in the plan that constrained performance, and everything that facilitated performance.
A remark was made by a fairly senior UNDP official some time after the plan was prepared to the effect that 'there was nothing left for the UN to do'. This was not said as a compliment but as a criticism ... but the fact was that all the things that needed to be done because of the urgency of the situation did get done by organizations ... bilateral agencies, multilateral agencies, NGOs, government agencies, etc. who were close to and focused on the issues affecting the beneficiaries.
About a year after the plan was launched, I worked with a World Bank team to do an analysis of the impact of the refugee assistance on the macroeconomic development of Malawi. The lesson from this was the disconnect between the real people needs that we planned for and implemented and the virtual analysis that is macroeconomic analysis and the foundation for failed development.
I was incredibly fortunate in the team ... notably DeeDee Angagaw from UNDP and Tim Foster from UNHCR ... and about 15 others.
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