Positive Minds | Positive Stories | Edition 009

The Experts' admonitions

As a child, my mother always used to tell me "son, education is not synonymous with knowledge". I understood the true meaning of this wisdom when I was the technical coordinator of a World Bank-financed project in Guinea. The objective of this project was to improve access to basic social services for rural communities and to strengthen the project management capacity of local leaders.

To achieve the latter objective, projects were selected, implemented and managed by the communities themselves, with my support as coordinator.

At the end of the pilot phase, an evaluation mission from the World Bank carried out a field visit. Their choice was a school construction project in a small village in Forest Guinea.

Once on site, our experts were very surprised when they realised that in order to reach the school, they had to cross a river where palm trunks were used as a bridge. Their surprise turned to dismay when one of our experts stumbled and found himself lying in the water. He came out of it, soaked like soup, struggling to hide his embarrassment. To avoid adding insult to injury, I had to hold back my bursts of laughter, leaving it to the schoolchildren following us to do it for me.

Once on the project site, their wrath fell on the young project coordinator that I was. For them, I had committed the original sin of letting the communities set up a school behind a river, with all the dangers this would entail for the children. The priority of this community is obvious; they hammered away.

Serenely, I asked to enlighten me on this so obvious priority. "Come on young man, this community needs a bridge," replied the expert who took the plunge into the river, apparently recovered from his emotions.

"Why don't you ask the village chief? After all, it is their choice," I suggested.

See you next week for the second part 2 of the story: the village chief's response to the experts.

Moral : do not rush to draw conclusions. Ask the right questions first.