Milkshakes in the African Desert

...The room was full of consultants...

...People with expertise in Africa could work in Asia, and vice versa, for example...

...One of my first lessons at the agency was that although hiring me saved money—by avoiding travel and hotel costs, as well as the pricey salaries of more established professionals—the Stryk Thomas is a Washington writer...

...I tried to listen, but all the while I kept wondering where they would get the electricity, and who was going to teach those villagers to read...

...The agency was planning a multi-million dollar program to prepare Niger to deal with future droughts and other disasters...

...It'll fly, won't it...

...AID relies heavily on consultants—specialists in health, natural resources, and other fields...

...What field experience these specialists have is often easily forgotten, or grows stale over time...

...Suddenly, I had only three weeks...

...But that's only the beginning...

...I knew this project well...

...Finding the right personnel is the wisest principle AID could abide by as it reorganizes and the quickest way to end the absurdities of the agency's consulting game...

...After two years living in the African bush, I suddenly learned what "culture shock" really means...

...A week after my arrival, I learned that my superiors had become concerned about the costs of my research...

...They give AID's Rosslyn experts the feeling that they are in touch with the situation on the ground...

...Employees compete for sojourns to beautiful, exotic places, the farther away and the more exotic the better...

...In 1992, the agency had a work force of 10,627, counting only those with a direct employer-employee relationship...

...True, I was bought on the cheap—-just an ex-Peace Corps volunteer who was picked up for his knowledge of the local language and culture...

...In fiscal year 1994 alone AID spent an estimated $183.9 million on outside consultants...

...Atwood also plans, for cost cutting reasons, to close superfluous field missions and bring staffers back to the belly of the beast in Washington...

...When these people meet with local government officials or other Africans, they generally need someone to translate one or more languages for them...

...Undoubtedly many of the Africans this economist spoke to were highly suspicious of his motives and much of what he was told simply was not true...

...AID administrator J. Brian Atwood's plan for reorganizing AID will make the situation worse...

...The constant contact with consultants and colleagues returning from the field, as well as state-of-the-art e-mail and faxes, is seductive...

...During nearly three years in French-speaking Africa, I came across innumerable consultants whose knowledge of French was scant or worse...

...via satellite...

...Depending on a consultant's purpose and the ease of justifying his employment, he is hired out of various operating expenses, program funds, or other means...

...I was young and eager, so I avoided asking the first question which came to mind: If they already knew what projects they were going to do, why had they hired me to find out which ones would be appropriate...

...My job was to study traditional perceptions of natural disasters and village coping strategies...

...I originally had six months to carry out the study, barely enough time to do my work with any kind of accuracy...

...A locust control program currently in the Africa bureau, for instance, should have a global mandate, as outbreaks of these pests cross national and continental boundaries...

...Using someone who'd just spent two years in a village, as opposed to flying in a "food security specialist" from Washington or Paris, seemed a logical and efficient means to achieve a noble goal...

...Travel, for AID employees, is an end in itself...

...Africans are reluctant to discuss financial dealings with friends, let alone strangers, and this arrangement could not have inspired confidence...

...Experts on health issues in South Asia will vie for control over projects in Africa or Latin America...

...This way, whole teams of people can be hired indirectly, and AID only has to account for a single allocation of funds to one organization...

...that tensions between the project managers and herders over land rights have festered...

...The local government and CARE, serving as an AID contractor, had forced farmers to accept these giant hedges, some of which ran through their fields...

...So poorly, in fact, that you get the sense that the point of hiring them has more to do with a hallowed Washington tradition—spending and expanding the agency's congressional appropriation—than with actually improving the developing world...

...By the end of September 1993, AID was funding 4,362 of them overseas and 29 in Washington...

...Generally, however, that feeling is illusory...

...Also true, my motor-powered prestige belonged to the Agency for International Development (AID), and would only last until I was dropped off in a village...

...The most striking aspect of day-to-day life at AID's Rosslyn headquarters is the amount staffers travel...

...Fast-growing trees had been planted densely in rows to break the strong prevailing wind and decrease soil erosion...

...The endless rounds of meetings and workshops with other AID employees and consultants, the constant faxing and e-mailing, only confirms their own opinions and presents evidence to support their own theories...

...The project may have enjoyed some success when it began almost 20 years ago, but over time it became known locally as, at best, a mixed blessing...

...A crucial step will be minding contract outlays as much as the agency's regular budget...

...AID needs to figure out who these people are and then encourage them to stay longer at their particular missions...

...How many consultants does that money buy...

...I started working for AID in Niger, the West African country where I'd just finished serving in the Peace Corps...

...some is essential...

...Also, excessive dependence on Western consultants undermines the work of the real knowledgeable sources: the very few Westerners who have years of experience in a country and speak local languages, and local people who have adequate training (often at Western universities) in addition to a native's understanding of the local culture...

...What was most remarkable was watching agency experts create their own culture of development, a culture that often bore little resemblance to realities overseas...

...Not all travel is a bad idea, of course...

...Nevertheless, I sensed I had entered an utterly new realm...

...agencies, consulting firms, universities, and private voluntary organizations who in turn sub-contract to consultants or other firms...

...We need to educate villagers about the democratic process," he said, "so they'll understand how to vote...

...What do you think...

...If you want accurate, detailed information, it will take you a while to get it...

...They could ask questions about elections, and get specific answers—exactly what they want to know...

...Living in the United States or Europe, they are often ignorant of the language and culture of the countries where they work...

...Travel for short-term assignments will increase as consultants or AID specialists from Washington travel more frequently to make up for smaller or non-existent local staff...

...It makes more sense to employ specialists from the countries themselves as consultants, instead of bringing in someone from a continent away...

...When I returned to the U.S., I ascended to consultant's nirvana: Rosslyn, Virginia...

...The sooner that happens, the less likely it is that anyone drinking a milkshake in Niger will propose installing computers in the African desert...

...Most of all, more effective oversight, from the Office of Management and Budget as well as Congress, will be necessary to make sure that when the agency lets a contract it isn't simply expanding AID's budget by dodging personnel ceilings...

...The competition will provoke turf battles throughout the new bureau and it will be the best in-fighters, not the most qualified analysts and experts, who will win the jobs...

...My research turned into a track meet, trying to beat the deadline...

...Despite impressive credentials, AID's consultants often perform poorly...

...Former Peace Corps volunteers can often do the job at AID, but care is needed when selecting which to hire because many of them in the past have been easily coopted by AID's bureaucratic culture...

...They'd been hired because they knew farming in Oklahoma, or had studied economics at Harvard...

...Little attention is given to planning these trips efficiently...

...that the water table of the valley had drained perilously low...

...They are hired by AID for short-term contracts to work with its field missions, and are sent home well-compensated...

...embassy...

...I knew the new trees had attracted insects and birds that preyed on field crops...

...desire to conserve American taxpayer dollars was not why I got the job...

...For one, this would lend some credibility to AID's claim that institutional capacity building—helping to boost a country's ability to take charge of its own development—is a top priority...

...These middlemen include the Department of Agriculture, for-profit firms such as Chemonics, Cornell University's School of Agriculture, and CARE...

...I've got this idea: We'll give them computer work stations where they'll be linked to the U.S...

...The plan aims to centralize technical expertise (in health, natural resource management, etc...

...CNN droned from a TV, the air smelled of bacon cheeseburgers, and the milkshakes were ice cold...

...There, amid this Washington suburb's Bauhaus-inspired sprawl, I worked for AID's Africa bureau and got to see how the agency puts its own spin on information coming in from the field...

...Personal service contracts are one popular way of hiring freelance consultants...

...A former staffer reports BY STRYKTHOMAS ¦ knew I had arrived as a high-powered consultant in Africa when I was assigned a chauffeur and a gleaming white Toyota Land Cruiser...

...The idea was to learn how villagers already dealt with such catastrophes, and to determine what sorts of projects AID could implement which would not compete with time-honored methods...

...Still, I knew enough to realize that international development was a business, after all, and was satisfied with the prospect of an interesting experience...

...Niger's AID mission is adjacent to the U.S...

...After delivering my final report, I was treated to lunch at the American Rec Center next door...

...When I first entered the building, I realized AID's offices were its own worst enemy...

...But in other areas centralization is a recipe for in-fighting over projects and trips overseas...

...in one global bureau, as opposed to the regional ones which exist now...

...AID's specialists will continue to deal only in generalities without even a regional focus to nudge them toward the realities of life in the countries they wish to assist...

...No doubt superfluous missions and personnel do exist overseas, and they should be trimmed...

...Embassy...

...The agency swarms with these folks...

...To avoid personnel ceilings and hiring freezes, the agency also contracts with other U.S...

...Time is not money in West Africa...

...Discussions were hasty, and then I had to move on...

...That depends on how you count, because AID pays these people in as many different ways as there are categories in the agency's budget...

...And when AID employees travel overseas, they stick to foreign versions of the environment they left in Rosslyn, staying only in the best hotels and rarely seeing more of the country than can be taken in on the drive to the AID mission or the U.S...

...For example, in the Africa Bureau, the natural resource management unit produced a slick brochure reviewing its successes in Africa during the eighties...

...Among the model projects it cited was the Majjia Valley windbreaks in Niger...

...When interviewing local farmers, he needed someone to translate the local language to French and someone else to translate the French to English...

...I was classified as a "local hire," which meant far less paperwork to bring me on board, and payment for my services could be handled with few authorizations...

...I sat next to a middle-aged man who was assisting Niger's transition to democracy...

...Some of AID's workers combine a strong technical background with a sound understanding of the local language and culture...

...Travel AID AID keeps technical specialists on hand in Rosslyn to send into the field at a mission's request...

...The consulting game brings together government officials, professors from America's top universities, and people from private firms in a steady Beltway orbit...

...When I asked returning colleagues about their trips, they would invariably sigh and admit they had no time to actually get out and see the country...

...Air conditioners hummed and Niger's barren landscape was barely visible beyond the irrigated lawns and the steel-reinforced gates of the compound...

...Nonetheless, AID's specialists in Washington trumpet the Majjia as one of their great development achievements...

...We need to get this done," I was told, "so we can go ahead with the projects...

...I was stunned to discover that the mission was a perfect recreation of an American office, from the gray cubicles to the American Standard toilets...

...The Rec Center is in a shady grove of eucalyptus trees...

...Never mind the nuances of meaning lost in all this translating...

...For a few programs this makes sense...

...Many of my village visits were unannounced, so I had to scramble to find people to interview...

...A week or two for an important conference now and then is understandable, and a taste of African reality is necessary for the office-bound...

...But the additional workers employed through middlemen numbered nearly as many—approximately 10,000...

...But the broader plan remains a funny way to cut costs...

...An economist in my office spent a week in Madagascar, the next in Montana, and the following back in Africa...

...The learning curve and redundancy of sending consultants will be steeper as more and more of them have only a cursory knowledge of their destinations...

...Worse, the tendency to value technical or bureaucratic expertise at the expense of local knowledge of language, culture, and other particulars will be institutionalized...

...I knew an agricultural economist from the University of Michigan who had come to Niger to study rice production and marketing along the Niger River...

...But AID's frequent flyers rarely stay anywhere long enough to learn from their experience or conduct profitable reconnaissance, and often the agency sends an employee when a few faxes would do the trick...

...These "experts" are flown around the world from Washington by AID to devise solutions for whatever nagging problems face their destination country...

...The trees were planted on a mammoth scale—hundreds of rows, each stretching for over 10 miles...