The Way to a Woman’s Heart!

The way to a man’s Heart is through his stomach; fine but then what is the way to a woman’s heart?

Am I going eerie with the choice of topic? No not exactly; and I can explain.

A few months back (6 February 2015), around 2 in the morning, I was “WhatsApping” my mate Manzoor (Manz) in the US. Yes, in this day and age of social media, I am also part of a chat group that has hundred odd members (women enjoying majority for a change) all graduated from the same school in New Delhi. The discussions took some turns before we reached at a point where we were discussing food (good food actually) and how men in general would fall for food apart from “other billion incentives” in the world. It went on for sometime until I somehow forced Manz to think hard on if the way to a man’s heart is really through his stomach.  He was surely fed up by the discussion we were having (a couple of hours since we started) until curious me asked him another question, what do you think is the way to a woman’s heart? He gave up; or shall I say I can’t print his explicit response here. Another mate Surav (India) who also joined the discussion answered, “to listen”! I liked that; and by the end of the day I had the following responses to the same question I posed to others to see their reactions (please note here that I emphasised to one and all that I need a one word answer):

• Ms Deepali (India)- Tender Love and Care combined with Loyalty!
• Ms Anila (Germany) - listen at all times, do small caring things like buying flowers, smell nice, neat and clean at all times, can talk nicely to other people, is respectful to others, help their friends in need, like kids, just be there and listen to her in difficult times- oh she didn’t finish there!
• Ms Vinita (UK) – Respect
• Ms Shilpa (India) – Respect
• Ms Sujata (India) – Respect
• Ms Neha (India)- Loyalty and Good Communication skills

In the interim I also posted the same question at my Facebook account and to some of my work colleagues. Here is a sample of their responses:

• Mr P (UK) - Displays of affection, caring and attention work, both open displays and private, attentive listening.
• Mr F (UK) - On the basis of equality - through her stomach. But on the basis of experience- communicating with her and saying those beautiful things that you know can reach her heart.
• Ms K (Italy) - Kindness and then hope to get lucky!
• Mr D (Canada)- Champagne
• Mr M (US) - Be the man she thinks you are!
• Ms A (Afghanistan) – Respect
• Mr Khalil (Afghanistan) – Loyalty
• Mr MM (Poland) –Flowers
• Ms SD (Switzerland) – Bank Account
• Ms D (Australia) - Respect

I then also carried out some Internet search and found that many people have expressed their views/opinions but one of the famous personality, Frank Dune puts it that “The way to a woman's heart is through your wallet!” A shoe business also wrote, “The way to a woman's heart is through her sole”!

Look, by no means I claim this collation of responses to be a scientific sampling but there is no doubt that the people who responded represented a big geographic coverage and were of certain intellect/skillset.

I then sat on this information for a couple of months thinking everyday did I actually get a response I was after or was I really after this information? I was not convinced as I felt surely there was something missing. All I had done was to ask people to complete an expression, which I thought should have existed in any case (Note: I firmly believe women all around the world are hardly treated equally). However the thing that jolted me then was Leslee Udwin’s film (a BBC Documentary) India's Daughter. I was simply blown away- actually felt disgusted being a man. Not that I was not aware of the rape incident (23 year old woman gang raped and then inhumanly killed) that shook India and the whole wide world in December 2012. But the impact the movie made on me was deep. A beautiful soul who was ready to take the world by storm was no more with in a matter of few hours; and countless such incidents against women are happening everyday both in India and in the world.

While the above story was still fresh in my mind, an Afghan woman Farkhunda was lynched in Kabul last month. I was devastated again to read what happened there!  Do men not read and/or see such news?

I am not going to present any statistical data on crimes against women in South East Asia or for that matter in the world but one thing is clear that even in this 21 century women in general are discriminated to say the least (please pick up any news paper/report and see it for yourself). I know I can argue my case and am confident that I can defend it well too. However I am not going that route at least at this instant. 

A good thing however that resulted seeing these two recent pieces of news was that: a) it made me determined to write this article; and b) I found an answer to my initial quest. Therefore I believe:

The Way to a Woman’s Heart is by giving her RESPECT!^©

Finally, I do not claim to be a gender expert. I will be happy though if through this article I could bring or atleast initiate a positive change in the thinking of those who are behind heinous crimes against women and those who treat them as an object- its wake up time guys!

PS: I dedicate this article to all the women of this world including the one’s whose names may not have appeared here (but they are in my thoughts), Ms J Singh (New Delhi gang rape victim) and Farkhunda! 

E-Freightex; and Appraisal of Low Volume Roads!

Well, it is more than a year since I wrote my last post on this blog- so lots to catch up on I guess! But first thing first; season’s greetings and wishing you all a fantastic 2014!!

On the home front, 2013 began with sense of déjà vu as my son was preparing for his eleven plus exams. I distinctly remember one of my posts, written a couple of years ago, moaning about the process the poor young kids have to go through, when my daughter was preparing for the same exam. Anyway all’s well that ends well as he too managed to pass his exam with flying colours!

On the professional front, I think the start of the 2013 was a good one as I managed to team-lead an E-Freightex project in East Africa. At the very simple, an E-Freightex is an acronym used for an online freight exchange, which is a service for consignees, consignors, shippers, freight carriers, logistics providers, clearing/freight forwarder agents etc. that helps facilitate movement of cargo both internationally and/or domestically. It can potentially also be seen as a one-stop shop for importing/exporting goods from within and/or outside a country or a region. Some of the potential benefits include:

• Improved market information potentially resulting in increased competition;
• Potentially reducing administrative outlay and logistics costs;
• Increased truck load factors and shortened turnaround times thereby reducing transport costs and increasing operators’ profits; and
• Catalyst to improved freight services such as insurance, IT solutions, etc.

The project finished on time and more importantly within the commissioned budget. Whilst most of the time I was based in Kenya (Nairobi) but I also had a chance to go around and meet the key stakeholders in the region including a trip to beautiful Rwanda.

There were fun times too; and that included visiting the Nairobi National Park. The official website (http://www.kws.org/parks/parks_reserves/NANP.html) claims that the park, located within 10 km from Nairobi city, is a unique ecosystem, being the only protected area in the world close to a capital city. I think I had an awesome time visiting the park. You see, I have been to some “fake” (man made) safaris in the world but to experience something like a visit to the “real” park was beyond any comparison and can simply not be written in words- so my advise is that this park is worth a visit in your life time! As far as the ecosystem is concerned, out of Africa’s big five (lion, leopard, elephant, cape buffalo and rhinoceros), I could spot three of them (lions, buffalos and a white rhino) roaming free in their natural habitat. Albeit difficult to describe how one feels when he/she spots any of these fearsome animals at such a close range but when I saw them there was an immediate rush of blood in my body; it was followed by some goosebumps; I also felt excited; may be a tiny bit scared and nervous too; surely felt exhilarated and the reactions kept on varying until the predators disappeared back in the tall grasses of the park! To sum up, the deafening silence when I spotted them was breathtakingly amazing and could have easily killed the brave hearts!

Later part of the 2013 landed me to Solomon Islands. Wow, what a place – a hidden treasure on the face of it! At the outset, people seemed a bit laid back but they were humble and welcoming! Although I didn’t explore much on the tourism side of things but I hear the beaches are worth visiting! Internet facilities are expensive but the wireless connection works at most of the places. Food is good; one may argue it is overpriced but the same gets compensated when one sees the portion size. In a bid to keep people healthy and fit, the city is full of signs saying, “Have you had your 30 minutes walk today”?

So what was I doing in Solomon Islands? Well, the answer was conduct of road feasibility studies. Barring the capital town (Honiara), rest of the provincial areas or other provinces all have unsealed roads. They say every project is different and one learns new things from every new project. So this one was no different. Over the last fifteen years or so I did not come across any road project that had such low traffic volume count (less than 20 vehicles a day)! In addition to this, even light rain causes river levels to rise causing flooding; and the communities are cut off from surrounding capital town as roads and bridges are washed out. To cut the long story short, I had to think outside the box and look beyond doing the conventional transport analysis to successfully complete the feasibility study.

In my bid to quantify the benefits I also avoided using the Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (CEA), which compares the cost of interventions with their intended impacts. This was in line with the World Bank guidance that sets out that the impacts of transport interventions are mainly economic in nature and should be measured. In addition to this, unlike the traditional transport Cost Benefits Analysis (CBA), where projects normally are deemed “uneconomic” when their Economic Internal Rate of Return (EIRR) falls below 10-12%, there are no well-established criteria for determining “opportunity cost” thresholds when ranking on the basis of cost-effectiveness. Such a determination is then left to policy makers. For example, if access can be provided to two, otherwise similar communities at say $100 per person served and $50 per person served, respectively, cost-effectiveness criteria would clearly “rank” the latter community higher. However, the question that still remains unanswered is whether $50 per capita is a sufficient “return” to justify intervention i.e. could that $50 per person be spent with more impact in another sector, or would it yield an EIRR of 10-12% considering the opportunity cost of capital in the country?

The key issues that I managed to raise included improvements in access both to education and to health care due to provision of better roads. In addition to this, both of these improvements also contributed directly to achievement of the key Millennium Development Goals (MDG 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education; MDG 4: Reduce Child Mortality; and MDG 5: Improve Maternal Health). What might seem to be unfortunate but the truth remains that on an average 20 people (including children, pregnant women, old people etc.) are being killed every year due to poor transport access to better health facilities in one of the study areas. I also noticed a considerable logging activity prevalent in and around the study area/s. It seemed that although the private companies do maintain certain sections of the roads every now and then but the same was done as per their convenience and on adhoc basis. Therefore recommendations were made to the agency staff to speak to the owners of such companies to explore potential contribution from them towards rehabilitating the project road.

Whilst the potential risks of delivering the asset were highlighted in detail; the client’s attention was also drawn to the risks of not delivering the asset especially for a fragile economy like Solomon Islands. In the end, I managed to finish the feasibility study on time; and I am led to believe that it went well with the client!

Welcome to The Land of Big Smiles!

That’s right this is the first message one may see once one alights from an airplane at Lungi International Airport in Sierra Leone. The airport, which is located in the coastal town of Lungi, is separated from Freetown (the capital city of Sierra Leone) by Tagrin bay. A half an hour road journey from the airport to the Tagrin Ferry Terminal; followed by an hour’s, hair-raising journey by ferry from the ferry terminal would ship you to Freetown. Passengers also have the choice of: using a helicopter (private but season specific service); or water taxis (requires pre booking); or going by road (long route) to mainland Freetown from the airport.

After winding up work from Ethiopia, I came back home for few days before flying out to Freetown for three days. This was my first ever trip to Sierra Leone and I came back with a lot of excitement! Throughout my stay, I was based at Freetown.

Before heading off to Freetown, I was aware that a lot of development work is going on in the country. In-fact I managed to catch hold of few expatriates and some tourists (albeit I was travelling during the rainy season) on my way to Freetown from the airport.

The first thing that caught my eye on the highly congested roads of Freetown was an okada taxi - a passenger motorbike to be hired privately. It is assumed to provide the quickest way to get from point A to B. Not sure how safe or reliable it was but I saw people from all walks of life (passengers/businessmen/tourists) using it a lot. A successful okada ride follows three steps. Firstly, an eye contact is established between the driver and the potential customer. This is followed by a face gesture by the driver asking the customer whether or not he/she would be interested for a ride. In the end the deal is struck between the two and the whole process generally takes a maximum of a minute.

The other thing that caught my eye in the Freetown market was boxes of breakfast cereals, which one would expect to see here in the British superstores. I was keen to ask the street vendors how did they manage to get hold of them? I didn’t because I was told that these boxes could potentially be part of an illegal trade – not fair!

Food and stay in Freetown was expensive. A couple of eating joints were really good. For those people who like drinking beer are advised to taste the local beer- good taste plus value for money!

Moving on, the population of Sierra Leone is estimated at around 6 million people. The official currency of the country is the ‘Leone’ (LE). The rate of exchange is approximately 1 GBP = circa 7,000 Leones (July 2012). The American Dollar, the Euro and British Pound are widely accepted; and can be easily exchanged in the capital. Albeit, I didn’t see any local coins but the bank notes were in denominations of 1000, 2000, 5000 and 10,000 leones.

Development Challenges:

A quick look at the World Bank’s Country Brief would show that Sierra Leone was one of the world’s poorest countries when the civil war began in 1991; and in spite of its remarkable strides and reforms since the war, which ended in 2002, problems of poor infrastructure -- including roads and energy -- low capacity, youth unemployment, high maternal and infant mortality, widespread rural impoverishment, impact of the global economic downturns, and lapses in public financial management and governance still persist. There is also the daunting challenge of enhancing transparency in managing the country’s vast natural resources (including diamonds and other minerals).

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Index (2009) ranked Sierra Leone a poorly 180 out of 182 countries based on 2007 data. There were few other issues that shocked me but I will not deliberate on those as I try to see brighter side of things!

The Land of Big Smiles:

Within a couple of days of my stay I could realise that the liveliness, sense of humour and the big smiles of Sierra Leoneans come from their hope for the bright future of their country. I saw many of the them dancing, singing or even shouting and screaming at each other probably for no rhyme or reason on the streets but was amazed by the fact that even after the obnoxious atrocities of the past, they still have a can-do attitude!

PS: Managed to speak to a couple of officials, who were with me on the flight back home, getting ready to start their challenge for London Olympics 2012- good luck Team Sierra Leone!

4Cs – Conducting Course & Cupping Coffee

Addis Ababa, 14 July 2012

Right I am back here in Addis Ababa writing this thread after nearly nine months of disappearance! Believe you me, I was working like a Trojan!

Before finishing work in Kabul in April earlier this year, I was invited for a small mission by UNDP in June. As soon as that mission was over, I transported myself to Ethiopia to train Ethiopian Roads Authority's staff on how to conduct transport appraisal for road projects. The course was held from 9 am in the morning to 4:30 pm in the evening everyday starting from 9 July 2012 to 13 July 2012. The training was well received. Personally speaking, I received a very good feedback from the trainees – they liked what I elucidated and the way I elucidated! Since I am not an "American" so I "will not be blowing my own trumpet" i.e. I will not print what was reported back but it was indeed a pleasure reading some of the responses!

The purpose of this post is to share few lessons in addition to what I posted a year or so back on this blog on Capacity Building Program Afghanistan - Lessons Learnt. Whilst I stick to the issues raised then, a few other potential additions can be:

• It is extremely important to connect with your audience – believe me this can go long way if you are a trainer. Don’t push them - engage them and please don’t try to teach them - tell them a story;
• Whilst reinforcing learning points one can use a few practical techniques including e.g. hands on training, showing them course related videos, trainees’ group discussions etc. This could keep trainees’ interest high and maintains their energy levels; and
• Each training session could potentially follow by testing trainees through a set of multiple choice objective type questions. This would ensure that they are learning; and it will also help the course instructor in knowing if any of the trainees need extra attention.

Now what is this post has to do with Coffee Cupping? Nothing much but after the day’s long course there is no harm in relaxing yourself with a nice cup of coffee especially when you are in the legendary land of Ethiopia!

Not only it will help you get ready for the next day, it will also help keep your battery recharged. To quote Honoré de Balzac (French novelist and playwright), “When you drink a cup of coffee ideas come in marching like an army”! (quote found hanging at one of the oldest coffee shop in Addis Ababa).

What next? Back home soon and I think I deserve some break! Looking forward to London Olympics and what a great spectacle will it be!

Ethiopia- The Second Fastest Growing Economy in Sub-Saharan Africa!

Alright, I am in Ethiopia these days! My first impression about the country has been really good. Humble people; nice weather; from slow to moderately paced community; reasonably priced hotels; cheap food; and to all those beverage lovers like me it may seem money worth spent if we “chose” to drink a bottle of beer (US$1.40) instead that of a coke (US$1.10)!

So what does this landlocked country, also considered epitome of human evolution, with 85 million people, fluctuating inflation (CPI), unstable account balance (sum of net exports of goods, services etc.), has to offer to potential tourists, consultants, businessmen, contractors etc.?

                                             Source: World Bank Data, SISL

On tourism, I haven’t been much around and about apart from the capital city of Addis Ababa and a visit to see Blue Nile (Abay gorge). The most wonderful experience included seeing, potentially,  “ours” millions year old ancestor “Lucy” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australopithecus_afarensis) at National Museum of Ethiopia. Have you ever wondered the feeling after been through such an experience? It may be different for different people but, in general, one is speechless for atleast next half an hour or so! I wish I could also visit the places where all these fossil skeletons, including that of “Ardi” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardi) have been discovered - Archeologists/Paleontologists/Paleoanthropologists any takers please!

Moving on to business side of things, it seems Ethiopia has a massive potential for consultants/contractors etc. Having said that the World Bank data on “Doing Business 2012” ranks Ethiopia at 111 out of 183 economies (more info at http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/ethiopia/).

I am not sure how many of you are aware, I certainly wasn’t, but you know what Ethiopia is also the second fastest growing economy in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)! Take a look at figure below and see how well SSA also compares with other fast growing developing countries.

                                                                Source: World Bank, Global Economic Prospects 2011 Report, January 2011

Within SSA, the Republic of Congo was the fastest growing economy in 2010 with real GDP growth of 9.1 percent, followed by Ethiopia (8.1 percent, GDP current US$29.7bn), which is followed by Nigeria (7.8 percent) and Ghana (7.7 percent).

Unlike other fast growing Sub-Saharan African economies, where growth has been supported by the mining sector, Ethiopia’s strong growth has been driven by development in the agricultural sector (coffee plantation, oilseeds, flowers etc.) and the economy is projected further to grow between 7.2 and 7.8 percent over the 2011-2013 period the world bank report stated. It further states that productivity in the sector will benefit from the support provided to small-scale farmers via the expansion of road, power and market networks. However, the current unstable inflationary environment remains a risk to growth.

Right coming back to the above mentioned issue of what is in it for consultants, businessmen and contractors? Whatever I have seen so far, I think there are potentially big opportunities for work here. With economic melt down in the developed economies, the businesses can certainly look forward to projects here along with opportunities in the Middle East. The government’s attitude seems to be that of “Do-Something” rather than “Do-Nothing/Minimum”.

In the last few days, I have already seen few Indian businesses and consultants already working here or trying earnestly to establish their presence here. I haven’t had much interaction with the government staff but how so much ever I managed I think they are not only aware of the current development challenges but are also keen to get to address them! Significant red tape but things get done in the end. Most of the agency staff can converse in English. Road infrastructure projects are on rise. Out of 53,000 km of length of roads (excluding urban roads) in Ethiopia only 15% are asphalt roads, 25% are gravel and the remaining 60% are earth roads/tracks. Although most of the Ethiopian roads are low volume roads but traffic is on increase since last few years; and therefore pavement of all unpaved roads seems to be on its way. Albeit the Ethiopian Roads Authority is not sure if they want to toll it, but construction of a major road (part funded by Chinese) connecting the capital with Djibouti port has already started. On urban transport projects, I am aware that few firms are involved in quite a number of projects in Addis Ababa including a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project – more on it in the following thread!

So to all those potential consultants/contractors I would say get on with it guys! I am sure most of you would have heard it atleast once in your lifetime but once again, a strong stock to buy but DYOR as always!

Afghan Transition – Issues beyond Security!

I am quite confident that by now most of the readers must have read numerous stories on Afghan transition!

Here is a quick recap. On 22 March 2011 (on Nowruz- the Persian New Year and the first day of spring), Afghanistan’s president, Mr Hamid Karzai, announced the seven areas of Afghanistan [four provincial capitals of Herat (Herat city), Helmand (Lashkar Gah town), Laghman (Mehtar Lam town) and Balkh (Mazar-e-Sharif city); and three provinces of Bamiyan, Panjshir and Kabul (except for Surobi district)] would be included in the first phase of a gradual transition- aimed to be achieved by the end of 2014. Afghan transition implementation, in process now, was thus aimed to start in the following three areas:

•           Security;

•           Governance; and

•           Development.

For all those number crunchers, there are 34 provinces in Afghanistan with a population of around 25 million (Afghanistan Statistical Book 2009-10). The population affected by the proposed transition would thus be roughly 20% of the total population.

In this article, I am trying to explore key transitional issues related with the Development aspect, which lie beyond the Security and the Governance aspect, that may have detrimental effects on country’s sustainability/stabilisation if not looked into now.

I must also mention here that the whole transitional process is currently being led by a prominent politician Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, who was also a nominee to succeed Mr Kofi Annan as the Secretary General of the United Nations at the end of 2006. A conference with an the aim to assess the current transition preparation, identifying the problems and coming up with solutions for better implementation of the transition process was held recently in Kabul in June 2011. At the close out Mr Ghani said, "I am very proud of our security ministers and governors. There is a full agreement on the transition process. The transition process will succeed no matter what (Source: ISAF Headquarters Office Kabul).” At the time of writing this article the Security transition has already taken place at Bamyan, Heart, Lashkar Gah, Mazar-e-Sharif and Mehtar Lam.

Right, coming back to Development aspect of transition and lumping it together with the other aspects, first of all I am not entirely sure how this area would be addressed and what exactly the Afghan government means by transitioning the Development aspect to Afghans. One possible explanation could be that from now onwards Afghans would be responsible for taking decisions on what development initiatives they need to introduce in those seven areas and possibly other areas in future. In other words the aim of a civil transition could be to set up a fully integrated and competent Afghan civic system in each province to administer everything from education to justice to healthcare to hard infrastructure. At present various contractors, consultants, non-government organisations, international development organisations, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), International Security Assistance Office (ISAF) etc. provide these services.

My major concerns, however, are:

a)     Albeit that the Development and Security aspects are inter-related, more so in case of Afghanistan, I am not sure it should be part of the transition process per se;

b)     Competence - In line with the Security aspect, where Afghans now have their own forces, I do not believe there are enough competent resources in the country who can also take key decisions on the Development aspects all by themselves. In addition, even if there are some competent people present at the top, one will still require competent workers-won’t one? Therefore, is there any point in having an army of only Generals, in which there are no soldiers to fight for? In any case the news of Afghan security forces not being able to withstand pressure from insurgents (in the already transitioned areas) that have fought the well-equipped and trained troops from the NATO countries resurface every other day.

c)     Clarity – Are the officers who are going to assume these obligations clear about their roles and responsibilities?

d)     Readiness/Willingness- Are the current civic officers/workers ready for this transition? Have they been well trained to take the ownership?

To conclude I would say, even if one has to transfer the responsibilities of the Development aspects to the local nationals, it should be seen as a process rather than a mere launch and an end date i.e. I do not believe that mere transferring the development responsibilities within next three years to locals would solve the purpose of getting a stablised country. Infact every effort should be put in not only to stablise the country but also avoiding the recurrence of the situation in Afghanistan pre 2002. However that also does not mean that the civil transition process should not/cannot be initiated now. One needs to spend time and effort to build the capacity first, the call of the day, I think! Also the responsibility for a successful and sustained transition lies both with Afghan Nationals and International Community.