A busy week last week as I have been trying to speak to Board members on the future strategy of the organisation and ended up pulling together the 2012 budget and delivery plan for them in a couple of days as deadline had been missed.
Tuesday morning I visited the Mitengo Women Cooperative Society (MWCS) around 40km east of Lusaka. The visit was two fold. Firstly to see what they are doing and meet individuals, and secondly as their Chairperson is on the Board to discuss with her the future direction of CFHH. Went very well and I was asked to help them write their strategy and see if I could source a fixed asset register for them. Thanks to some help from Helen in Newport produced a model for them over the weekend that will hopefully help them out.
Wednesday and Thursday was spent on the 2012 plan and budget. First went through the plan looking at the activities (72 of them) and the timings (by month) – did it make sense or was there too much being done at certain times, any duplication of effort, was activity necessary and would it support delivery of the overall outcome being sought, and then costing them all. First cut came to just over Kw1 billion! Still cant get my head around the currency - paying Kw10000 for a coffee and drawing a million or two out of the cashpoint. Thursday morning was spent going through both the plan and budget with the team to make sure they were happy and “owned” it. Afternoon spent doing sensitivity analysis on both with various options to reduce the budget by upto 50% just in case. These were presented Friday to the funder and the modeling wasnt in vain. Need to reduce by Kw500m. So on Friday afternoon thats what I did – slash and burn! Not very satisfactory.
Friday morning I had a very productive discussion with the CEO of the Peoples Process on Housing in Zambia (PPHZ). He is chair of the CFHH board and therefore essential I get his views on the strategy. Again quite satisfying as not very far at all from what I had already produced. He has asked me to spend two or three days with PPHZ before I leave looking at their structure, aims and strategy. He also wants me to present the strategy and facilitate a Board discusion before I leave that should be interesting.
On the weather front rainy season arrived in earnest. Huge storm earlier in the week saw a lot of structural damage with several large walls collapsing that does beg the question on the quality of construction – if I can I’ll get a photo of the wooden scaffolding being used on a new office block – frightening. Storms every day now each with heavy rain. Lots of flooding especially Friday. It has already triggered the germintion of the dormat seeds in what was bare scorched earth, and there are many more insects (with mosquitos on the way no doubt). Feeding frenzy for the birds. Seems to have also triggered a desire in some very large toads to take to the swimming pool where I am staying – no idea why they waited for the rain before doing that.
The government still looking to tackle alledged corruption by previous ministers. Apparently Kw2.1 billion was found this week in two trunks buried at the ex-minister of agricultures’ farm. He has no idea how they got there. Comes to about £300,000 (I said earlier £3000 - got confused with all the zeros). Has had to compete for coverage with the death of the first embalmer in Zambia who died of a heart attack last weekend. His funeral was shown on national TV on Saturday.
Most important thing though is that I have found the satellite box that controls the TV channels for all the rooms where I am staying. We now watch the premiership all weekend and not very badly dubbed south american soaps. I am sure everyone here is much happier with that and appreciates my efforts in making sure it stay on channel 223.
Anyway last three weeks now. Hopefully will get some things finished in the next week so not a last minute rush, not that I have a tendency to leave anything to the last minute of course!
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