Living in Darkness

I've gotten a good amount of scolding (especially from dear ol' dad) about not having posted in quite some time. So to those of you who have remained loyal, visiting the site without any sign of updates, I am so sorry! I'm back and ready to rock and roll!

Though I haven't posted on the website in quite some time, I have in fact been writing. As this field placement is in itself part of my school curricula, I am required to produce bi-weekly reports about my learning experiences, progress in the workplace, and changing views on development.

Due to the academic nature of these reports, they are written in a more formal tone than is generally used in this blog. Nevertheless, I hope they prove to be insightful!

INDEV 401: Bi-weekly Report

Every day last week, I spent a good chunk of my work time reading a novel called “Start Where You Are”; and as fascinating as the book is, that wasn’t why I read for so long. I spent many such hours reading because, without electricity, there isn’t much else to do at work. These power outages can last an average of four to five hours, two of during which I am productive before my laptop dies. My current project (website development) is entirely computer-based so once my laptop is dead, there is little I can do. Furthermore, without permission to leave the workplace, and with personal conversation being frowned upon, one’s options are even more so limited.

These blackouts are better known in Nepal as load shedding, and occur based on a loosely followed schedule wherein city zones face rotating power outages. Load shedding is essentially a band-aid solution to the government’s inability to meet the country’s electricity demands. The Kathmandu Post (a local newspaper) stated that the Nepal Electric Authority (NEA) currently generates 300 megawatts of electricity against a demand of 800 megawatts, which is rising by 10 percent annually. Furthermore, due to a decade-long Maoist insurgency, no major hydroelectric plants have been built in the past decade. While the NEA generates nearly half of Nepal’s electricity needs, the amount of power it imports from India is not enough to make up the shortfall. As such, the Asian Economic Institute has explained that, as demand for electricity tightens during the winter, Nepal’s state-run power monopoly will increase daily power cuts from 12 hours daily to between 16 and 18.

Though I’ve been facing such power outages since my arrival in Nepal since September, I hadn’t quite felt the impact on the workplace until last week. Once the power is out, our workplace comes to a complete standstill; coworkers are aimlessly roaming the building or sitting at their desks with a blank stare. It is clear that the power outages severely limit productivity and thwart morale. Additional back-up generators could be a solution but, funding is generally limited within NGOs, thereby preventing such purchases.

Dinner by Candelight

This got me thinking about other external factors that can affect the work/progress of NGOs, some of which include natural disasters, health epidemics, politics, civil strife, and so on. While an NGO may be doing great work within its particular field, its overall success can often be dependent on the environmental backdrop within which it’s being implemented. For example, IDS Nepal can be making a lot of headway in the fields of water and sanitation, but if the Maoist rebel forces regain power, it could potentially put all that hard work into jeopardy.

In looking at the bigger picture of international development, this reminded me instantly of the importance of studying the surrounding environment of any which project – that being the social environment, the physical, the political, and so forth. We’ve learned in INDEV 202: Problem Solving for Development that everything is interrelated and therefore relevant to the success of a project. Agricultural income generating activities can suddenly become fruitless if they don’t prepare for the possibility of a changing climate, or if they don’t take into consideration its high levels of a female labour force, for example. Similarly, despite the dedication and admirable efforts of IDS employees, the organization is in no way invincible to the other issues facing Nepal.

This taught me a lot about myself, and the work I aspire to do in the field of development. When problem-solving, one must see the big picture; problems cannot be studied in silo, they must be looked at as a web of correlated conditions. One must screen every relevant factor, and each potential scenario. Participatory approaches involving extensive work with stakeholders are necessary. It’s all related, so it all matters – and this is something no development practitioner should lose sight of if when trying to bring about meaningful change.