Friday, June 24, 2011

So What Does Someone in International Development Do?

I now have an action shot of me at work.

One of the biggest parts of international development work is encouraging people to do the things that they really ought to be doing. In this example, the majority of Tajikistan's population does not have access to safe drinking water. USAID has a project to assist communities with instituting the necessary legal regulations and building the necessary infrastructure.

I represented USAID at the first meeting of a working group dedicated to resolving these issues. My role was to be the American and give a short speech on the importance of the work the group was embarking on. There was a pretty active discussion that followed the speeches and presentation by the head of the state agency responsible for water and sanitation services. The key thing is making sure that discussion turns into actions on the part of the ministries and agencies that need to work together to get the job done.

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