Twelve days in Ethiopia: Dr. Million blogs on the Writeshop

Day -15: I met with Dr Isaac and Fikre for updates on where we are on the draft manuscripts. The update reports from Fikre, the writeshop coordinator for IIRR, was not very encouraging. We were both a bit apprehensive about the poor progress we are making on this… poor Fikre, he is doing his best! It takes a lot of patience and diplomacy to get people to write on a topic, to get a significant part of their time out of their busy schedule, and for free – he was in the hot spot! Thanks to his wide connections ….he managed it …somehow.
Day -5: some participants whom we expected to attend and make valuable contributions called off at the last minute; we all felt very discouraged and I started to grow nervous …. Would this really be successful? May be I was wrong….may be I shouldn’t have started such a nerve rending project that you can say “no problems, I will handle it myself if you can’t” when you are faced with a situation such as this. Hmm, I felt like giving up…

Day -2: I called Fikre…, to my relief he told me that he is expecting some 48 people who have confirmed to be there in the first week…some of them were those who had initially declined. It was a Friday afternoon, a final check for the papers as well….yep, we have most of the papers at hand now, only two or thee are missing and for those, we have a strong commitment from the writers that we will have them during the first week. Perfect!!!

Day 1: I entered the conference room not expecting to see such a big number sitting in a somewhat u-shaped arrangement…ha they are already here!!! Most of them, I have not even met before – government reps, people from the community, NGO reps, university, UN, research institutes, all sorts of organizations and individuals represented. A sigh of relief, I said to myself “thank God, they are already here!” After a welcome and opening address by Teklu (SC-US) and a brief intro about ECB and this project by myself, the writeshop was launched into the day’s activity. Still holding onto my reservation though.... Will this project really be successful?

What I observed, had something to tell me … there is a great diversity of knowledge and experience in the room! Ranging from people who have worked for more than 25 years on disaster management, framed the national policy on disaster management and prevention, farmers representing different geographic and ethnic backgrounds, academics, field practitioners etc…. hard not to believe that this will be successful!!

The first day was over before I knew it! I can not overemphasize the skills, wisdom, energy, contagious humor and optimism of Dr Isaac, the lead facilitator. Simply, he is an excellent facilitator!!!

Days 2 – 11: little did I realize what was awaiting me/us the participants! As for Dr Isaac and his ‘crew’, they have been through this process several times – they know what the days are going to be like. These guys, they know how to absorb the wits out of you using all sorts of techniques – and no one is ‘spared’! It reminded me of my school days…

Yet, a lot of fun! Good networking opportunities, and, and …. an excellent forum for learning! Mind you, we are working more than 10 hours a day (a conservative estimation) for 12 days. 10 x 12 = 120hrs. This is more than a semester’s course!!!

A lot of presentations, heated debates (but no fist fighting :), group works, writing and re-writing until we finally settled for a 3rd draft on the final day of the writeshop. At times, I could not help, but sit back and relax enjoying/appreciating the diversity of views and opinions on the one and same issue. But, I can not forget, Professor Okombo’s sentiment on the risk formula and Buriso’s (farmer) inspiring speeches in the middle of the sessions…it really was fun!

Day 12: last day, the crowd already thinning out … we were once again on one hot issue – the title of the book. Twenty one suggestions came on the slips, unknown to any one I managed to include two suggestions (forgive me for this ‘white’ corruption) one of which read: Leaving Disasters Behind: A Practical Guide on Disaster Risk Reduction. It became one of the three finalists…. After much discussion and deliberation, mine was favored by almost all….but, no one knew until the very last approval applause! When I announced it is mine….a second round of applause…..

One thing stood out as the way forward: the community reps stood almost unanimously for a simplified version in a language they can easily understand. Cognizant of the time constraints, no one dared to comment yes or no…. . it might still be a possibility, may be not.

Dr. Million Shibeshi, Pilot Project Manager