Meetings with the Prison Officials
I would like to share my musings on different approaches to international development.
As an aside, last year Hanitra, Elson, Lalao, Bruce and I worked through FOMM (Friends of Madagascar Mission), but this is no longer the case. Dr. Elson and Hanitra run a separate association that has partnered with organizations such as Doctors for Madagascar and Operation Smile. In the spirit of working with local partners, we asked EMM (ElsonHanitra Madagascar Mission) if they would be willing to legally modify their mission statement to include prison work and they were happy to do so. Since we are already friends and colleagues, this partnership works beautifully for all of us.
Some development agencies present their plan-of-action somewhat forcibly to an international setting as “experts”, believing they know what is best for the local stakeholders. The problem is, if the stakeholders aren’t truly engaged in the decision-making process from the beginning and feel side-lined and talked down to, they may nod passively and go along for a time, but eventually the project will flounder. Without a sense of ownership and excited energy, the project continues to be hierarchical in nature, driven by the energy and money of the outsiders, and not by the local stakeholders. At best, the project limps along and a few things get done. At worst, money is mismanaged and finally the program collapses. I found an interesting article on this very topic. The first sentence caught my eye:
“Sub-Saharan Africa is a graveyard of numerous development projects.”
https://wacsi.org/why-international-development-projects-fail-in-africa
The approach we (EMM/RCA) are taking differs significantly from this top-down approach. We begin by requesting a meeting with the relevant officials in which we invite them to articulate their priorities. This invariably leads the discussion towards exploring opportunities for resource pooling, true collaboration, and setting achievable goals.
For instance, when I visited Morondava prison last month, I first arranged a meeting with the Administrative Director. As we got to know each other, he mentioned the need to purchase paint to spruce up the new youth ward.
“What about the inside toilet?” I said. “It is hard for me to justify purchasing paint when the toilet is in such dismal shape. It isn’t suitable for human use.”
“I’ll make you a deal,” he said. “Within my budget, if I promise to fix the toilets, buy new pipes and make sure the septic systems works well, will you provide the paint? I will provide the labor.”
“Deal”.
“Come next year and you’ll see a great new space for the youth. I’ll keep to my word.”
What I liked about this interaction is that both of us ended up feeling engaged and invested in the project.
A few days ago, in this same spirit of mutual cooperation, the Administrative Director of Antalaha Prisons facilitated a meeting with a host of officials including the Head of Security, the Head of Nutrition, the Head of Farmland, the Head of Maintenance and a few other positions I wasn’t familiar with. Hanitra, Maoly and I took our seats and the meeting began on a friendly note.
Director Tony expressed that they had three main priorities:
The hole-ridden tin roofs of chambers 1 and 2 are badly in need of replacement. The prisoners suffer in the rainy season and get drenched at night.
They asked that following the roof replacement, the exterior be painted to showcase these improvements to the Ministry of Justice in Antanananrivo. The officials are under pressure from their superiors to demonstrate initiative and progress in improving the prison facilities.
I stated that, in my opinion, the inside was disgusting and that if we were going to paint the outside for show, we needed to keep to our promise of high standards and paint the inside also.
“But it will just get filthy the day after.”
“Not necessarily. You know the broken window theory? A building with one broken window that has been left unrepaired will give the appearance that no one cares and so other windows will be smashed. Visible signs of disorder lead to more disorder. So let’s set a ‘new normal’ of a nice, clean inside and perhaps the prisoners will have more pride in their environment and continue to keep it cleaner.”
In this way we negotiated painting both the inside and the outside. They agreed to use prisoners to wash and paint the walls, and we agreed to purchase a more expensive oil paint for a longer life, hire painters, and hire contractors to replace the roof and oversee the work of the inmates.
We next raised the issue of installing rooftop wind turbine ventilators to ameliorate the stifling conditions and lack of oxygen in the chambers at night. The Head of Security expressed concern that the prisoners would smash the turbines from the inside and escape through the openings. We reached a compromise by agreeing to put a heavy grill over the holes, which would let the air out but keep the prisoners in.
Water. There is a perennial water problem in these prisons even though the region has adequate water reserves. Recently when I was in the men’s section to look at the chambers one prisoner called out to me.
“Rano rano.(water water)”. It is an important felt need, to be taken very seriously.
The problem is that the water can’t be pumped from the underground cistern to the overhead tanks using the submersible pump that we had installed last year because there are power cuts most of the day. The city simply doesn’t have enough diesel to operate the central generators around the clock.
We are fortunate that Maoly brings with him experience in a broad range of activities. He played a pivotal role as the point man working alongside Water Without Borders and Doctors Without Borders during the construction of their two hospitals. Maoly agreed to assess the water situation with our contractor and convene another meeting the following morning to discuss the next steps forward.
The final priority pertained to food security. The Administrative Director had initially requested that we develop the farmland in Antalaha but after deliberating with other officials, they proposed instead to develop the vast prison farmland in Sambava which spans 67 hectares (165 acres), and share the produce between the two prisons. We agreed to switch course and discussed strategies to construct housing for 50 inmates on conditional release, along with a guards house and stock room. This would allow them to greatly augment their labor force and food production. We scheduled a follow-up meeting to discuss blueprints for these buildings.
Projects such as this are vulnerable to mismanagement and the pilfering of building materials if not closely supervised. For this reason, Maoly has agreed to oversee the final project until its completion. Hanitra will send him up a tent and sleeping bag and he will rough it, working alongside the construction team, counting the bricks and stones, ensuring the cement is mixed up to standard and no corners cut, and overseeing the construction of these buildings each step of the way.
Finally, I requested that we address the state of the men’s kitchen as the brick and mortar stoves have crumbled into an almost unusable state. If we are aiming to provide the prisoners a second meal through this new farm, then shouldn’t a functional kitchen be part of the plan? The Head of Nutrition was all smiles and the Head of Maintenance said “Amen.”
At the end of the meeting, Director Tony thanked us warmly, which we reciprocated. He then closed:
“I am a Catholic and you are Protestants. We are working together for a common purpose. Jesus says, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
