Working with the MARPs Network – a roller-coaster of a year!

Last year in March I wrote:
“Despite the fact that the MARPs Network has been officially launched by the Uganda Aids Commission and the team has been properly appointed to roles within the MARPs network secretariat - they all work for nothing at the moment! The Network’s been commissioned by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and others to carry out a public dialogue with people from organisations working on HIV / AIDS prevention work with most at-risk populations throughout Uganda but, as yet, no one has put their hand in their pocket to fund the running costs of the Secretariat. There is currently a bid on the table with a large donor organisation so please keep your fingers crossed.

The team is an inspiration to be working with and all have made me very welcome. They call me "Mzee Ian" - "Mzee" is a Swahili word for 'old wise man'. We've all had a good conversation about the priority areas for my work - all of which will be to work with the team individually and collectively to build the organisation's strength and effectiveness. Right now I'm supporting a process for analysing the significance of the findings that have come out of the public dialogue events. I'm learning so much! It's a privilege.”

For clarity, the MARPs Network intends to promote coordinated leadership in the prevention of HIV infections among Most At-Risk Populations (MARPs) in Uganda through:
(1) Managing knowledge - collecting and sharing information that provides evidence-based best practice guidance on policy, program and project interventions;
(2) Strengthening network member organisations - by securing resources for developing the knowledge and skills and commissioning high quality learning program delivery;
(3) Advocating with and on behalf of MARPs groups for access to universal services, and to ensure that MARPs groups are able to influence the design and delivery of such services;
(4) Coordinating the work that collectively is done by member organizations to further: (1) empowerment of stakeholders; (2) learning from evidence; (3) development of quality services; and (4) achievement of effective partnership working.

Here’s a summary of what followed in my year with the MARPs Network:

March 2010
At the end of the month, Dr Geoffrey Mujisha and Dr Thomas Muyenga, delivered a presentation to a gathering of stakeholders at the UNFPA offices on progress achieved on the Public Dialogue Project. The presentation contained interim findings gathered from participants in 3 of the 4 regions of the Country involved in the Public Dialogue. There was good discussion and the progress was appreciated.

At the conclusion of the meeting it was agreed to meet again after Easter to focus on organisation development issues and the next steps needed to conclude the Public Dialogue Project.

April 2010
We worked hard on both sides of the Easter weekend to prepare a presentation on how we would address organisation development issues and also on a checklist of suggestions for how best to complete the Public Dialogue Project. The re-convened gathering was set for 7 April.

On the morning of 7 April we learned that a “member” had challenged Geoffrey’s authority to call this re-convened meeting – and it was cancelled by the UNFPA who were to be our hosts once again. Personally I was aghast - a room full of people had agreed to meet again on 7 April – including the individual challenging Geoffrey. We had no real clue as to what it was all about. There seemed little point in speculating.

The mood in the team was very low – especially because:
(1) We had no agreement as to how to proceed with the completion of the Public Dialogue Project; and
(2) We were worried as to what effect the challenge might have on our ongoing funding bid.

Secretly I wondered if my placement would end early! But that was before I truly appreciated Geoffrey’s determination and the respect that he clearly enjoys from key stakeholders.

As it happened negotiations continued on the detail of the funding bid and we were hopeful of securing funding for establishing a proper office (at the time we were ‘squatting’ in a spare room at Uganda’s Food Hotel Tourism and Allied Workers Trade Union – free of charge!) together with running costs for up to 9 months.

Way out West
Boosted by the positive funding negotiations we then enjoyed a brilliant team meeting where we resolved to take the initiative on work to complete the Public Dialogue Project. While securing the agreement of stakeholders was crucial to getting the funding from UNFPA to complete the Public Dialogue, there would be nothing to stop us going on a field trip to meet organisations in western Uganda if we could secure alternative funding. A combination of personal well-wishers and VSO (who funded my travel and accommodation and fuel for the car) enabled us to spend the last week of April ‘on the road’ and to become properly inspired by the amazing work being done to support people who are HIV positive (or at real risk of becoming HIV positive) by often very small community and voluntary organisations on tiny amounts of money. We visited 25 organisations and all said they would be very keen to join the Network.

The field trip ended on a high note as a message from the Network’s bank said that the funding for setting up the office and for April and May’s running costs had arrived from Nairobi. Team members were going to get paid for the first time. Smiles all round as we journeyed back to Kampala.

May 2010
The month began sorting and storing the purchases that had been made with the money received from the donor in Nairobi. The money arrived on 29 April and the understanding was that the April disbursement had to be spent by the end of the month!

Contracts were agreed on new premises for the Network Secretariat and a moving date of 4 June agreed.

Later in the month we discovered that our expectations for 9 months funding to cover start-up running costs were too optimistic. We only had secured running costs for two months – April and May. Oh well, back to the fund raising drawing board!

But we resolved to plough on as hard as we could (to support any fundraising) efforts to:
(1) Get the Public Dialogue Project finished
(2) Publish a report of the Public Dialogue findings
(3) Enroll into membership the 100 plus organisations that said they wanted to join the network
(4) Hold the annual assembly
(5) Elect a new Board of Directors from the membership

The expected (and final) running costs payment for the month of May failed to arrive by the end of the month. Team members had to re-arrange their personal finances!

June 2010
We made the office move to our own place in Kamwokya - a cause for rejoicing in the team - a real lift to our spirits - a source of pride in achieving a significant milestone.

At our first team meeting in Kamwokya, we agreed a timetable of priority work covering:
- Completing the Public Dialogue Project and Report
- Developing a business plan
- Developing a fund raising plan and prospectus

The delayed final payment of running costs for May still did not arrive – cause for Team members to further re-arrange their personal finances!

July 2010
At a team meeting to discuss the business plan and fundraising prospects, we agreed that we needed a plan B – for the Network and for ourselves as individuals – we needed to agree a time limit for how long we could go on without securing funding. We agreed - following this very necessary conversation:
(1) For the Network – a time limit of 31st December 2010. If no funding had been secured by then, we would reluctantly place the Network ‘on hold’
(2) For individuals – we should start looking for alternative work and in the absence of any re-imbursement for travel and lunch costs we should stay at home (especially problematical as the May running costs had still not come through from the donor)

Despite all of this I did not detect that team members had lost any of their determination to stay with the struggle to establish the Network.

Dr Thomas Muyunga deservedly secured sponsorship to attend the 2010 International AIDS Conference in Vienna. We were all pleased for Dr Thomas – the real academic in the team – he would contribute wisely and bring back plenty of valuable learning for everyone’s benefit.

Later in the month we agreed what the contents of the business plan should be, we shared out the work and agreed deadlines.

Finally, just before the month’s end May’s running costs arrived enabling debts to be paid and bills to be settled – big sighs of relief all round. Big worries though as to where the next coin would come from!

August 2010
Dr Thomas secured an offer of employed working with the Ministry of Health as a coordinator for a very large and strategically important National AIDS Indicator Survey. We are all pleased for Thomas and wish him well. But the team is shrinking.

The rest of the month is consumed by work on preparing for:
- The final leg of the Public Dialogue Project to be held in Fort Portal in the middle of September; and
- Work on the business plan

At a team meeting to review progress we discussed the problem of holding an annual assembly with (a) no money available to pay for its organisation, and (b) no money available to follow up the assembly with any work to implement the functioning of the Network. We agreed that the annual assembly must be put on hold until core funding is secured.

It’s probably fair to say that during this month we began to envisage, for the first time, a future without the Network and what this might mean for making plans for putting the Network on hold.

September 2010
UNFPA, having decided to go on working with us, provided the money to complete the Public Dialogue Project. We got really busy making plans for the Fort Portal dialogue event – Richard made a 48 hour round trip to check out the venue and practicalities. He returned with a big smile on his face with everything to his liking. He’d also managed to get local government staff in Fort Portal to assist with delegate recruitment. Richard is so good at getting people to help us!

During September our finances and financial systems were audited. Very clean bill of health reported in terms of accounting for every coin, but some challenges reported for improving management systems. Good and constructive meetings with Sam, the Finance and Administrative Officer, follow and he responds by getting everything sorted before the month’s end.

The Fort Portal dialogue event was rewarding – over 30 organisations took part, we gathered high quality data to complete the dialogue. The organisations participating said that they really enjoyed the networking and sharing of experience and expressed a keen desire to join the Network. Tired but happy we returned to Kampala knowing that we can now finish the analysis of the finding and the writing up of the finding and publishing a report.

October 2010
The team shrinks to two. Still no sign of any core funding, and it’s no big surprise when Richard tells us that he’s accepting an offer to go and join Thomas at the Ministry of Health. Soon after, Sam – with a heavy heart – decided that he too needs to look to his own future and after three or four weeks of research he secured a promising career development opportunity with an international accounting and auditing company – PKF – in Kigali, capital of Rwanda.

This just left Geoffrey and “Mzee” Ian in the team. Hopefully not an odd couple!

The two of us had our work cut out in the month to finish off a list of tasks before I depart on a pre-booked holiday with our friends David and Gina from Sheffield who were due to arrive mid November. We needed to finish off the report of the Public Dialogue findings, finish the business plan and develop the funding prospectus. We succeeded and assembled a package that would be delivered to prospective donors at the beginning of November.

At the end of the month The MARPs Network was invited to attend a pre-bidding workshop by the Uganda Civil Society Fund – this is a big pot of money that (mainly) western Government donors shovel loads of cash into for work on HIV/AIDS. The motivation of the western Donors is to avoid giving cash to the Uganda Government who many of the Donors consider to be corrupt. Every so often lumps of this money is put up for Civil Society (not for profit) Organisations to bid for against a specification for achievement of particular outcomes. On this occasion 3 billion Uganda shillings (about $1.3m) was set aside for developing networking/coordination for organisations working in the HIV / AIDS field.

Right up our street you’d think! Not so. For an organisation to bid to the CSF, it has to have a 5 year track record – has to have experience of managing big money etc. The only chance was for us to become part of a bidding consortium. No chance. The Network was a ‘new kid on the block’, Geoffrey doesn’t do voluntary sector politics, he also doesn’t play golf and doesn’t know what schmoozing is all about.

Still. It was an education being in a huge room in a posh hotel with 300 suits eager to bid for a pot of gold. Many Toyota Land Cruisers in the car park! Spending $1.3m on setting up a network from a standing start in 18 months (money to be spent by June 2012) may keep the money out of Uganda Government hands, but value for money? Maybe. But me thinks probably not.

By the end of October we were knackered! But we shared a sense of pride and satisfaction that even if the fundraising failed there would be a good legacy to leave to others who might wish to pick up the Network baton in the future. It’s been a real privilege to work with and really to get to know Geoffrey – this period of intense collaboration built strong bonds!

November 2010
We selected a list of 45 prospective donors – a mixture of Uganda Government Departments, big strategic AIDS development partners (e.g. UNAIDS, UNFPA) International NGOs (e.g. OXFAM, Save the Children, World Vision) and Embassies.

We produced personalized letters using recently developed contact information (Renate had just completed a donor mapping exercise for VSO and was encouraged to share the results with VSO’s partners). 45 packages – produced on to a MARPs Network branded DVD – were hand delivered to 45 addresses around Kampala.

A lovely surprise
Our friends from Sheffield, David and Gina visited the MARPs Office on 17 November. The previous Saturday David had celebrated his 60th birthday in Sheffield. They arranged a whip-round and their friends gave generously for the MARPs Network. Geoffrey was thrilled with the contribution and pledged that he would now be able to keep the office open through January! Geoffrey and I (considerably cheered) agreed to meet next on 1 December.

December 2010
25 replies to our fund raising letters. Most replies were very kind and appreciative of the MARPs Network concept. However no offers of any funding support. Mainly the feedback was that funding was already committed or that their priority was for other areas of work.

Very disappointing. Geoffrey began to alert strategic partners in Kampala that it would be most likely that the Network would have to fold – he explained that there was a limit to how long he could go on without funding.

But big high points in the month:
(1) Hosting a workshop on World AIDS Day for organisations in Kampala providing support to people from Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities. Over 70 people attended the workshop and commended the MARPs Network for being one of a very few ‘safe havens’ in a country ever more frighteningly homophobic.
(2) At the request of UNFPA, facilitating workshops for local government programme and policy makers in the HIV / AIDS field – in Gulu and Kampala – both workshops achieved positive outcomes and the contribution of the Network strongly appreciated.

Geoffrey and I headed off for Christmas with an expectation that we would most probably be spending January closing down the Network.

January 2011
No new replies to greet us on our return to work on 4 January. During the holiday period some thieves had stolen our lovely “MARPs Network” sign from the end of the street. Not a good omen.

Although the funding future for the Network appeared extremely bleak, Geoffrey and I remained positive. Firstly because we knew the Network had achieved and produced a positive legacy and secondly, there would be life after the Network for Geoffrey! As a medical practitioner, Geoffrey could, and most probably, would return to practice medicine on a full time basis. It was good to explore the kinds of opportunities that he could follow up. As well as practicing medicine Geoffrey’s enthusiasm for learning could be planned for. No sense of gloom.

Towards the end of the month, I happened to check the marps.net@gmail.com inbox and noticed that there were 7 unread emails. I contacted Geoffrey and told him “You’ve got mail!”

The reason these emails has escaped his attention was that David and Gina’s donation had been exhausted and there was no money left to replenish the internet dongle. That sorted, he scrutinized the emails. One from the Royal Danish Embassy, dated 12 January (!), said that they were ‘intrigued’ by the Network’s prospectus and would like to meet to discuss it in more detail.

February 2011
Not surprisingly Geoffrey and I spent many an hour speculating about what was meant by the word "intrigued". Would they want to meet us if they were only mildly interested? The days passed slowly. The meeting was scheduled for 11.00 am on Friday 11 February at the Royal Danish Embassy.

On Thursday 10th, Geoffrey and I were having lunch at ‘Hannahs’, our second favourite Uganda food restaurant (after Rwenzori Foods!), when his ‘phone rang. It was Peter from the Royal Danish Embassy – something had cropped up and they’d need to reschedule. Geoffrey looked alarmed and my heart sank. Not to worry. They agreed on 10.00 on Tuesday 15 February. When I saw Geoffrey’s expression I thought he was being told that it was all off, but he was only alarmed because he wanted me to be there with him and that he knew my last day at work was 15 February!

Full of nerves we got to the Embassy at 9.30. I needed to go to the toilet. Eventually we were led to a shaded courtyard in the Embassy where coffee, tea, juice and biscuits were laid out. We were welcomed by Peter, a Ugandan staff member who heads up their HIV / AIDS programme and he was accompanied by Sanne, his boss who heads up the Embassy’s human resource development program.

After small talk and pleasantries had been exchanged, Peter asked Geoffrey to give a background to the importance of the Network. Geoffrey was brilliant - I was in awe of his telling of the Network story. I was also questioned a bit but I can’t now remember exactly what I was asked or what my response was.

After nearly two hours, a very encouraging meeting came to an end with an assurance that Sanne and Peter would have a meeting “in the kitchen” to decide whether they would fund us. When Geoffrey and I left we really felt in no doubt that they were going to fund us. When we were out of sight we did a jig of delight!

On our return from Lamu after the Presidential election, we discovered that the Network had received email confirmation of the Royal Danish Embassy’s agreement to fund the Network for four years!

Wow! What a year!

A consequence of this thrilling finale is that Renate and I are hoping to return to Kampala with VSO, probably in early May, to continue to support Geoffrey in re-establishing the team and building and implementing the Network. We are very pleased.

But first we are concentrating on, and looking forward to the wedding of our son Matthew to Holly in New York just before Easter!