I was reading back through some of my old blog posts and realized that I don’t talk as much about my work as I would like to.  Perhaps I have difficulty putting into words what I do here or perhaps it is just the last thing I feel like thinking about after a long and busy week…so this week, some things I am grateful for at work, to hopefully share a bit more what exactly I am doing

• Focused advocacy plans. Our coalition had a planning meeting this week and has FINALLY narrowed their focus down to some tangible, measurable, and achievable demands around advocacy.  It is all well and good to want to demand high quality education for all students, but to whom do you make your demands?  And how will you know when they have been met?  And what does quality education really mean?  So, we spent a day focusing our demands.  We want…1) The Nepal Government to allocate 20% of the national budget to education (currently 16.53% comes out way), 2) Funds to flow more quickly to the school level (there are currently about 25 steps for money to reach schools so it takes forever to get there), 3) Proper use and allocation of funds at the school level, 4) Establishment of a national constitutional body through which all teachers are hired, 5) Better governance at the school level. It is satisfying to know that we are capable of these kinds of demands…let’s just hope that we can actually do some of these things!
• Hiring great, passionate, and intelligent people. This week we also completed the hiring process for GCE Nepal’s first full-time staff member, a Coordinator.  We had outstanding applications, a great interview team, a transparent and ethical recruitment and selection process, and what I think will be an incredibly talented individual who I will enjoy working with immensely.  Much like hiring students at universities – a great colleague can make all the difference.
• Having more questions than answers. It is always the case that when you are new to any organization, you should spend more time asking questions than answering them.  AND, the wonderful thing about being able to ask lots of questions is that you can push thinking further.  I don’t always plan to challenge how things work, but in my efforts to understand for my own learning, my questions prompt discussions that might not otherwise happen.  Take, for example, a simple question about how GCE Nepal communicates with their members.  I wanted to understand how the Steering Committee shares information.  What I discovered is that nobody had really ever considered this before.  A good question can be one of the best tools for learning but it can also be one of the best tools for getting work started…
• Gaining the trust and confidence of colleagues. If I think of what I knew about my work 5 months ago, 4 months ago, 3 months ago, 2 months ago, or 1 month ago I can see how the depth has changed but also how I get my information has changed.  Those I work with are much more open and willing to be honest about where our coalition struggles.  I have real conversations…finally!  It took time to sift through the information, opinions, perspectives, and glossy descriptions of our work.  To weigh, measure, test, clarify, and analyze all this information takes time…slowly, slowly, slowly.  But eventually I got a complete picture of the reality.  And then, I began to have real conversations.