Darias Sanyatwe, EFSL Adviser
Darias Sanyatwe discusses his work as an EFSL Adviser and recalls his experiences working in Turkana and the Philippines.
Programmes I've been working with over the last couple of months...
I went to Kenya in June for a Turkana programme cash-for-work evaluation. This is a cash-for-work project being implemented in an area that has largely been dependent on barter trade.
I am currently working in Zimbabwe, assisting with the scale up of the humanitarian response. Oxfam is working in three rural districts doing food aid distributions.
The most innovative example of EFSL work I've seen in this time...
It was in Turkana. It is to me innovative in the sense that many thought it was impossible to successfully do a cash-for-work project in an area where barter trade is the major mode of transaction. Through good community mobilisation and integrating the project with other livelihood projects, beneficiaries are gradually moving out of barter into cash transactions. More and more communities are also becoming sedentary because they are moving out of pastoralism largely because of climate change.
The most important thing I've learned...
I learnt that in as much as we want to do integrated programming through a ‘one programme’ approach, it is not always the case that EFSL teams should work in the same geographical areas as Public Health teams.
In the Philippines we decided as a team to target Evacuation Centres for our interventions. Through our monitoring we learnt that the Public Health team covered most of those in need of public-health interventions but the EFSL team left out some affected households who stayed with relatives and friends because the evacuation centres were full. This calls for a good assessment to identify those in need and a close monitoring of interventions.
The best thing about my job...
I am able to see the results of my effort(s). At times I work seven days a week and the experience can be draining but at the end of it all, it is good to hear beneficiaries talk good about Oxfam programmes, how the organisation is transparent, quick/timely in responding and accountable to the beneficiaries.
Three words that sum up my current country of deployment...
Unpredictable. (Full of) potential. (Massive) brain-drain.
