I am in Kermanshah (Iran-Iraq Border). Yesterday (2nd October,
2012) was a great day in my life when one of my dreams came true. I have been
working with Iranian government to design and implement an integrated natural resources
management project on
institutional strengthening and coherence.
Yesterday, the first project kicked off: perfectly planned where
NGO facilitated community to analyze issues and find solutions; government
technical staff assisted them to prepare technical design of the project;
government, UNDP/GEF (Global Environment Facility) and communities contributed
the fund and village committee took charge to implement the activity. It may
seem easy in Indian context, but in Iran this was probably the first
experience.
There were many challenges: to name a few – government official’s mentality
of working in isolation; no such policy in Iran to have inter-sectoral
coordination; no culture of community participation; and dependence of
communities on government to do all work for them. In the project UNDP/GEF
(Global Environment Fund) contributed US$4.3 million where US$14.0 millions had
to come from the Iranian government.
I am called Chief Architect of the MENARID project as I led in designing
and now guiding its implementation as International Chief Technical Adviser
(CTA).
Iranian policy makers and officials were always suspicious that this kind of project may not ever be implemented. The month of June in 2012 was very difficult when half of my team left (3 out of 6 local experts) after internal conflict and criticism from others when project performance was well below expectations. On 8th July, 2012, Project Board meeting was conducted in which it was clearly told that if project performance does not improve and delivery is not 90% Iran may not get further UN support. The National Project Manager was replaced and I was asked to stay back and bring the project back on the track. Though I agreed but requested them to allow the team to take a last effort under new management.
Iranian policy makers and officials were always suspicious that this kind of project may not ever be implemented. The month of June in 2012 was very difficult when half of my team left (3 out of 6 local experts) after internal conflict and criticism from others when project performance was well below expectations. On 8th July, 2012, Project Board meeting was conducted in which it was clearly told that if project performance does not improve and delivery is not 90% Iran may not get further UN support. The National Project Manager was replaced and I was asked to stay back and bring the project back on the track. Though I agreed but requested them to allow the team to take a last effort under new management.
In last three months, project performance improved which I can call MIRACLE.
Everything started happening in right way. Yesterday I had a meeting with
provincial Governor (Iran has a Presidential system, and Governor is head of
the province/state) which was attended by high level empowered committee. The
Governor directed his team to actively contribute in the project and make
Kermanshah (project is working in four provinces) a model in participatory
development which MENARID is following. Later his team visited the village where we had taken the first pilot to observe
how the project was conceptualized and implemented.
Somebody said that ‘success is one step away when defeat has come.
Those who persist are successful, those who accept (defeat), perish’. That
is law of nature; it has its filtering process.
Not to say that my team members were very excited and did not sleep
yesterday night. We had a great party and they kept talking all night.
Jitendra Sinha (3rd October, 2012)
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