My Heinz Training Pays-Off

Siafa Hage, Special Assistant to the Minister for Policy and Aid Coordination, asked me if I was doing anything. At the time I had only time-variable work, work that needs done but in no specific order with no specific deadline, so I said no. Siafa then invited me to go on a site inspection.

We visited a work site for a public works style project, cleaning out a canal in Monrovia, one of the many projects all over Liberia under the program. I just watched and listened to Siafa as he explained to the workers that he was there to make sure they were getting paid as planned. We then drove to a nearby office and watched some of the workers walk in and receive their pay. It was a routine kind of visit just to make sure that policy was meeting action. You can write the nicest paycheck policy in the world, but if no one uses the policy in action it’s a very expensive piece of paper.

A few days later, after the site visit, Siafa asked me again if I was doing anything, again I said no. Apparently I had made a good enough of an impression that he asked me to help with an assignment. A press conference was coming up soon and they needed posters.

I was put on a three-person team tasked to create a series of slides. The slides would then be turned into posters. I read lots of files and prepared an accurate but simple presentation of the information within hours. It was fast-paced and team-oriented policy analysis. Here was something I had been training to do over the past year.

When I looked at the budget, the numbers ‘looked’ wrong. Specifically, the budget was actually better managed than it first appeared from the data. So this is weird on two levels. First of all it has been my experience that when you find something odd in a budget you need to revise your appraisal downward instead of upward. Second, that I had somehow gained the capacity to ‘look’ at numbers and understand them intuitively. This new-found ability I attribute solely to Heinz and the quantitative-skills training focus. I was an English major in undergrad after all.

The work I did was edited some and then transferred to vinyl banners for the press conference. Here are two pictures of me with my favorite poster from the set. In the first picture you can see the ocean behind me because the Ministry of Planning and Economic Affairs is practically on the beach. In the second picture you can see the entrance to the ministry.





I may have been overly sparse on details in this post for discretion sake. I apologize. The banner, however, was used in a press conference so I know it's fair game.