Project Eliminate Extreme Poverty

This past year, I suffered through a hideous, grotesque haunted house of math equations. I said to myself, "Well, it will all be worth it when you go to Bhutan and work on program evaluation." Umm. Since I have been here, I haven't seen a number let alone a withering blob of Greek letters. The newly established Research and Evaluation Division is still working in a wholly qualitative sense. That will change but for now I've packed away my econometrics books and set forth on another work plan. Sorry, STATA, I know you will miss me, but I will be back and hugging your greenness in September.

So, what am I doing? I've zeroed in on this ambitious, exciting undertaking of the Royal Government called the Rural Economic Advancement Programme (REAP). It seeks to create Village Development Plans for the 300 materially poorest villages in Bhutan. Each plan will be an integrated set of specific interventions aimed at improving rural livelihoods. What needs the most work are the systems....

Creating an appropriate methodology for village selection and prioritization. Developing the right baseline surveys. Developing the criteria for and choosing the treatment and control villages. Building the framework for data analysis and development of the Village Development Plan. Developing the planning capacity of local authorities. And, finally setting up the evaluation methodology. And, I am going to tackle all of this in these 11 weeks. Of course, I won't complete any of the systems. But, I do know that I will advance them in such a way as to lay an essential foundation for various stages of the REAP. It is such an exciting thing -- to eliminate extreme poverty from this country by 2014. It's a matter of about 5,000 households. It can be done...but it requires organization. Strong management, work plans, consistent, organized systems...this is what needs to be strengthened. So, as one of my professors said, it's not about getting the technical right...it's about getting the right management and organization in place. So, I am not using the quantitative tools I suffered to develop but I am working on what may be even more important. I am very happy with this endeavor - I only wish I could stick around longer to work on it. And, I feel like I am honoring Right Livelihood in this project. Thanks, universe!