Cascading Failures

I enjoy visiting the continent of Africa. It is a change of scenery to be sure and let's admit that it's always interesting to be someplace different. But it does come with some frustrations. Every country is different and has its challenges for a visitor. Trying to read a language you don't understand like German or Italian is always a bit frustrating for tourist or business people alike and things operate differently. One has to accept these as part of the joy or frustration of travel. And of course, we can learn from each other.

But while in Africa you are frequently hit by an avalanche of issues which compound and frequently slow down your work. It is the one thing that I wish I could adequately communicate to people who come for the first time.  Here is a small example; one of my group had their key break off in their door. They entered their room through the window that night. We are staying at a basic Catholic guest house. They install inexpensive locks, so they break. It's a simple case of a cascading failure. The Canadian couple took it in their stride, but it's inconvenient and slows down their day.

I'm driving a diesel vehicle here. We needed petrol for our 100 km drive but nobody had any gas. I don't know why?

I think about all the little things that happen which slow down the process. We eventually got gas in the capital. But I was running on vapors. It was a minor inconvenience but it slowed us down, having to stop at three Gas stations and finding no petrol. This made us late for our appointment. What if you're trying to run a small business? Few can afford their own large gas tanks on site. So, things get delivered late by a day or two. But if you need that delivery of fresh vegetables or meat to market. What are you to do? It's a cascading failure, one failure leads to another, and it happens all the time.

Today we wanted to buy large water jugs. It's inexpensive and prevents us from having to boil water. But the store had no large jugs, just smaller water bottles like at home. Was this connected to the petrol transportation issue? I don't know. But, every day these little things slow you from finishing a task. One shortage leads to another shortage which leads to a poor product or worse a complete failure.

These are simple examples, but what happens when people don't arrive for important meetings because of flat tires, bad roads or petrol shortages. What about electrical outages or slow internet for filing reports. Things take longer. I'm not complaining. I'm just wanting to help outsiders understand how things operate. Though one does get what I call "experience fatigue."

The reason any of this is even worth noting is that folks in the west don't always understand why development programs don't always measure up. You try to build in safeguards for these unpredictable situations but it's almost impossible to always know what will happen. This is why it's important to work alongside local staff and partners who know that complex solutions won't work. In other cases, the best answer is to use a simple solution. Life is unpredictable, but even more in Africa.

However, these struggling systems lead to failsafe programs that are for the most part, unbreakable.

You can buy Empasa any place, even at the inexplicably named chocolate factory barbershop. 

You may have heard about the Empasa system. Essentially it is a way of storing money on your phone which you can then send to people to pay for most anything, clothing vegetables at a corner kiosk or electricity.  It started in Kenya. It is as common as the village dog. Even in a small village, they have jumped ahead of the "developed" world in virtual currency.

This system does not require a bank account and it guarantees payment. Once the credit is sent, it is in your account and it cannot be stolen or taken back. And, you can send money to your family in the village over the mobile phone rather than needing to travel to deliver money or travel to a bank in a far off town. You can buy Empasa from millions of little kiosks or street vendors who sell small scratch cards with an individual code. They come in a variety of denominations. It has radicalized the payment universe in many African countries. Although very complicated at the back end, it is relatively simple to use.

When it comes to cascading failures in Africa, yes some things don't work well. But, problems can lead to solutions that work even better. This is just one small example!

Enjoy - be at peace

Philip.

As usual, send me typos and misspellings.. "there is wisdom in many counselors."