Minister of Health - part 2

Wow. I'm done with the Uganda portion of the adventure. We spent our last week in Kampala meeting with a couple mobile phone providers (MTN and Celtel), the regulatory part of Uganda's communication (Uganda Communication Commission) and other NGOs with whom we are interested in looking at partnerships. Our team went back and forth all trip about what we wanted to propose and present at the MOH meeting.
For those of you in policy you'll be happy and proud to hear that I used the 8-fold path (kind of, of course. Who could follow it exactly??). We defined the problem- had to get down to the nitty gritty reason which was basically how remote many parishes are in Nakaseke. We gave options (they didn't like the term "alternative"), did an outcomes matrix, and gave a recommendation. Oh so nice. :)
The presentation went really well. Alison presented the intro and our findings and I presented the options, outcomes matrix and recommendation. I think it went really well. I ended up fielding the Q&A because I was the one standing at the end of the presentation. They were definitely very interested in our recommendation and some other options. Although some of their questions and comments were a little completely ridiculous and not relevant.

So we're all done with the field part of the project. We have to do a bit more research and identify partners and write a proposal this summer. Still a lot more to do. Hopefully Zanzibar will be conducive to working! :)

I'm in Zanzibar now. Just arrived. I'll tell you all about it soon! Love you!