From the Lap Top of the RD…

October 5, 2010 in Uncategorized

My life on (or is it in) a plane….

I love to travel, good job really, as I travel a lot! A plane is most used form of transport, and if I don’t visit Suvarnabhumi airport at least every other week I start to worry!

I love to visit our country programmes and I make sure that I do a field visit to each country programme every year – just a drop in the ocean I know, but at least it ensures that I meet staff and partners and communities regularly and I meet inspiring people that I can talk to others about.

Recently I have been travelling to meet different stakeholders; in Hanoi in June I attended the World Economic Forum Asia – listening to the trends and challenges from a business perspective – this experience made me smarten up the way I talk about Oxfam – to the point, no jargon, what’s the impact? – I also attended a dinner hosted by the Vietnam President and sat in the room as Prime Ministers from Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam – so much power and influence in one place – we really do need to step up our work with the private sector.

A few weeks ago I attended the Oxford China Business Forum in Beijing, – the first meeting between Oxford University in the UK and key business leaders in China, including the Governor of the Bank of China, the forum discussed the impact of the financial crisis on China and the lessons learnt and how to take that learning into the next decade.

It struck me that we know and understand the issues that are discussed by business leaders and what we need to get better at is linking our thinking and theirs in order to get the whole picture and then see where our interventions can be more effective and where the opportunities really are.

Last week I was in Delhi for the first time since I left 3 and a half years ago, to spend so time with RD Biranchi and the team to see how we can work together better, using and sharing expertise and thinking – it was a useful reminder for me to see how different country contexts affect our ability to programme (for example Afghanistan and Pakistan) and how difficult some environments are to operate in.

Now I am sitting in Hong Kong having just had a meeting with the global PR company Ogilvy and their digital influence team to discuss our social media strategy and later I am having dinner with the CEO Asia of Prudential and I am now preparing for the OI Programme Governance Groups meetings which I am chairing for the rest of the week – I am looking forward to supporting to the 2 new groups through the SMS process.

So I know the inside of planes very well – the best seats – I know every airport in the region – the best shops and where to buy last minute sweets to take back to the office – but best of all I feel like I am part of the region – part of a dynamic, challenging but really great region.

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