At last, we’re in Ghana!

What a day, and a day of contrasts.

Jose-Luis and I landed in Accra last night, and were met by Robbie and some of the Basic Needs team (Robbie arrived about an hour before us). We were taken to our apartment but, given it was at night, didn’t get much of an appreciation of the area.

This appreciation started this morning as I woke up to the noise of screaming kids at the school next to our block – you can watch them in the classroom from my window! The apartment is ok, at least it’s air conditioned, you just need to remember that you’re living in a developing country. And it isn’t a mud hut, as many people have asked me…

We went to the Basic Needs office this morning and got a very warm welcome. These people have put so much effort into our stay and have planned a day-by-day itinerary for the next 60 days! This was music to Jose-Luis’ ears, as someone who is very organised, but for me it felt quite daunting. We will be meeting so many people, from the Minister of Health, to heads of hospitals, doctors, traditional healers, to the mentally ill themselves. The schedule appears pretty demanding at times, and seems to cover the whole of the country.




I’m conscious that I haven’t talked about what we are here to do. After a week of listening to people and understanding the issues, we will re-visit our terms of reference next Monday, but the essence of it at present is
(a) Basic Needs has a worldwide plan and an African plan, but we are to develop a Ghana country plan which tries to raise awareness of mental illness amongst the donor community to attract greater funding; and
(b) there is a draft piece of legislation on disability, which the organisation needs to lobby government, policymakers and other NGO’s to ensure it best reflects the needs of the mentally ill.

Whether this is the right terms of reference we will re-visit in a week, but at least there is something to aim for. I am conscious that it is an ambitious objective in two months.

This afternoon we had to pay for much of our costs, such as accommodation. We didn’t want Basic Needs to fund our working capital so we paid for most of our Accra costs up front. As I didn’t have enough US dollars, I had to go to the bank and withdraw the maximum cash I could (about £50 equivalent) seven times from my VISA card! The only problem was that the largest denomination of note in Ghana is 20,000 Cidi (equivalent to about £1.50) which meant that I had over 350 notes in my pockets! The bizarre thing about this country is that the largest note only buys about 1-2 beers – how the country operates without credit cards is beyond me…



We drove through a number of parts of the city which were very deprived, and this was upsetting. It reminded me of some of the townships I’ve been past in South Africa.

This evening we went out for dinner with Monica, the cook/housekeeper, and her cousin Max. We asked them to take us to a traditional Ghanaian restaurant, so first stop they took us to was a 4 star hotel with a Western buffet. We said ‘no thanks!’. Second stop was the equivalent of a KFC, but they had run out of grilled chicken. We had a beer and moved on. Last stop was a Nandos – by this time we were so hungry we just ate it!

A very mixed day, lots of laughter and warmth from the locals, and a few difficult sights. Tomorrow Ghana plays Brazil in the World Cup; I sense it is either going to be a day of mad frenzy and excitement, or a very morose day. Your bets please?

We're leaving tomorrow

Tomorrow evening we are leaving Canada, and will be in Accra, the capital of Ghana, on Sunday. We have spent most of the day as a team planning our work, but we're all clear that the detailed work can't really start until we hit Ghana.

It was also an opportunity to sort out how much money we need and how we can access it. A number of long phone calls to the bank and Amex today and all the options I thought would work appear non-starters. I hope I can remember the PIN number for my VISA card...


Lance took us through the provision of mental health care in Ghana, and what BasicNeeds are doing in conjunction with other organisations such as the government and the donor community. The objectives of the project are becoming clearer, but I'll describe them once I get to Ghana.

What is very reassuring is that Lance understands why we are doing this, that it is a learning experience for us and we don't want to just treat this as "another job" just in a different setting. When I asked him what his concerns were about having three PwC partners work in an organisation with only 19 people, it was that we should not be too ambitious as to what we could achieve, and that we should remain healthy and well during our trip. What a change from the usual client response, "the fees are too high!", "can you report back 2 weeks quicker!", "I'm not happy with the engagement letter!". I have a feeling we are going to get on well ...

Montebello or bust

Before we start the project in Ghana, we started the programme with a foundation course in Montebello in Quebec, Canada.

I'll talk about the course in a second, but the 'hotel' is very strange. Here are the facts:

1. It is the largest log cabin in the world.

2. It was built in 1930 or so - in 90 days.

3. It is dark inside, and reminds me of the haunted houses in Scooby Doo...



The programme here has been fantastic, and has been focused on the theme of Responsible Leadership. To try to cover in a blog what we have discussed over a week would be doing it an injustice, but the highlights have been:

• getting to know the other Ulysses team: we started with 24 participants, but now have (I think) 22 because a couple dropped out. The thing that stands out, after five days with these fellow partners is the openness, honesty and sense of common purpose - we are all on a similar journey here;
  
• we have had a number of people talk about leadership from different perspectives, but the common theme has been leading from the heart - what are one's core values and how do they guide you;
  
• sense of reflection: one concept which made particular sense to many of us was that we operate in an action-decision-action-decision etc environment, whereas the best decisions also often involve self-reflection as part of this process. This reflection has involved many things, if you want to know more email me.

The other highlight has been meeting my fellow project team, Jose-Luis who is a partner from Mexico and Robbie who is a partner from New Zealand. I'm not going to use surnames on this blog as google will just pick them up and may use them inappropriately.

Here's the three of us outside the Scooby Doo log cabin:

Jose-Luis on the left, me in the middle, Robbie on the right

In the past few days we've had discussions and over-dinner conversations with a number of interesting people: the Managing Partners of the Canadian Firm, the head of Canadian HC, the head of Advisory HC and a couple of partners who have done the Ulysses programme in the past. On the left is a picture of one of the discussion groups we had with previous Ulysses participants, on the right is a pic of a dinner we had by a lake in the middle of the wilderness - perfect venue for having a great time and an interesting conversation.

Today we finally met Lance, the head of the BasicNeeds operation in Ghana. Here's a pic of the team, including Lisa who is our team coach:

Left to right: Robbie, Lisa, me, Lance, Jose-Luis

Speaking to Lance during the day and over dinner, it is clear we have to steel ourselves for what we see in the mental hospitals in Ghana. It's now starting to become clear what we have let ourselves in for - particularly in working with a project such as mental health in a developing country. Some of the stories he has told us are quite horrific. Whilst we were the only team that selected this project, we are going into it with enthusiasm, an open mind and a great will. I am beginning to sense,though, how tough it will be.

Before I go I have to include a pic of my leaving present from the team back home. I thought I was going into town with Jo for dinner a couple of weeks ago, but when I got to the restaurant I had a surprise dinner organised by Heather with a load of friends.

It was a great evening, and they presented me with this picture which I think is great. It really touched me, and thank you to all of those actors who couldn't make it to the dinner - especially Steve with his silly hat...!

What am I up to in Ghana?

Some of you may be aware that I am going to be working overseas for a few months this summer, but many of you are not. I therefore thought it was appropriate to send a note around explaining what I am up to.

I am going to be working in Ghana in West Africa on a project which is trying to integrate the mentally ill and those with epilepsy into the primary healthcare system. This project is under the umbrella of PwC's Ulysses programme where the worldwide firm places small teams of partners into projects in the developing world. I will therefore be working with two other partners: an assurance partner from Mexico and a private clients services partner from New Zealand.

What is the problem?
The development of psychiatric provision in Ghana has been ad hoc and blighted with constraints. The stigma and ignorance surrounding mental illness has resulted in severe marginalisation of mentally ill people and their ostracism from the community. This has also led to low recruitment levels for mental health workers and contributed to the lack of interest in mental health issues, thus resulting in poor incentives for its workers from the government as well as meagre budget allocations for mental health. Out of a population of 20 million people, currently, there are a total of only 15 psychiatrists, 339 psychiatric nurses, six social workers and three clinical psychologists.

Who will I be working with?
I will be working together with a UK-based charity called BasicNeeds. This charity works all over the developing world and aims to alleviate the suffering of people with mental illnesses, assuring their basic needs are satisfied and their basic rights are met. Because mental illness comes with a strong stigma, part of their work is to spread awareness regarding the options people have to overcome the disease and continue living a sustainable dignified life. You can find out more about this organisation here: http://www.basicneeds.org.uk/

What is the project trying to achieve?
The objective of the project is for our team to serve as the main facilitator in bringing together the donor community and Government, and helping create enough interest from them to adopt mentally ill people as a vulnerable group. This would enable mentally ill people to be included in Ghana's Poverty Reduction Strategy, which focuses their care in the community.

How long am I away for?
I will be in Ghana until late August, after which I will take a few weeks holiday to spend time with my wife who has to stay in the UK. Whilst clearly this is not enough time to sort out all of the issues in a whole country, the objective is to bring together diverse group of people and facilitate the recognition of the problem. In my experience working with troubled companies, you may not be able to turn a business around in a couple of months, but in that timeframe you can develop a turnaround plan and get people bought into implementing it. Because we will be fully integrated with the local BasicNeeds team, we will try very hard to avoid finding the solution and giving it to someone else to implement; rather our approach will be for the local team to find the 'solution' with us.

What is PwC's Ulysses programme?
About five years ago the firm around the world recognised that it had a number of longer term strategic challenges. I have set three of them out here:

* Building a sustainable business: how can we build a differentiated sustainable brand that is based on more than short term profitability, that is recognised for its responsible leadership in the way we lead with our clients, our people and the communities within which we operate?

* Embracing diversity: how can we tap into the full potential of our diverse network and the true competitive force of our firm, by building a diverse pool of future leaders connected across organizational and national boundaries?

* Building business leaders: how can we develop our own people to deal with an increasingly complex global stakeholder environment?

The Ulysses programme was one response to these challenges. This year, 24 partners from 19 countries around the world will be working in teams of three or four partners on projects in South Africa, Madagascar, Cameroon, Ghana, India, China, Peru and Paraguay.
You can find out more about this programme from the PwC website here, where you can also see that the projects in developing countries are only one part of the programme: http://www.pwc.com/extweb/manissue.nsf/docid/BC88E81BDDE3FC7E8525706D005467CD

Hopefully this gets across a flavour of what I will be doing, and that it may also answer one two recurring questions I get:
1. "will I be building mud huts?" (Answer: no - I am useless at DIY), and
2. "is this a holiday / career break?" (Answer: also no - my suitcase is full of work shirts not just T-shirts!).

When I return to the UK I expect I will have many stories to tell, and for those of you in BRS, I suspect a Planet.BRS interview will be looming.

A quick note on this Blog. I have never done one of these, and it has taken a while to set this thing up (it wasn't working at all earlier). Please bear with me if it doesn't get updated too often as I will be travelling around rural Ghana (internet access unclear as yet), or I won't know how to work it (much more likely!).