Today was a big day. An early start at the ministry led to panicked moments of believing that after all that we’ve been through the past two years, this project would come to an end before it had ever began. The ministry lawyer called us in and then informed us that, though this was supposed to be the final draft—with original signatures hand carried from the US as requested—there had to be some changes made regarding a confidentiality statement. I wrote that thing, all 1 billion edits of it, and I know it front and back. Confidentiality is definitely something we covered. Running back and forth across the hall between two offices, we were finally getting extremely frustrated that no progress was being made. It wasn’t clear if the document had been misread, or if it just wasn’t meeting the standards despite all our prior communication.
We finally got a meeting with the actual minister. She’s direct, efficient, and doesn’t take any funny business from her employees. In contrast to our experience up to this point, the minister has herself together and is all business. The man in the meeting before us was loitering awkwardly around the room when she gave him some instructions and moved on to our meeting. He tried to get in a few more questions when she informed him that she was done with him and to “close the door on your way out.” There. That’s how you end a meeting. We sat around the table waiting to get the meeting going. A picture of the minister shaking hands and laughing with Bill Clinton and sitting next to the president of Rwanda hung on the wall behind us. It’s like I met a celebrity today! The two men we’ve been working with throughout this process were also called in. Again, in contrast to our prior experiences, they sat quietly and behaved like submissive puppies during the entire meeting. She barked at them over the changes she wanted for the agreement. And scolded them for the abuse the country and the ministry have suffered from researchers in the recent past.
It turns out Rwanda’s had the very terrible experience that many developing countries have when it comes to research. Ultimately, the power in the relationship bends toward the partner with more resources and more funding. At least twice in very recent memory (and we’ve heard this narrative before, so it’s happened again and again), this particular ministry has agreed to do a research partnership with another organization (sometimes foreign government, often foreign researcher—including a recent professor from Harvard that I choose to shame on this blog. For shame, sir!!) and that group just takes the data and runs. They publish without the approval of, consent of or collaboration with the Rwandan partners. Terrible things have been published about them without their opportunity to review and perhaps defend the results of a study. Researchers (read: Harvard guy in particular) use the agreements to get funding and then take that money for their own good. It’s a partnership. This shouldn’t happen. The minister was infuriated by these and other exploitative actions against the ministry. At one point, she said these researchers are “using their (Rwandans and other Africans) brains as slaves:” letting the Africans do the data collection and then getting all the publications and credit out of it.
It’s so true. Really. And I’m calling you all out on it now. To the academics out there who make films about heroic people in the developing world and then never share those films with that person whom the film was about; to the researchers who come to Africa just to use it as a giant petri dish (my professor’s words) for their own academic advancement and glory; to the organizations and governments who come in here, throw some money around, and suddenly believe they own the rights to personal narratives and the data that surrounds development: YOU ALL ARE RUINING IT FOR THE REST OF US!!! Your selfishness, and more importantly your exploit of people with less resources than yourself, have put less well funded do-gooders like us in great danger of never getting access to data! The world needs to know about what Rwanda’s done for maternal health all over this country, and I’m here to tell that story (for free!)—so, get out of my way privileged professors with nothing to do but collect grant money and insult developing countries’ governments.
Over the rant now…
The minister finally agreed to sign the document, just as we were certain that she was going to deny us and we were just going to give up this time. She gave the caveat that this will be the last time she lets such a vague document slip through her office (in my defense, my original draft was overly detailed but cut down by the law process), as she scribbled her very precious signature on the pages. Whew. Having been scolded by their boss in our presence, our partners for this project may either be really helpful tomorrow, or really unhelpful. Only time will tell. But, the shiny suit man that I met on that fateful day at a fancy party at the ambassador’s house still hasn’t let me down. He tracked down a data manager from the ministry and arranged drinks tonight so we could get the ball rolling on data collection. Amazing! Shiny-suit-guy is not only the one who gave us hope to persevere, he also knows EVERYONE and is always happy to help us connect (even if it means over drinks in an ‘unofficial’ capacity). He has even more contacts that might help us with our other project this weekend. We sat atop a hotel balcony discussing what the ministry might be after and what kind of data it had already collected. It sort of feels like I’m dreaming this after all these years. It can’t possibly be this close! I had a super nerdy conversation with my new data manager friend about the value of statistics and interpretation for policymakers. Shiny-suit wants to meet with us again to discuss some other pressing matters, like his pursuit of a PhD and his connections to our other project. Shiny-suit is the epitome of a “key informant” and I am soooo grateful that he got us this far!
Tomorrow we have a meeting bright and early with the director of the project to talk about how to proceed. We’re on our way and things are really looking up!!
Oh my goodness! I am so proud of this blog. These things need to be said. Even when researchers think they are doing the most good (if the data helps make changes, or bring light, etc etc –even my students said this last semester–shouldn't the people just be happy? easy to say if you aren't the ones being exploited at every turn) they still hurt. I am just so proud. I can picture all of these beautiful dinners and meetings with people and the whirlwind it must be with J doing it right and you as lovely as ever taking it all down. I wish I could be there with you to document the world as it moves past you—the suits and the hair and the facial expressions and the exchange of energy and information. So inspiring and raw. Bravo, my dear friend. This is magic and a lifelong connection to Rwanda in the making.