What I Do Here On A (Somewhat) Daily Basis

Someone recently asked me about what I do in Nairobi and Kisumu on a more daily basis, when I’m not out traveling. I have told you a bit about the Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI) and, in a general way, about our work in trying to increase foreign investment opportunities into Kisumu that will be sustainable, improve the lives of the people and help Kisumu achieve the Millennium Development Goals. To that end, and since MCI has just begun, a lot of my time has been spent gathering information, working with the city government to build its capacity to promote investments, meeting local business people to educate them about MCI and to understand better the business environment and coordinating with various partners, such as several UN agencies, to organize various parts of MCI. I sort of serve as the ambassador on the ground here, trying to coordinate all the players, keep things moving forward and make sure communication happens.

So here, from my calendar over the past week and a half, are some of the things I did, both for work and pleasure, in Nairobi and Kisumu:

Wednesday: Met with consultants and trainers for a very large, global packaging, automotive and power tool technology company from India to discuss their running a training program for mid-skilled workers in Kisumu. In the evening, went to the sports diver class at the Nairobi Dive Club where, every Wednesday, they also serve dinner and the best Bloody Mary’s outside of NYC.

Thursday: Met with a senior executive from Unilever, now working for the Business Alliance Against Chronic Hunger (BAACH), and a woman from the World Economic Forum to discuss ways that MCI and BAACH can partner, such as by working together to bring agro-processing and packaging investments into Kisumu. We also discussed the potential for a major fashion company which has contacted BAACH to make handbags and shoes out of the Nile Perch and also support programs for women in the fishing industry in Kisumu.

Friday: Attended an MDG Centre staff meeting in the morning where I heard about all of the work being done at the Millennium Villages, and updated everyone on MCI. Afterwards, I met with the senior editor for Africa from the Economist Intelligence Unit (part of the Economist Magazine) to discuss the business roundtable to be co-hosted between the Economist and MCI in July. That night, listened to a Ghanian drum band at the French Cultural Institute in Nairobi and had a fantastic Ethiopian dinner at a restaurant called Habeesha.

Monday: First thing that morning, I attended my weekly Kiswahili lesson with two friends from MDG Centre. Midday, I met with the Kenyan Investment Authority to discuss working with the Kisumu municipal council on investment promotion. That night, I had dinner at a good Indian restaurant in Nairobi, called Open House, with a Columbia University professor and some of his graduate students, working with the Kenyan government on rural electrification (the percentage of people living outside Kenyan cities who have electricity lies in the single digits!).

Tuesday: That morning, I flew to Kisumu and headed straight for a meeting with a local business woman and members of the city council office to discuss a project in which the city would hand over management of 5 Kisumu parks to local businesses who then would rehabilitate them. That afternoon I met with the Kisumu Chamber of Commerce to talk to them about MCI and find out about local businesses among their membership. I had dinner that night at my hotel, the Imperial Hotel, with a former Columbia graduate student, working around Kisumu for a few months, to test various low-cost and energy efficient lighting sources for people.

Wednesday: I had breakfast with a woman to discuss contacts in the construction industry in Kisumu. At 10:30 I began a 2 hour drive out to the Mumias sugar factory (the largest in Kenya, producing over 60% of the sugar here). I toured the factory and learned a lot about how Mumias uses the bagasse from sugar cane to generate electricity and about the potential for ethanol production from the molasses. I had dinner with the head of tax at Mumias and his wife, that evening at the Mumias Club, before making it back to Kisumu around midnight.

Thursday: I had an early morning golf lesson! Then went back to the municipal council office to discuss the development of an investment promotion office there. I had lunch that day in the home of the family that owns the Imperial Hotel (as well as a fish factory and a bakery in Kisumu). That afternoon I met with the Kisumu branch of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, mainly to discuss their work lobbying the national government on infrastructure issues around Kisumu – the cost of goods is very high here primarily because of all the infrastructure problems. I flew back to Nairobi that evening.

Friday: That morning I attended an early breakfast meeting at the Jacaranda Hotel in Nairobi, with yet another Columbia University professor, to discuss finding a business in Kisumu that has the capability to partner with a major electronics company on the manufacture of fuel-efficient and smokeless cookstoves for use by women. I spent most of the rest of the day catching up on correspondence at the MDG Centre in Nairobi. That evening I flew to Mombasa with two friends from the Nairobi Dive Club to do some diving there over the weekend.