The beating heart of MIAN
“Project work is the beating heart of MIAN. All the lines from at home and abroad come together in the working group Projects.” Maartje Aarts talks with infectious enthusiasm about the working group of which she has been chairperson for the past few months.
Maartje is one of the MIAN members who do not come from the world of insurance. Her background – or perhaps we could say: her biotope – is the world of development co-operation. Among her many activities, Maartje worked for the well-known organization Fair Trade. She spent many years working in Asia, but also took care of training courses for Fair Trade from her home country, the Netherlands. Lately, Maartje has been putting a great deal of time into MIAN. Not only because the mission and objectives of MIAN appeal to her, but also because “I just happen to like pioneering.”
Complex
One of the tasks of the working group Projects is to take receipt of applications for new projects from NGOs. The working group then gets in touch with the so-called Western partner that is funding the project, for example the Rabobank Foundation, Oxfam Novib or Agriterra. After that a technical consultant from MIAN visits the project to establish the initial contacts abroad and to determine exactly what the needs are which MIAN is being asked to fulfil. That has to be done with care, because, says Maartje: “Micro-insurance products are complex, high-tech products compared with the customary development aid. If you don’t know precisely what the demand is of the local NGO and of the end-users behind that demand, you run the risk of enthusiastically starting up a project only to find that you keep coming up against unexpected problems and obstacles.”
In assessing whether it is advisable to actually start a certain project, the working group first of all asks itself the question: does the project comply with the criteria we have formulated so carefully for that purpose? Maartje: “If that is the case and MIAN decides to go ahead with the project, the next step is to form project teams and appoint a project leader. Then our task as monitor immediately begins. The intrinsic leadership of the project is in the hands of the project leader. That is what we call him or her for the Dutch part of the work. Overseas his or her function is that of technical consultant. That is where the responsibility lies, but we help to monitor the progress.”
Full strength
The working group, recently brought up to full strength, has a widely varied make-up. The expertise is far-reaching and multifaceted. Joop Blom comes from the world of insurance and plays a pioneering role as technical consultant for a project in Sri Lanka. Gert Hamming has gained practical experience, outside MIAN, in Mozambique. Lia van Hooff, who is working on the recently started Uganda project, gained international experience at an American company, while Marta Maria Rocha de Araujo, who comes from Brazil, is an expert on the Asian situation. Kirsty van Hintum and Ton van de Poel ensure that the working group also has enough insurance technical expertise and experience. Marie-José Korenromp, with her vast secretarial experience, completes the working group,.
Critical success factors
What is the working group Projects currently doing? Maartje: “The past few months have been spent mainly on getting the working group up to its full complement, working on the distribution of tasks and making the procedures absolutely clear. We have also been busy compiling a positioning paper which will be the leitmotif for the way we function. From now on, though, we shall be focusing more on the substance of the projects again, paying particular attention to the critical success factors. The exchange of information among the various project leaders will be a big help in that respect. That is getting better all the time and has a very positive effect. The people of the various projects will be hearing from us very often during the coming months!”
