"Working
with Kailahun District Council in Sierra Leone this summer crystallized the challenges of translating policy intentions to concrete results for the common man and woman. I worked as part of a capacity-building team to improve the performance and effectiveness of local RRI coaches to support RRI teams. More specifically, I helped the Kailahun RRI coach improve his project planning skills, facilitation, and general management skills needed to create mechanisms for strengthening individual and group accountability within RRI teams. Furthermore, I helped the council contribute to national policies and reflect on their capacity to actualize development goals.
Through my work with both the council and RRI teams, I was able to contribute to and learn from the demands of post-conflict work to improve organizational capacity, transparency, inclusiveness, and accountability in local councils. The greatest moment of my experience was realizing the beauty that lies in the fact that cultures are dynamic and that they can be altered to suit all of our material and immaterial needs. And I am confident that it is only a matter of time before the decentralization process and change management in Sierra Leone becomes a reservoir from which we will all find hope."
My Background
After growing up in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, Dominic left in 1998 for further studies in Wales and the United States. He has worked as a Special Assistant to the Borough President of Manhattan and Campaign Advisor to New York City democratic Mayoral Candidate, C. Virginia Fields. Dominic currently serves as a volunteer Co-Director of Kalai Foundation, working to provide financial and material resources to promising low-income students and educational organizations in Africa. He is also one of the founding members of Tonga.Online-an award winning media, ICT, art and culture project focusing on the Tonga people living along the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Dominic has an International Baccalaureate Diploma (Zimbabwe Scholar) from the United World College of the Atlantic in Wales,
a B.A. in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic (Shelby M.C. Davis Scholar) in Maine and received an M.A. in Public and Non-Profit Management from Washington University in Saint Louis.
