Health Service Journal
Samuel Johnson
Samuel has worked in NHS performance and information management. He is currently volunteering in Swaziland's health ministry.
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International development is a fishy business
10-Oct-2008
It's one of the great development mantras: give someone a fish, and they'll eat for a day; teach someone to fish, and they'll eat for the rest of their life. But it unfortunately completely misses the point. -
Women, get permission from your husbands!
3-Oct-2008
One thing that baffles me in Swaziland is gender relations. In the Ministry of Health, the Principal Secretary and Medical Director are both women, as are two-thirds of senior managers. -
Health volunteers gotta go with the flow
19-Sep-2008
Working for the Swazi government, one of the first things you learn is flexibility. Meetings are often arranged at very short notice, particularly when donors fly into town. -
Anti-government protests in Swaziland
5-Sep-2008
Today the monotony of our working day was broken by anti-government protests outside the office window. The odd pop of tear gas, and people fleeing through the trees that fill the open land between ministry buildings. -
Dispatches from Swaziland
1-Sep-2008
I'm grappling with the usual hurdles we all face when drawing up performance reports. Iffy data quality means that I can't say hand-on-heart that all of our findings are accurate.
