Staff profile: Daniel Arghiros
Daniel Arghiros is a UK-based governance adviser working in our office in Accra, Ghana.
What do you do and how did you come to work for DFID?
I
lead a team which is responsible for delivering our office’s objectives on
governance. This is my second overseas posting. My first was in Cambodia where I
was governance adviser and head of office.
I was formerly a university researcher and lecturer, specialising in South East Asian politics. I started life studying social anthropology, and did long-term field research in rural areas on Thailand’s democracy.
I have been interested in working in development since I was an undergraduate, but took ten years to move from research to being a practitioner. I started by doing short consultancies for DFID and then applied for a job when it was recruiting new advisers.
Describe your typical day
It is probably true to say that no day is the same. A fairly typical day starts with responding to emails. Internal and external meetings with a variety of people/organisations take up a huge amount of time.
Some external meetings will be with other donors to agree common positions and co-ordinate our support on issues like budget support or public sector reform. Others will be with the partner government on similar issues.
In my present job most of what I engage in requires dialogue in the capital and so I don’t get out of Accra as much as I would like to. However, in my former post where we supported a local governance programme, I made regular visits to rural areas.
What does it feel like to work for DFID?
As
a governance adviser you’re expected to work on a very broad range of areas, and
these will differ from country to country.
In Ghana, I spend much of my time working on supporting reforms in public sector management and financial management and on budget support
In another country I could be working on the security sector or on justice issues. And trends change – so you might be expected to develop your understanding of corruption in one year, and then to understand why states are ‘fragile’ in another.
You are also expected to support colleagues who focus on other areas like
health, the private sector or livelihoods. One of the really encouraging things
about DFID is that it has started to think seriously about the influence of
power and politics on governments’ ability or willingness to reduce poverty and
promote economic growth. This approach means that we’re forced to work in a
politically-aware way and this is a real improvement in the way donors work.
The effect of all this is that, within each posting and from posting to posting,
you are often being pushed to develop new areas of expertise and to work outside
your comfort zone. Governance advisers do get together once or sometimes twice a
year, regionally or as a group, and share experience and learn from best
practice. We also have an online resource centre where we can go to get expert
advice.
DFID takes internal communication very seriously. It’s very easy to keep in
touch with thinking in senior management. DFID also now exploits IT really well
to make communication across the organisation and the globe very effective.
Overseas you always work in a multi-cultural environment and DFID staff
recruited from the UK also come from diverse ethnic and professional
backgrounds.
What is the most important thing you've learned since working for DFID?
Working for DFID has allowed me to develop skills I didn’t know I had – particularly in terms of teamwork and facilitation. I have got a lot of satisfaction from this. I have also enjoyed getting exposure and having to work on a broad range of development issues and developing a decent level of competence in some of them.
Any advice for someone who wants to work in development?
For
advisers, it is very important to be technically strong in one or two areas, and
to get solid experience in a developing or transitional country before working for DFID. However, to be
effective within DFID, technical knowledge is not enough. You also need to have
strong management and communication skills
I would also not underestimate that it can be pretty tough working overseas for extended periods. There are benefits, and in most respects DFID takes very good care of its staff, but there are also hardships.
These range from exposing your family to malaria, to dodging coup attempts and civil unrest, to the mundane normality of living for extended periods where there are very few recreational facilities. But ultimately the job can be extremely rewarding: it is never boring and you can sometimes enjoy the satisfaction of making a real and positive impact in the country you work in.
