Why am I here?

I suppose I ought to say a bit about why I'm here. Conservation International is holding a five-day conference in Madagascar this coming week on the integration of nature conservation and development. As CTO of CGNET Services, I've been working in information technology for develoment for almost 20 years, and CGNET has worked for CI for many years, so CI graciously invited me to join a panel at the conference on the role of IT in integerated African development.

On a personal level, this conference is giving me an opportunity to get back on the road for the first time in over 10 years. I spent most of the 1980s living and working in developing countries. I joined CGNET in 1987 to help put IT to work in agricultural research and other sectors of international development. I continued to travel periodically in the early 1990s, by which time CGNET had grown (and I had aged...) so that other, younger people did the road work. For the last several years, the bulk of CGNET's overseas work has been done by our staff and contractors who are based in their home countries in Africa and Asia.

So it's quite unusual for there me to travel nowadays -- there are few cases where our local staff would not be more appropriate. This conference is meant to have a long tem view with a broad cross-country agenda, so it fits for me. And, it's a real treat for me to be able to return to what had been my way of life, 10 to 20 years ago.

And luckily for me, my dear wife is picking up my slack while I'm away. Thanks Jules!