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More than a year after the devastating tsunami swept across South Asia, the focus has shifted from emergency response toward sustained social and economic recovery and reconstruction. Accenture Development Partnerships has been providing support to rebuild communities in some of the hardest hit areas in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India.
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The Accenture Development Partnerships program enables Accenture professionals to offer their business and consulting skills in developing nations while taking a voluntary salary cut of 50 percent for the duration of the assignment, usually from three to six months. Accenture provides the consultants at marginal cost, free of profit and overhead, with the client paying fees set at a fraction of the usual market rate.
The program has been rolled out to employees in 15 countries across the company and, to date, has completed 80 projects in 37 countries across four continents involving more than 150 Accenture people. As part of these activities, Accenture Development Partnerships has delivered post-tsunami projects that have made significant contributions to the affected regions.
“The great thing about Accenture Development Partnerships is that it gives participants the opportunity to do humanitarian work, but at the same time, it’s very much a ‘real’ consulting project. We have the same deliverables, client interaction, and senior executive oversight that we would have on any Accenture project,” said Dan Baker, a manager in Accenture’s Communications & High Tech practice.
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Helping at ground level
Accenture Development Partnerships presence is strongly felt in Indonesia, where four projects have completed and three more are in progress. In Banda Aceh, Accenture Development Partnerships also collaborated with the United Nations Development Program on two projects.
Australian Lisa Tepper, a manager in Supply Chain Management with Accenture, worked with American Nadine Stahlman, a manager in the Financial Services Operating Group, and the UK’s John Francis, a consultant with the Products Operating Group, and Craig Millis, a senior manager in Supply Chain Management, to establish a coffee industry forum in the region, which brought together key participants in the coffee supply chain to support the growth of the industry and assist farmer groups.
Lyndon Hedderly, a senior manager in the Products Operating Group, traveled from the United Kingdom to help the Achenese rebuild their construction industry. “There is phenomenal opportunity in the construction boom in Aceh,” Hedderly said. “The question is—can supply meet the demand for bricks, tiles and other building material? This is the time to act to enable the Acehnese to participate fully in this economy.”
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In Sri Lanka, three projects have concluded, while two are ongoing. US-based Ezra Murad, senior manager-Resources, and France-based Sylvie Hanocq, manager-Government, developed a learning capacity building plan for Oxfam. “Our primary goal was not to restore people’s living conditions, but rather to improve them and remove people out of poverty,” Murad said.
Murad and Hanocq devised a long-term development strategy for Sri Lankan farmers, who, prior to the tsunami, represented some of the poorest people in the country. The objective, according to Murad, is to help farmers improve quality of life by earning a better income in a variety of ways—such as enhanced farming techniques, better access to farming inputs and micro-credit, and improved access to markets to negotiate better prices.
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Turning desire to help into reality
Baker and Colleen Bramhall, consultant-Government, worked with Plan International, a non-governmental organization for child-centered community development, to implement an online system for birth registration records in Colombo. These initiatives include developing Plan International’s universal birth registration campaigns in Sri Lanka, as well as designing a project to convert existing paper birth certificates into digital images to be used in a computerized civil registration system.
Emma Murchison, a UK manager in Financial Services, and Katie Thomas, a consultant for Products in the United States, joined forces with Action Aid to assess human resources and communication responsiveness to the tsunami and in preparation for future emergencies.
“Being exposed to a new sector and to the global work experience opportunities, Accenture Development Partnerships has made development work a reality for me and other Accenture professionals,” Thomas said.
“A lot of progress has been made with the tsunami relief effort, but there is still a significant amount of rehabilitation work to be done to give people back their lives and livelihoods,” Murchison added. “Many of the relief agencies are lacking in project management skills, and highly value the contribution that Accenture people can make in this area.”
Accenture Development Partnerships also pursued work in Chennai, India. US-based Carrie Lonze, a consultant in Financial Services, assessed operational effectiveness of local non-governmental organizations with Plan International, and provided recommendations to ensure that donated funds would be spent appropriately.
“Accenture Development Partnerships opens doors to professionals to enter an international non-governmental organization and charity at a very senior and strategic position in the organization,” Murad said. “The program is an excellent opportunity for employees who are looking for an innovative way to make a difference.”
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July 2006
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