At the close of Peace Corps service, you are required to write and submit a description of your accomplishments. After it is approved by your Program Manager and the Country Director, it goes on file in Washington as the only official record of your time abroad. While it was strange to write about myself in the third person and tricky to tie it all together, it proved to be a great objective reflection upon the professional aspects of my service. Seeing it all written down in one place makes me feel proud of all the work myself and my community did together!
In case you thought I was just playing on the beach for three years, here is my official DOS to prove otherwise :)
DESCRIPTION
OF PEACE CORPS SERVICE
BROOKE M. McDAVID
FIJI ISLANDS 2011-2014
After
a competitive application process stressing technical skills, motivation,
adaptability, and cross-cultural understanding, Peace Corps invited Mrs. Brooke
M. McDavid to serve as a volunteer in the Integrated Environmental Resource
Management Program in the Fiji Islands.
PRE-SERVICE
TRAINING
Mrs. McDavid
completed 10-weeks of intensive pre-service training upon arriving in Fiji on
May 17, 2011. The training focused on language and cultural integration,
as well as technical skills related to environmental management in the Fijian
context. During this time, Brooke lived with a host family in Naimasimasi Village
in Tailevu Province where she attended daily language classes and was
introduced to the lifestyle in an indigenous Fijian village.
She
also took part in weekly technical training held in Nausori Town and various
off-site locations where she and her fellow volunteers studied tropical marine
and terrestrial environments, protected areas management, habitat restoration,
and environmental education techniques. Prior to completion of this training
program, Brooke was required to demonstrate her ability to raise awareness
about environmental management issues and to design and implement projects in a
cross-cultural setting. Her technique was observed and critiqued by both Fijian
and American instructors.
This
10-week program consisted of:
·
85 hours of formal Fijian (iTaukei) language instruction
·
19 hours of cross-cultural studies (the history, economics, and
cultural norms of Fiji)
·
66 hours of technical training in environmental management
·
27 hours of medical, safety, and security training
VOLUNTEER SERVICE
On July
4, 2011, Mrs. McDavid was sworn in as a US Peace Corps Volunteer. She was
assigned to serve in Vuya, a rural indigenous village in Bua Province on southeastern
point of Vanua Levu Island, approximately 140km Southwest of Labasa Town. Here
she learned and was expected to communicate primarily in the local Buan
dialect. Brooke’s site placement was one
of her volunteer group’s most rural assignments. She was placed there because
of her proven cross-cultural understanding, self-motivation, and proven ability
to thrive in a rural, isolated environment.
Sustainable Community Development
Brooke began her service in Vuya
by facilitating participatory planning for community development. Working with
the Village Council, together they completed a needs assessment which identified
the community’s available resources and opportunities, as well as the issues
and vulnerabilities they faced. Using the information gathered, Mrs. McDavid
then helped form a Village Development Committee whom she led through the
process of writing a five-year community development plan. This plan identified
a long-term vision for the community, set goals, and included an action plan
for achieving them. Key focal areas of the plan were good governance (both
traditional and administrative), improved livelihoods, environmental
management, health, sanitation, and education.
Helping Vuya Village implement their
new development plan provided a framework for Brooke’s service. Her continued
focus on building the capacity of community members to plan and manage projects
resulted in several notable achievements in the village:
·
Regularly
scheduled Village Council meetings and a monthly community work week
·
Formation of
Development and Finance Committees
·
Opening of a
village bank account resulting in more transparent financial management
·
Creation of an
annual village budget and fundraising scheme
·
Vegetable
gardening as a women’s income generating activity
·
Upgrading of the
drinking water system and improved protection of the water source
·
Extension of the
electricity grid to reach Vuya and the seven surrounding settlements
Mrs. McDavid’s work on
sustainable development planning in Vuya Village attracted the attention of the
Ministry to iTaukei (Indigenous) Affairs, who asked her to partner with them in
creating a standardized template for village development planning to be used in
all Fijian villages. Brooke led a team of Ministry personnel to develop a
program by which local government officers and community leaders would be
trained in participatory planning for community development. Although the
program was not yet officially launched at the close of her service, it was endorsed
as an official budgeted program by the Ministry who is continuing the work
needed to see it implemented.
“Ridge to Reef” Community-Based Natural Resource Management
As Vuya Village is quite isolated
from any urban center, residents are highly dependent on what they harvest from
the land and sea for subsistence as well as income. In Vuya, six extended-family clans communally
own and use approximately 1500 acres of land, ranging from upland cloudforest
to coastal coconut plantations. Mrs. McDavid partnered with a team from the
Wildlife Conservation Society, a well-known international NGO working in the
area, to introduce principles of “ridge to reef” natural resource management to
community members. This awareness increased the community’s understanding of
ecosystem connectivity, namely that what happens in the upland farms and the village
affects the sea downstream, and provided an introduction to good land
management.
Using the knowledge obtained from
a series of district-wide resource management workshops, Brooke and fellow Vuya
village participants formed their own village Yaubula (Environment) Committee,
who then raised additional awareness within the village on best practices for
farming, fishing, and conservation. They worked with the Village Council and
traditional leaders to ratify environmental bylaws and write a “Ridge to Reef” Natural
Resource Management Plan for their community as a supplement to their
development plan. They then coordinated with the District Chief and neighboring
community members, who share their fishing ground, to establish three
locally-managed marine protected areas. In February 2014, the village launched
their protected areas and ridge to reef management plan with a traditional ceremony
and feast. This event was attended and supported by many government officials
and members of nearby communities.
Brooke has helped Vuya begin to
become a model community for community-based natural resource management. The
resource management plan she assisted them in writing focuses on income
generating activities that are compatible with sustainable use and
conservation, and simple actions the community can take to improve
environmental health, like replanting native trees and enforcing buffer zones
around streams.
Together the Vuya Environment
Committee and Mrs. McDavid accomplished the following:
·
Relocation of
pig-pens away from rivers and coastline
·
Establishment of
a mangrove nursery and mangrove forest restoration scheme
·
Establishment of
three locally-managed marine protected areas
·
Improved waste
management and monthly village cleanup days
·
Riverbank restoration
·
Establishment of
pearl oyster collection lines in partnership with the Ministry of Fisheries
·
Sustainable
harvest of sea cucumbers for income generation
·
Planned native
tree and sandalwood nurseries
While Brooke’s service began by
focusing just within her community, she quickly realized the importance of
building relationships with other communities and organizations working on
similar natural resource management issues. To ensure the long-term
sustainability of projects and to promote the sharing of experiences and
resources, she encouraged the Vuya Environment Committee to become involved in
activities outside the community. The
Vuya Environment Committee went on to became a major player in district-wide
resource management planning, with the Chairman going on to become the District
representative for the Provincial-wide natural resource management committee,
known as the Bua Yaubula Management and Support Team (BYMST).
Graduate Research: Networks for Effective Natural Resource Management
In addition
to the primary responsibilities of a Peace Corps Volunteer, Mrs. McDavid was a
participant in the Master’s International Program, enrolled as a graduate
student at University of Alaska. Upon arrival in Fiji, she began seeking out a
research opportunity, determined that it be relevant and applicable to local
resource management issues and people. After a year and a half in Fiji, she again
partnered with Wildlife Conservation Society to develop a research project
using applied social network analysis (SNA) as a tool to improve integrated
coastal management (ICM) throughout the whole of Bua Province, where she lived.
Diverse stakeholders from government, NGOs, businesses, and fifty-four
rural villages must collaborate in order for ICM to be to be successful in Bua.
Brooke’s research is helping these stakeholders to consider their networks and
strategically build healthier networks for “ridge to reef” conservation. The project was thoughtfully designed to
be incorporated into the participatory planning process in which local
conservation practitioners (from government and NGOs) engage communities -- a
process that is respectful of both traditional culture and ecological
knowledge.
Sustainable Town Planning
Brooke
had the unique opportunity to serve as an environmental consultant to the
Department of Town and Country Planning during the writing of the Nabouwalu
Town Center Plan. As no official “town”
exists in Bua, the national government prioritized Nabouwalu, the provincial
seat, to be developed into the next town center in order to bring needed
infrastructure and economic growth to this rural area of the country. Brooke
assisted with surveying and proposed zoning for the plan, and provided advice on
sustainable design principles as a way to enhance and protect the rich natural
and cultural heritage of the area.
THIRD YEAR EXTENTION
At the request of her community and based on their work
plan, Brooke applied for and was granted a 3rd year
extension by the Peace Corps.
Language
Skills
Mrs. McDavid has achieved an Advanced High competency level
in Fijian during her service and effectively used Fijian to communicate in her work
in her village, at the provincial office, with her colleagues, Fijian counterparts
and in her daily life.
CLOSE OF
SERVICE
Pursuant to
section 5(f) of the Peace Corps Act 22 U.S.C 2504 (f) as amended, any former
volunteer employed by the United States Government following her Peace Corps
Volunteer service is entitled to have any period of satisfactory Peace Corps
Volunteer service credited for purposes of retirement, seniority, reduction in
force, leave and other privileges based on length of federal government
service. Peace Corps service shall not be credited toward completion of the
probationary or trial period or completion of any service requirement for
career appointment.
This is to certify in accordance with Executive Order No. 11103 of 10
April 1963, that Brooke McDavid served satisfactorily as a Peace Corps
Volunteer. Her service in Fiji ended on July 3, 2014. She is therefore eligible
to be appointed as a career-conditional employee in the competitive civil
service on a non-competitive basis. This benefit under the Executive Order
entitlement extends for a period of one year after termination of the
Volunteer’s service, except that the employing agency may extend that period
for up to three years for a former Volunteer who enters military service,
pursues studies at a recognized institution of higher learning, or engages in
other activities that, in the view of the appointing authority, warrant
extension of the period.
