I think that this will be my last post from Botswana, I've got a full day of meetings booked tomorrow and then on Thursday I'm coming home. I don't think it wil be the last entry in the blog though - I'll probably post a wrap-up from the UK to summarise how I felt everything went.
The fundamental reason for having any database is to improve your access to information, and the reason why good access to information is vitally important in the department I'm working in was brought home to me the other day. A colleague in the Department of Child Welfare was tipped off that a supposed Place of Safety for abused children was anything but. When she investigated she found that the people who were running it were advertising it as a tourist attraction on the internet. They had a lodge where tourists could stay in the same estate and were running trips to the refuge from there. Further investigation showed that they were also running an illegal day-care centre on the same site. Once the database is in place, and information is disseminated more widely, it will be much harder for other organisations to get away with similar unlicensed activities simply because many more people will know exactly what the NGOs are licensed to do and who to go to if they are exceeding their brief.
Ironically, in the same morning that I was told this story another colleague was proof-reading a code of practice that had been commissioned from some consultants. One of the (many) typos that she read out was that 'young children should be curdled and fondled' to aid their development. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.