Chevening Leadership and Influence Essay Example: Public works project coordinator for rural service infrastructure

As a public works coordinator in Tanzania, I saw rural clinics and schools receive new buildings that then deteriorated within a year. The weak point was the handover stage, where maintenance roles and community feedback were never named on paper. I drafted a handover checklist that brought contractors, facility managers, district officials, and community representatives into one acceptance step before sign-off. The test came during a rural health clinic handover in Morogoro. The contractor wanted acceptance signed the same day so retention could be released, and the district official treated the checklist as paperwork. I asked for a two-hour joint walk-through and used the checklist to record three unresolved defects, a named maintenance focal point, and a monthly log owner. The contractor agreed to close the defects before sign-off. The district engineer assigned a clinic officer for monthly checks, and the facility manager started a logbook. Community representatives began reporting small leaks and broken fittings to that focal point directly. Six months later, comparing the same clinic's repair-call records, urgent callouts dropped from eleven to four, and no handover defect remained open after thirty days. The district health engineer asked me to use the checklist on three further facilities and added it to the next quarterly works meeting agenda. For patients, that meant fewer days when the delivery room or cold chain was out of service. I want to study infrastructure asset management and maintenance planning, likely at UCL or Leeds, focusing on whole-life costing and handover audit methods. On return, I will bring a revised checklist and the Morogoro logbook evidence to our district works meeting, ask my supervisor to pilot it across one project cycle, and track defects closed before acceptance and urgent callouts per facility.