By the end of next week I'll be in another country taking my sweet time enjoying myself before heading back to Canada, which means it's time to reflect back on my last 5 months in Mali.
I've wanted to work in international aid and development since I was in high school, partly because the indomitable idealist in me wants to help save babies, but also because the pragmatist in me wants to get paid to travel to exotic, far-off places that are otherwise very expensive to fly to.
Obviously when this opportunity presented itself, I accepted it with no hesitation and an unbridled glee. I was aware that my mandate would likely "evolve", and that I may not end up working in the same area or place where I applied to.
For the most part, I think my mandate evolved in my favour, despite some unfortunate hiccups.
While I occasionally maligned the office drudgery, I learned important skills (I can make a mean logframe now for example!) in my chosen professional field. More importantly, I also learned that boring office work is boring office work even if it's in your field of choice and in an interesting, foreign land.
What's a logframe? It's an exercise of condensing the last 10 pages of your funding proposal into a neat, little table that makes donors feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Take the popular development initiative of microcredit for example. I initially applied to be a microcredit officer for the cooperative of women shea butter producers in the commune of Zantiébougou, Mali called COPROKAZAN, but was told that the position was given to a Malian-Canadian who could speak Bambara. Made sense to me. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't going to be in "the field", since it seemed more glamorous and exciting. But I reminded myself that working in an office in a developing country is already working in the field.
Back to microcredit, this is how I've observed it work in Mali. Women in the rural communities apply for small loans to start small-scale income generating activities i.e.: raising livestock (usually just one goat or cow to start); stocking and selling peanuts on the side of the road for the equivalent of 5 cents; or producing "African gold", AKA, shea butter. After 6 months to a year, they repay the loan with 10% interest that goes back in the loan "bank" so to speak, so after the initial set-up, the loan system is self-sustaining. Ideally, the women who went through the first loan cycle would be able to borrow and pay back more so they would move into more gainful income-generating activities, or even better, join together to form a cooperative to ensure that they are paid a fair price for what they're producing (re: COPROKAZAN), or collaborate on a bigger community development project (i.e.: community garden plots).
Microcredit loans are by no means the panacea to endemic poverty that Nicholas Kristof would have you believe they are, but they are most definitely a start. By making small amounts of money, the women are able to better feed themselves and their babies. Moreover, by participating in the leadership and administration of the loans through village councils, women are given a voice in the development of their communities which they might not otherwise have.
Although 90% of my work to support the initiatives mentioned in the above was on developing similar project proposals, grantwriting and contacting prospective donors in the office in Bamako, my boss delivered on his promise to get me out doing a little of what I call "field-field" work.
During my first ill-fated excursion enbrusque brousse which I blogged about here, I attended a COPROKAZAN (a project that the local NGO I work for supports) general assembly meeting where women traveled incredible distances, some on foot, to listen to the President's address and to be introduced to a new microcredit "bank" partner. In short, I just watched and listened and then got stranded on the side of the road for 4 hours, but not before taking pics of how shea butter is produced for your kind perusal:
My next field-field excursion was to Bougouni (thank goodness I didn't have to sleep in the store room in Zantiébougou, I'm told it's a special kind of hell), where I joined a working group tasked with administering a diagnostic to COPROKAZAN and other microcredit projects in Zantiébougou to help determine if the village would benefit from a permanent bank. For this we put African time aside and worked tirelessly from 8:00am to 8:30pm on developing the questionnaire. The next day we finalized it and traveled to Zantiébougou to administer it the day after. Finally, we developed a timeline to administer the rest of the questionnaires and write the follow-up report. Aside from getting lost on a run and a raging headache, this was my least eventful and most productive trip to the country.
My next and final field-field trip was immediately after returning from my mid-mandate break in Dogon Country, which means my weary bones weren't necessarily up to the task. The trip there was mostly pleasant and uneventful, I even found a good breakfast en route. This time, my local colleague and I headed to two villages, Soké and Kemeni to perform follow-up on the loans and evaluate their success in the communities.
This was particularly interesting for me to see because the differences between the 2 villages were remarkable. Soké had just had its first microcredit project established six months prior, so most of the projects were small scale and the women said they didn't think that working together would be possible just yet. Rather, they wanted to continue their small scale activities but slowly but surely give out more loans and hire assistants. They also wanted us present to help them with the accounting aspect of collecting the loans and interest and then redistributing them. Both meetings started late and it took a very long time to perform the fund follow-up, but the ladies said they were happy we were there, however my colleague and I assured them that they could do it without us watching next time.
Kemeni on the other had, had benefitted from a microcredit project for 2 years and it was obvious in their organization and professionalism. The ladies wished to collaborate on developing a community garden, but knew that it would require more money than the present fund could allow because it would need a fence and a well. They resolved that it may take several years for it to be possible, but that it could be done, inshallah.
In both instances, the ladies proved that locals really do know what's best for their communities and that the best way to help them is to listen and get the money, which is where I fit in.
I've wanted to work in international aid and development since I was in high school, partly because the indomitable idealist in me wants to help save babies, but also because the pragmatist in me wants to get paid to travel to exotic, far-off places that are otherwise very expensive to fly to.
Obviously when this opportunity presented itself, I accepted it with no hesitation and an unbridled glee. I was aware that my mandate would likely "evolve", and that I may not end up working in the same area or place where I applied to.
For the most part, I think my mandate evolved in my favour, despite some unfortunate hiccups.
While I occasionally maligned the office drudgery, I learned important skills (I can make a mean logframe now for example!) in my chosen professional field. More importantly, I also learned that boring office work is boring office work even if it's in your field of choice and in an interesting, foreign land.
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| From this handy-dandy site: http://www.mande.co.uk/logframe.htm |
What's a logframe? It's an exercise of condensing the last 10 pages of your funding proposal into a neat, little table that makes donors feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Why do I need to give donors the warm fuzzies? Because the hope is that they'll open their wallets and help this SLoNGO out by providing funding for its local development projects. In short, I worked on the funding, project development and communications side of international development. So not anywhere near as exciting as saving babies, but we can't all be Angelina Jolie.
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| How Angie touring an IDP camp saves babies, I'll never know. |
Nevertheless, the projects that I helped develop and find funding for during my mandate could arguably contribute to the saving of babies because if we strip away all the jargon, arbitrary divisions, politics and anti-politics, and occasional elitism that characterises this line of work, most aid and development work aims to address the conditions that put babies' lives in danger in developing countries and conflict zones. And no very little of this can be achieved while drinking 3 cups of tea with locals, it takes skilled people working in offices in both the developed and developing world to get these potentially life-saving initiatives under way.
Take the popular development initiative of microcredit for example. I initially applied to be a microcredit officer for the cooperative of women shea butter producers in the commune of Zantiébougou, Mali called COPROKAZAN, but was told that the position was given to a Malian-Canadian who could speak Bambara. Made sense to me. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't going to be in "the field", since it seemed more glamorous and exciting. But I reminded myself that working in an office in a developing country is already working in the field.
Back to microcredit, this is how I've observed it work in Mali. Women in the rural communities apply for small loans to start small-scale income generating activities i.e.: raising livestock (usually just one goat or cow to start); stocking and selling peanuts on the side of the road for the equivalent of 5 cents; or producing "African gold", AKA, shea butter. After 6 months to a year, they repay the loan with 10% interest that goes back in the loan "bank" so to speak, so after the initial set-up, the loan system is self-sustaining. Ideally, the women who went through the first loan cycle would be able to borrow and pay back more so they would move into more gainful income-generating activities, or even better, join together to form a cooperative to ensure that they are paid a fair price for what they're producing (re: COPROKAZAN), or collaborate on a bigger community development project (i.e.: community garden plots).
Microcredit loans are by no means the panacea to endemic poverty that Nicholas Kristof would have you believe they are, but they are most definitely a start. By making small amounts of money, the women are able to better feed themselves and their babies. Moreover, by participating in the leadership and administration of the loans through village councils, women are given a voice in the development of their communities which they might not otherwise have.
Although 90% of my work to support the initiatives mentioned in the above was on developing similar project proposals, grantwriting and contacting prospective donors in the office in Bamako, my boss delivered on his promise to get me out doing a little of what I call "field-field" work.
During my first ill-fated excursion en
Vive le karité! L'assemblée genérale de COPROKAZAN
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| The gang's all here. |
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| My boss promoting synergy like a boss. |
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| Another intern that came the same time as me was tasked with developing new products for the COPROKAZAN ladies to produce. This was her workshop. |
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| In order to get to the above, shea almonds are collected and dry in the sun. |
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| The dried nuts are then grounded here. |
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| After the nuts are ground, they are boiled, then the ladies whip them into butter with their hands for hours. Hard work, but at least it smells like chocolate. |
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| The finished products are sold in this depot, or shops in Bamako, Burkina-Faso and Senegal. We hope to sell them in Canada one day. |
My next field-field excursion was to Bougouni (thank goodness I didn't have to sleep in the store room in Zantiébougou, I'm told it's a special kind of hell), where I joined a working group tasked with administering a diagnostic to COPROKAZAN and other microcredit projects in Zantiébougou to help determine if the village would benefit from a permanent bank. For this we put African time aside and worked tirelessly from 8:00am to 8:30pm on developing the questionnaire. The next day we finalized it and traveled to Zantiébougou to administer it the day after. Finally, we developed a timeline to administer the rest of the questionnaires and write the follow-up report. Aside from getting lost on a run and a raging headache, this was my least eventful and most productive trip to the country.
Diagnostic Work Group
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| Preppin' before administerin' in a typical Malian "meeting room". |
My next and final field-field trip was immediately after returning from my mid-mandate break in Dogon Country, which means my weary bones weren't necessarily up to the task. The trip there was mostly pleasant and uneventful, I even found a good breakfast en route. This time, my local colleague and I headed to two villages, Soké and Kemeni to perform follow-up on the loans and evaluate their success in the communities.
This was particularly interesting for me to see because the differences between the 2 villages were remarkable. Soké had just had its first microcredit project established six months prior, so most of the projects were small scale and the women said they didn't think that working together would be possible just yet. Rather, they wanted to continue their small scale activities but slowly but surely give out more loans and hire assistants. They also wanted us present to help them with the accounting aspect of collecting the loans and interest and then redistributing them. Both meetings started late and it took a very long time to perform the fund follow-up, but the ladies said they were happy we were there, however my colleague and I assured them that they could do it without us watching next time.
Kemeni on the other had, had benefitted from a microcredit project for 2 years and it was obvious in their organization and professionalism. The ladies wished to collaborate on developing a community garden, but knew that it would require more money than the present fund could allow because it would need a fence and a well. They resolved that it may take several years for it to be possible, but that it could be done, inshallah.
In both instances, the ladies proved that locals really do know what's best for their communities and that the best way to help them is to listen and get the money, which is where I fit in.
Microcredit Lady Superstars
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| My colleague interviews the village women's council under a baobab in Soké. |
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| Here, the ladies are collecting and redistributing the funds. |
I unfortunately didn't take pictures of the meeting in Kemeni because I developed a nasty case of pink eye and a chest infection the night before. My bus also stopped inexplicably for 3.5 hours in Ségou while on my way back to Bamako, making this my most ill-fated field-field trip of all.
In the end, this has been an unforgettable and invaluable professional and personal journey. Although most of my work was done on a computer behind a desk, I've observed and learned skills in areas of interest for me, met some amazing people along the way and experienced living and working in a truly different, but amazing world.
Shameless local NGO-promotion time:
If you're moved to act by any of this, please consider making a donation to the Canadian NGO that provides funding for projects like the above to my local NGO.
If you're moved to act by any of this, please consider making a donation to the Canadian NGO that provides funding for projects like the above to my local NGO.
You can do so here and thanks for reading!
