The Pace of Things

"...information about Africa reaches us, most of the time, through a series of filters which, by reducing the vast continent to a cluster of emotive slogans, succeed in denying us any sense of complexity, context, truth"

-Salman Rushdie

I am not an expert in community development. It has taken me 21 months in Burkina Faso to fully accept that in my position, I will never see the full picture and thus be unable to provide a cogent analysis of the state of development in this country. What I can do is collect my many observations and throw them out there to be received, contemplated, and discussed. What I have come to realize is that anything short of a healthy synthesis of ideas will result in a stagnation of forward-thinking. That’s why I write this blog: It is my “ideas” contribution. I must pre-empt my critics though and say that any analysis on my part beyond the scope of my village would prove presumptuous at best. I must be honest for a moment. My motivation as a volunteer is generally contingent upon community members’ willingness to try new approaches, to think outside of the box. 9.8 times out of 10, they have shown me to be unwilling, or at least unable. It is important, however, to admit that what I may see as a path to a better life may not be the same view by those I have been challenged to assist. What I can provide is a critical pair of eyes that have seen development in action and have seen some areas in need of improvement. So, based on observations I have made in three different areas in village, I want to paint a picture of how I see the state of development in my village. It isn’t pretty, but it is far from hopeless all the same.

Construction of New High School

By and large, the funding and establishment of schools in Burkina Faso is provided by foreign donors, including many Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and foreign embassies. In the case of Pobé-Mengao, a German-Based NGO provided the funding necessary to build the Junior High School (CEG). The school has been in existence for over six years now and is grossly over-capacity. During the summer of 2007, this same NGO returned to Pobé and granted funding for an expansion of the school, thereby making it a Senior High School. In Burkina, there exists a well-established and largely cost-effective approach to constructing schools. The process, so far as I have gathered, is as follows: The donor provides the financial means to build. This includes money to purchase materials such as cement, roof panels, wood, doors, locks, and so forth. They also contribute the cost necessary to hire a contractor to come to village and oversee the actual construction. The village is expected to contribute natural materials (sand, gravel, and stone) and free labour to work under the contractor. During construction, five different villagers per day will work at the site. I find the system, in theory, to be uncharacteristically efficient and a model of community cooperation. But theory does not always show itself in practice. Let us take a look at what has heretofore come to pass.

October 2007: The Ouagadougou-based contractor calls the village and instructs the powers that be to begin collecting sand, gravel, and stones (approximately four tons of each) so that all the materials will be on hand once construction begins.

November 2007: Village notifies contractor that the materials (the precise amount, down to the nearest donkey cart-full) have been delivered to the construction site. The contractor immediately determines that this is no longer a sufficient amount and thereby instructs the village to retrieve more “as soon as possible.” In response the village decides to expedite the process by renting a dump truck at $280 dollars/day for three days. Though the village does spend $840 of its own money, it does meet the new mark requested by the one man that can actually carry out the construction.

February 2008: Several 10-foot mounds of gravel, sand, and yes, stone rest adjacent to the CEG, untouched, as the contractor, for yet-to-be explained reasons has failed to show up. Few people seem to know why he has not arrived, but what is almost more disquieting is the fact that hardly anyone in the village sees this as peculiar, let alone explicitly unacceptable. If he fails to arrive within the next month, there is little chance that the High School will be completed before the start of the coming school year, as all available hands will become unavailable after June. People will be working in their fields.

The Incredible, Un-Certifiable Women’s Association

Many of you may recall that over the past year I have assisted in the formation of a Women’s group in Pobé. For me, it has been an incredible learning experience as a result of both its successes and failures. All associations, community groups and the like in Burkina, should they choose to be recognized by the government (and subsequently, international donors), must apply for certification. The process is loosely as follows: Members of the group meet to discuss the vision of the association. They then draft a mission statement, list of statutes, regulations, members list, and a list of elected officers. Once typed (I must remind you all that such is not a simple task in an African village), these documents are first sent to the Departmental Capital (in our case, Pobé-Mengao) for approval. Upon approval, the documents are sent to the Provincial Capital (Djibo). At this point, the documents are reviewed by an official in the Gendarmerie (part law enforcement, part highway patrol, part entity that oversees the many associations and groups that function throughout the country, part other things). It is this Gendarme who verifies the authenticity of associations, generally by interviewing members and observing their meetings. Once the official is satisfied, the documents are sent to the high commissioner for final approval and certification. The End.

Our association, Namanegb Zanga, after 13 months has yet to receive certification. In what I see to be a convoluted process to begin with, our association has fallen victim to a highly inefficient and largely backwards process. Over the course of four months, each member of our association (23 members) has been individually interviewed at least once (I myself was questioned), in an attempt to ensure our intentions are genuine (i.e. not for financial gain). To a slim extent, there is merit in the thoroughness of the process. Associations are an all too common trend in Burkina. It seems that everybody is either a part of one, applying for one; or is joining a new one. It then makes some sense that the government adds some rigor to the process. Weeding out is necessary.

After meeting with the official myself in January, he assured me that we were on our way to being certified. I only needed to tell our secretary to come to Djibo, again, within 24 hours for an additional interview, lest our application will be put on hold until April. You see, this particular official was leaving the following day to attend a three-month training. Needless to say, our secretary was unable to come on such unacceptably short notice and thus, as it stands, our application is pending. Given the association’s reluctance to carry out and/or sponsor any activities without certification, it does not look promising that I will be around to see the association in action.

Yes, We Do Have Not No School Fees

Technically, primary-level education is free in Burkina Faso. There are, however, annual dues which are collected by each school’s Parent’s Association (APE). The annual fee comes to approximately $3 per student per school year. $1 per student goes to the APE, which is responsible for the maintenance of the school and teacher housing, among other things. $2 per student goes to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) which provides breakfast and lunch for all students in Pobé-Mengao (even in Burkina Faso, $2 for a year’s worth of breakfast and lunch is quite a deal). For various reasons, a significant number of parents fail to pay the school fees. Many grasp, obstinately, to the misunderstanding that primary education is gratuitous, as per the Government’s advertisements. Some hold to the suspicion that the APE and the teachers are pocketing the money. Others simply claim that the amount is too much. They cannot afford to pay. While $3 is pocket change in the United States, it must be said that for an average Burkinabé household with five children enrolled in primary school, $3 times five children can become a significant amount. But it is not an unrealistic amount. What lacks is both a vested interest on the part of parents in their children’s education and an effective accountable system of enforcement on the part of teachers and the APE. Between parents and the school there exists a crippling lack of communication and trust. What threatens to frustrate me more than the lack of concern on the part of parents is the defeatist’s approach the teachers and the APE takes to the problem. When I ask “What can we do to get the parents to pay?” the general response is, “It’s not easy” or “Parents, they just don’t understand.” Sometimes the absurdity is so immense, I know not whether to laugh or explode in a fit of anger.

Okay Joel, so do something about it

I recognize that I am being critical without providing any real solutions. I suppose then that this can be considered nothing more than a structured vent. So be it. The irony of Peace Corps is that one joins with the expectation of making a difference. One expects the satisfaction of being an agent of positive change. However, the real change that occurs, the meaningful impact is seldom witnessed by the volunteer. My Women’s Association may very well dissolve after my departure (potential failure), but for all I know, I may have convinced a generation of youth in my village that using soap when washing their hands is a good idea (potential success). The reality is, there is no way of knowing for sure.

I know that the high school will be constructed, in time. If the members of my Women’s group really want the association to take off, it will happen, eventually. And I realize that these parents who refuse to pay for their children’s education come from a generation when school was a luxury not bestowed to them. It is my hope that the coming generations will approach education with greater reverence. I think they will.

It is simply a question of time.