Is This Development?

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The rainy season seems to have begun in earnest. The rain still falls mostly at night, but it’s power and fury are like nothing I have seen before. Here, one is never surprised by the onset of a storm. Piercing cracks of thunder and seemingly interminable lightning strikes (a fireworks displays that many would be proud to emulate) slowly, inexorably wage successful battle against the fierce unforgiving sun. The sky becomes dark gray, a few shades this side of ebony, and the winds start to howl and swirl ferociously, and finally, almost anti-climactically, the torrential downpour begins.
No, I don’t spend all of my time mesmerized by the feats of Mother Nature, or for that matter running from her vengeful wrath. I do have several important things to accomplish here. But, let me start from the beginning, so the story will made a bit more sense. I am here doing an internship with a non-governmental organization (NGO) called the Ouelessebougou-Utah Alliance. It is (obviously) a joint venture between the good people of Utah and my current town of residence, Ouelessebougou, Mali. At first glance, the two places would not seem to have much in common. Utah, the host of the 2002 Winter Olympics, has the largest salt-water lake in the world, the Rocky Mountains, and quite a lot of money. The people of Ouelessebougou, on the other hand, survive on subsistence agriculture (millet, sorghum and peanuts) and their affable, friendly nature. However there are two factors which seem to tie the disparate locales together. First, they look remarkably similarly. When one escapes the grandeur of the Rockies, heading south toward New Mexico, the earth turns to red clay, little can be grown and the temperature increases exponentially (or so I’ve heard). As I described in my first newsletter, the town of Ouelessebougou exists in pretty much the same geographic conditions. The second connection between the two is more interesting: in both places men often have more than one wife. Islam, practiced by most in these parts, sanctions up to four, but one is supposed to be wealthy enough to support them all. Here, few are rich enough to even take a second, but unfortunately some seem to do so simply for prestige and their lack of resources causes their wives and children to suffer unnecessarily. In Utah, of course, Mormonism, the faith of the majority of Utahns (yes, that’s what they call themselves), permits and in fact, encourages multiple wives and numerous children even though it is illegal under American law.
Twenty or so years ago, Utah and Ouelessebougou came together in the name of cross-cultural communication and economic development, and they have been together ever since. The first part has been a remarkable success in Utah: Mali and Ouelessebougou are now an official part of the second grade curriculum in evey school in the state. In Ouelessebougou, the focus is, necessarily, on the latter of the two objectives: economic development. The Alliance has built schools, wells, and clinics; trained teachers and health care workers; set up a (now defunct) credit union, and stocked local village pharmacies with medicine at wholesale profits, allowing the villagers to sell the medicines in turn at a profit. Nowadays, however, little is done besides constructing a couple of new schools and providing occasional vaccinations for the villagers. Few of Utah’s ambitious plans for economic development here have been realized.
The reasons for this are multifold, and as I have been here a complex tapestry of lies, deceit and subterfuge has been gradually unveiled. The present condition is considerably less sordid than the past, but gaping wounds remain and Utah, having been disappointed by the quality of their Malian staff so often, has dramatically scaled back its plans. Outside of the government, in the developing world, one finds little bureaucracy and red tape. Bribes and gifts are common, family members and friends receive preferential treatment, and there is often little, if any accountability. In such a climate, previous staff members commandeered the NGO’s vehicle for their private use and conspired with suppliers of school construction materials to have Utah pay twice the cost and split the difference. The credit union and the pharmacy with thousands of dollars supplied but little money to show for it, proved to be the most temping targets of all. And the thievery was not always this subtle. The former director here simply stole thousands before he fled. He then had the nerve to sue the Alliance, perhaps for emotional distress leaving him no choice but to steal money. This being Mali, he won the case. He was awarded 30,000 dollars restitution as compensation for his emotional trauma. Why did he win? A bigger bribe than then the Alliance was willing to pay seems to be a reasonable explanation.
I knew none of this history when I arrived here, although much of it fits in quite neatly with my expectations for an NGO flush with American money and with their American benefactors on the other side of the world. The Utahns do visit on occasion, fully prepared with their rose-colored glasses, to patiently absorb every lie fed to them and announce sincerely that theirs is a partnership made in heaven. They have made some changes, fortunately, and now require detailed reports of finances and activities. The director, however, still receives a salary well into the five figures while once in a while showing up in his Mercedes, and many of the other staff, lacking specializations in the areas they have been assigned to, do little for a lot as well.
There is a happy ending to this story, or at least a less depressing one. The staff member I am working with, Alou, does work pretty hard. He comes here religiously at 8 o’clock in the morning, and except for a rather lengthy lunch break, puts in a good number of hours each day. His is the micro-enterprise section, and for the two months that I am here, we are working as a team to train villagers to start their own small businesses. I have translated a manual on micro-enterprise into French, gotten it redesigned for the Malian context and translated into Bambara, the local language of the people here, and helped Alou plan for a training session for the villagers on business fundamentals. Utah has generously offered to fund any well-conceived proposal for a small business - possibilities include a cereal bank to store grain, raising chickens, sheep or goats, or buying a threshing machine to ameliorate the harvest of millet. Currently Utah pays much of the teachers’ salaries in the villages where it has created schools, but we aim for the villagers to become self-sufficient and able to pay the salaries themselves. It is actually a rather lofty goal - many potential projects will not bring in much cash - but the more important point is to get the villagers to think creatively, out of the box as it were, and contribute to their own economic development and increase in standard of living. I will not be here long enough to see the fruits of my labor, but I will definitely stay in touch. I hope that one day, the site of NGOs in Ouelessebougou will not be as ubiquitous as it is now, and the Malians will have achieved gains through their own dedication and hard work. For now, I am learning that development is difficult, pain-staking, and must often contend with those in positions of authority who relate better to the almighty US dollar than to the conditions of villagers struggling to survive. It is an important, if frustrating lesson.

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