The Circus of Development

It is no secret that RECIF has been struggling for a while and that we are under an enormous amount of stress to find funding for project activities and to be able to pay salaries to our permanent staff members, not to mention rental of office, electricity bills (in a country with the highest electricity cost worldwide), etc. Unfortunately, big international donors tend to concentrate their donations on activities and not on salaries and other basic expenditures. Therefore, even if we get a project proposal accepted, it does not ‘safe’ our staff, as there will be money to execute activities, but again less for the ‘in house’ activities.

A couple of weeks ago I saw an opportunity with UNIFEM in Dakar. Actually, it was a colleague of mine who proposed us to seek funding for a project on circumcision. He represents UNIFEM in Burkina Faso and was very informative, as to what would be needed in relation to meet the project criteria. We worked hard on this proposal for 1 week and handed in before deadline. Now we wait in suspense. If it goes through we will have 300.000 US$ to spend on activities during a period of 3 years. This is a big project for a NGO. We negotiated 10% of that for les funtionnements de RECIF, which will help the difficult situation that we find ourselves in. Fingers crossed and it goes through!!

Apart from that we have a new Chargé de programme PVNU. He is working hard at following up on the work and situation of the more than 40 UNV working in Burkina Faso. I am quite happy that we finally got a new Programme Manager after the former one left by the end of 2007. He even found my termes de reference, which I never received to begin with. The whole situation of RECIF has changed to the extent that we need to redo these terms of reference to better fit the current status quo. I was supposed to develop advocacy and gender strategies for example, but our whole advocacy department is ancient history. To make a long story short, I look forward to finally getting some sort of role, task, responsibility that is less blurred (we will see if this is possible). I need that to survive another year in the development circus.

And boy is it a circus. You cannot help to ask yourself lots of questions (whenever you are not out getting drunk to forget:-)). For some reason the Lebanese community is much hated amongst ex-pats in Burkina. The Lebanese are here for business purposes and own various big enterprises. We all support these business in our spare time, be it nightclubbing at Appaloosa, Golden or the Mask, dazing by the pool at Hotel Silmande or Hotel Libya, shopping wine and cheese at Marina Market, etc. At the same time, we have brainwashed ourselves with the ‘fact’ that we are here to help the poor. Well actually more and more ex-pats seem to realize the multiple problems related to development, but many of these ex-pats receive too many personal advantages to cry out about it. My point is that at the moment I am doing nothing for the poor, because I am caught up in the bureaucracy/management of attempting to safe a NGO.

On the other hand, if I owned a private business I would could hire about 200 employees and pay them salaries to also sustain their families, etc. Yes of course the Lebanese do not necessarily provide good contracts for their staffs. There is the question of cheap labour to take into consideration, but these business people seem to do a piece of practical work that is visible. I, on the other hand as so many other ex-pats, am caught in a system, where for a number of reasons our efforts often do not reach the intended groups. It is frustrating but a part of reality. More and more ex-pats have realized and accepted the fact that they are out here for their own carrier and adventure. Perhaps this group ends up less bitter, frustrated and alcoholic.

It is not easy and no one said it should be easy. I know that some development projects seem to work, although I have only ever experienced one. My account on development today is obviously completely subjective and coloured by the situation that I find myself in at the moment. Nevertheless, more and more rapports globally suggest that development funding end up in the wrong pockets or for managerial purposes. Once again, the poorest remain status quo or even in worsening situations. Hmmm, I do not claim to have any Godly answers, but do we not need to reinvent the whole development concept?? I mean the amount of crap that we get taught at University. The gap between theory and reality has never been bigger. All professors in development departments, this is an appeal; spend 2 months away from theory and get your hands dirty in the real world of practice. Tools, tools, tools!! We need practical tools to work in development.