WORLD SOCIAL FORUM: From the Burkinabe Countryside to Italian Tomato Fields

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Tiego Tiemtoré

OUAGADOUGOU, Jan 9 2007 (IPS) - For Mady Daboné, Europe beckons. “Staying here…is misery,” the 30-year-old from the village of Begdo in eastern Burkina Faso told IPS, adding that several of his friends were already abroad. “I have about twenty of them in Italy and Spain. They have all done well, even though they suffered at the beginning.”

Daboné does not have formal education; still, he hopes to follow in the footsteps of others who have left Begdo for Europe, and earn money that will allow him to “return and marry, build a house for the parents and open a store.”

But while emigration from Africa may be a source of hope for Daboné and many like him, it is nothing of the sort for the Burkina Faso Social Forum – which is highlighting concerns about the departure of young Burkinabé for greener economic pastures.

The forum brings together groups interested in helping Burkina Faso realise the aims of the World Social Forum (WSF), which is pushing for a more equitable global order. The WSF is due to hold its seventh annual gathering later this month (Jan. 20-25) in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

“For young people, especially, it’s hard to live in their country because there are no prospects and jobs are increasingly scarce,” says Théophile Ouédraogo, a member of the Small Farmers Confederation of Burkina (Confédération paysanne du Burkina) who took part in a meeting of the Burkina Faso Social Forum that was held last month.

Alidou Koné, a researcher of agricultural economics who is based in the capital, Ouagadougou, voices similar views.

“The young are attracted by Europe and really believe that it’s there that happiness is found,” Koné told IPS, adding that they spent substantial amounts of money to migrate and “even risk their lives to reach their goal”.

Ninety percent of migrants are younger than 35, according to the National Institute of Statistics of Burkina (Institut national des statistiques de Burkina) and for the most part, single.

The institute has found that the first destination for migrants is C- te d’Ivoire û then Gabon, Europe and the Gulf states. Those who plan on going to Italy often make their way to Libya, while Algeria and Morocco are the launching points for people with their sights set on Spain û this according to a source in the security services in Ouagadougou.

A migrant who was turned away in Libya about two years ago told IPS that smugglers involved in illegal migration could deal with groups of about 20 people that included a cross-section of West African nationalities û with each migrant paying 1,200 dollars to reach Europe.

The National Institute of Statistics of Burkina also notes that 86 percent of migrants originate in Burkina Faso’s rural areas, where government estimates that almost 80 percent of the country’s 13 million inhabitants live.

“Rural youths arriving in urban centres believe that they are going to succeed easily. When they find themselves confronted with poverty, their only alternative is to leave for Europe, whatever the cost,” says Ibrahim Kinda, a sociologist in Ouagadougou. Underscoring the point, he quotes French economist and sociologist Alfred Sauvy û who also coined the term “Third World”: “If wealth does not go to where men are, men will go to where wealth is.”

According to the 2006 Human Development Report, produced by the United Nations Development Programme, about 27 percent of Burkinabé live on less than a dollar a day – and over 46 percent below the national poverty threshold.

“The youth will leave rural areas if nothing is done to pay them a fair wage,” says François Traoré, one of the leaders of the Burkina Faso Social Forum, and president of both the Small Farmers Confederation of Burkina and the Association of African Cotton Producers (Association des producteurs de coton africains). Both groups are fighting to get fairer prices for African cotton, which is put at a disadvantage by the subsidies paid to American producers, in particular. Burkina Faso is the leading cotton producer in sub-Saharan Africa, with some 600,000 tonnes a year.

Government says it has launched programmes that offer opportunities in agriculture to rural youths, and employment prospects to young people in urban areas. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the West African country has more than 500,000 hectares of land that can be cultivated û barely 40,000 (less than 10 percent) of which are in use.

Hope may also lie in the fact that Burkina Faso was declared eligible for the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) in November 2005, and will receive aid of about 500 million dollars this year under the American initiative.

The origins of the MCA date back to 2002 when U.S. President George W. Bush called for increased accountability in the aid sector, with wealthy countries providing more funds and developing nations behaving with greater responsibility. Washington later put forward more development aid, to be channeled through the MCA to countries that address corruption, respect human rights and invest in social services, amongst others.

Economist Bissiri Joseph Sirima, who directs the MCA programme in Burkina Faso, says expenditure of the aid is being determined by communities: “We have traveled around Burkina Faso…(and) drawn up a programme supported by projects stemming from the priorities of communities. And, if we want to fight against poverty effectively, we must take account of agriculture.”

A project to support agriculture and forestry will also be launched this year with about 60 million dollars provided by the World Bank. It aims to increase production and competitiveness as concerns a selection of commodities, such as sesame, onions, mangoes, maize, cow peas, poultry, beef and cotton.

“The improvement of living conditions and the diversification of economic opportunities in rural areas are the means of stemming the migration towards large cities and Europe,” says Pascal Ouédraogo of the non-governmental organisation Laafi (meaning “well being” in the Mooré language).

He took part in the African leg of the 2006 WSF, held in the Malian capital of Bamako, and will be present at this year’s forum. The 2006 WSF û dubbed a “polycentric forum” û also took place in Caracas, Venezuela and the Pakistani financial hub of Karachi.

Ouédraogo hopes that “immigration of the youth will be central to the discussions of the WSF of 2007.”

Failure to address this trend will open the door to repetition of disasters such as that which affected the eastern village of Sampéma last July, when 11 community members drowned off the shore of Sicily.

Seyba Diabo, a 36-year-old father of four, was amongst those who died. “He wanted to leave because he had difficulties making ends meet…and also because he had friends who left the village for Europe. He planned to work in the tomato fields in Italy,” said his brother, Seydou Diabo.