The residents of five villages in the Boyard Valley, in southwestern Senegal, are freeing themselves from “the tyranny of imported rice” by stepping up local production of this important staple food.

“Agricultural production has been intensified here for several years now, thanks to the revival of rice farming,” Marie Sagne told IPS proudly.

Farmers in Sagne’s home village, Boyard Ndiodiome, had stopped growing rice altogether, as soil fertility was compromised by rising salinity. They were able to begin planting rice again thanks to work carried out by the Project to Support Local Small-Scale Irrigation (PAPIL), financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB).

PAPIL built an anti-salt dam in the village, restoring the productivity of many of the fields which had fallen into disuse. Since 2006, PAPIL has also been providing local farmers with quality seeds, fertiliser and technical training, in collaboration with its partners, the National Agency for Rural and Agricultural Advice (ANCAR) and the Regional Office for Rural Development (DRDR) in Fatick, the regional capital.

Working together, these agencies have thoroughly modernised farming techniques in the valley. For example, the random planting of rice seedlings has been abandoned in favour of planting them in orderly rows. Farmers have also learned how to construct dikes to retain water for their fields.

“Producers have taken the new techniques on board and we are supporting them,” explained Jean-Paul Bampouky, head of DRDR in Fatick.

PAPIL also established the Mbin Jam Inter-village Committee for the Management of the Boyard Valley – Mbin Jam means “the home of well-being” in Sereer, a local language. This committee, led by Ibrahima Faye, includes 420 rice farmers from across the five villages – Boyard Ndiodiome, Boyard Tock, Sing Boyard, Ndiagamba and Dack. Eighty percent of its members are women.

Each member of Mbin Jam contributes 5,000 CFA francs per year (equivalent to ten dollars), which entitles them to seed and fertiliser for their fields. The total area planted with rice in the valley rose swiftly, from 10 hectares in 2006 to around 25 hectares in 2007.

“In 2004, we were harvesting a bit less than 500 kilos of rice from each hectare planted with rice. Thanks to the technical training from our partners, we were at 3.5 tonnes per hectare by 2006, and four tonnes per hectare in 2008,” Faye told IPS.

“For several years now, some households here have not had to eat rice imported from overseas or grown elsewhere in Senegal as the local harvest meets all their needs.”

Mbin Jam member Maï Niakh is proud of this achievement. “We eat local rice for 12 months of the year,” she said.

But Faye said not all of the group’s members have been quite so successful. “Other farmers were unable to grow enough to meet their household needs, though when we managed to get rid of wild rice (a perennial relative which competes with the rice planted by farmers), we boosted productivity enormously.”

And, he added, in 2011 a lack of water prevented the crop from ripening properly, and the 23 hectares planted by Mbin Jam’s members produced only around 250 kilos per hectare.

The 140 tonne crop from the previous year, harvested from 35 hectares, is a more typical yield. But as the rice reached maturity in mid-October, Faye feared the average yield in 2012 would be affected by the group’s renewed struggles to control wild rice and insect pests.

Mamadou Camara, head of PAPIL’s regional office in Fatick, was more confident. “Our forecast for 2012 is (a yield of) between four and six tonnes per hectare in the Boyard Ndiodiome valley,” he said.

“(Local) self-sufficiency in rice has nearly been achieved,” Camara added. “Our major rehabilitation projects for 2013 will consolidate this by permitting the planting of up to 200 additional hectares.”

Mbin Jam is eagerly awaiting the building of ten kilometres of rural roads in the valley, the construction of a warehouse for storage and processing, and the purchase of a tractor by PAPIL in 2013.

In light of strong results, AfDB, which funded PAPIL from 2006-2010, decided to extend its support for the programme through 2013, said Camara. The Islamic Development Bank will continue to finance the project until 2015.

“What we’re still lacking is agricultural equipment,” said Dack farmer Mame Mor Ndiaye. “When we get a tractor, we’ll produce not just enough rice to eat, but also a surplus to sell.”

Over the past two years, millet production has reached record levels in Dya, a rural community in the Kaolack region of central Senegal, where the Agricultural Value Chains Support Project (PAFA) is supporting two farmers’ collectives.

PAFA is a six-year initiative launched in 2010 in four regions of Senegal’s groundnut growing basin: Diourbel, Fatick, Kaffrine and Kaolack. It’s a joint project of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ Fund for International Development and the Senegalese government.

The project provides financing and technical training to farmer collectives producing millet, sesame, sorghum, black-eyed beans, vegetables and poultry.

Millet production has reached record levels in Dya, in central Senegal. Credit: Tonrulkens/CC BY-SA 2.0

“The 7,650 producers who have been trained in this region are women, young heads of households, people with disabilities, small producers unable to guarantee their own food security – in short, the most economically vulnerable. They’ve been chosen by a committee headed by the governor of their region,” PAFA coordinator Sémou Diouf told IPS.

In Dya, 200 people have been selected and organised into two cooperatives, which between them grow millet on 400 hectares.

The producers each make a contribution of between 44 and 64 dollars to the collective, which entitles them to 200 kilos of fertiliser and various items of agricultural equipment. Each group is supported by two technical advisors trained in crop monitoring.

“In 2011, we sold 30 tonnes of millet at 190 CFA francs (38 cents U.S.) a kilo – earning a total of 11,400 dollars,” said Ibrahima Ndiaye, the treasurer for the Manko cooperative, which groups growers from five villages.

“In 2011, we expected to harvest 800 kilos per hectare. We found ourselves with an average yield of 1.2 tonnes per hectare. We have never harvested so much millet,” Ndiaye told IPS. “This year, our estimate of one tonne per hectare has also been exceeded. So we’ve signed an agreement with a distributor, to sell him 60 tonnes of millet when the crop comes in.”

Harvesting this year’s millet will begin at any moment, and Aïssatou Ndiaye, from the Bock Mbotay collective, says Dya has achieved self-sufficiency in food. “Despite planting my seedlings late in 2011, I had a record harvest. In fact, my family is still eating last year’s grain,” he told IPS.

The treasurer of the Bock Mbotay group, Cheikh Ndiaye, said the group’s combined output was expected to rise from 160 tonnes in 2011 to 200 tonnes this year, because this year’s seedlings are better.

“Just two years ago, we were facing hardship, because the harvests were insufficient,” he noted. This year, the collective has a contract to supply 60 tonnes of millet to a distributor.

Omar Guèye, a member of the Manko collective, is also happy. “Our yields have never been so good. It’s thanks to this project,” he commented to IPS.

But, he added, “There’ve been some problems with training because the trainers have been hard to get hold of and the fertiliser was sent to us a bit late.”

Besides helping with production and marketing, PAFA is also helping producers set up grain stores for millet, which is the staple food in this part of Senegal.

“This is a project which is contributing to food security and raising income for the most vulnerable people in rural areas. We’re seeing excellent results. At Dya, the beneficiaries have not only achieved food security, they’re selling a healthy surplus,” said Samba Gaye, PAFA’s liaison at the National Agency for Rural and Agricultural Advice.

Gaye told IPS that a total of 2,020 hectares of millet and 600 hectares of sesame were planted by project beneficiaries in Kaolack and Kaffrine, with production of millet amounting to 1,880 tonnes, and the sesame harvest coming to 250 tonnes.

“We have high hopes for 2012, because the season has gone well and the fields look great,” he said.

Madieng Seck, an agriculture journalist, believes this project can allow farmers to “fly with their own wings”.

“The best thing this project can do for producers is to ensure they get good technical training so that they can sustain themselves,” Seck, director of the private monthly journal Agri-Infos, told IPS.

Ndiaye admits that it will not be easy to manage on their own, but sounds a confident note. “We have truly learned a lot from the project’s trainers, and we are ready to take over when PAFA ends.”

Thousands of farmers are earning a living growing fruit and vegetables in the Niayes, a strip of fertile land running north along Senegal’s western coastline from the outskirts of the capital, Dakar. But land speculation threatens the future of this market gardening.

“This year, we shipped 100 tonnes of mangos to both domestic and overseas markets,” said Ibrahima Mbengue, president of Federation of Vegetable Growers in the Niayes (FPMN), keeping a watchful eye on young workers who are weighing dozens of baskets of mangoes.

The FPMN was established in 1994, and Mbengue says the federation now has 2,250 members who last year farmed a total of 6,000 hectares in the area, a string of lakes and seasonal wetlands – the “niayes” from which the region takes its name.

“The growers in the Niayes are making lots of money, billions (of CFA),” said Abdoulaye Barry, a Dakar-based journalist specialising in agriculture. “There are many foreigners, especially from Guinea, working in the fields there. People have built permanent houses with their income from vegetables.”

The region’s output has more than tripled in recent years, rising from 78,000 tonnes in 2009 to 261,000 tonnes in 2011, according to figures from the National Statistical Demographic Institute (ANSD) published in the state-owned newspaper “Le Soleil” in August.

The increase is one consequence of expanding the area under cultivation, which jumped 70 percent from around 5,000 hectares in 2009 to 8,700 ha in 2011, ANSD reported. The institute estimated the total income for vegetable growers at 430 million dollars. The 750,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetables produced here in 2011 accounted for more than 40 percent of the country’s total.

Onions, tomatoes and cabbage were the most important crops, together accounting for two-thirds of the volume of produce.

Despite this strong growth, Mbengue complained of a lack of technical support from the government. Year on year, he said, production increases but the farmers are not able to compete in the international market for fruit and vegetables.

“Market garden output greatly exceeds domestic demand, and the produce is perishable. Some producers sometimes sell at a loss, since they haven’t cracked the international market,” he told IPS.

Barry agreed. “Senegalese market gardeners are not in a position to compete in the international market. The value chains are not well-organised. The level of organisation of transport, packaging and marketing of produce is weak.”

“There’s often an oversupply in the domestic market, which hurts the price,” said Sidy Guèye, FPMN’s coordinator in the rural district of Sangalkam, home to many vegetable growers.

Onions, for example, are sometimes sold at knock-down prices, for 20 or 35 cents a kilo, while at other times the price can climb to as much as 80 cents a kilo on the local market, said Madiagne Dièye, a Dakar trader.

Producers harvest three or four crops each year, mostly working on family plots of up to five hectares in size, while some producers’ associations have operations covering several hundred hectares, according to Guèye.

“People are doing well here, financially. In other parts of the country, people are living precariously,” he told IPS, referring to the value of vegetable growing in Sangalkam.

“In the Niayes, 90-95 percent of growers inherited their land. Others acquired theirs thanks to the goodwill of the relevant land management authorities,” Guèye said.

Market gardening is so important to the Senegalese economy that the government has integrated it into its wider accelerated growth strategy for agriculture and agro-industries, a multi-year plan being implemented by the government and the private sector.

But lying so close to the Senegalese capital, the Niayes region has been the object of intense land speculation. “The big men are buying land from producers, without using it,” said Woré Gana Seck, from the NGO Green Senegal, which works on agriculture. Advocacy against this form of land-grabbing must be maintained, she told IPS.

Barry thinks that the government should reserve the Niayes exclusively for market gardeners, and designate other space in areas less suited to vegetable cultivation for residential development.

Nearly 270,000 refugees have had to flee their homes since January, when conflict erupted in northern Mali. Credit: William Lloyd-George/IPS

By Souleymane Faye
DAKAR, Aug 14 2012 (IPS)

Military action by West African states against the insurrection in northern Mali would be extremely risky without diplomatic support from neighbouring Algeria and Mauritania, according to International Crisis Group researcher Gilles Yabi.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has said it is ready to deploy troops to help Mali’s interim government fight rebels who seized the northern part of the country in March. However, Yabi says it is essential that Mali’s non-ECOWAS neighbours, who have a degree of influence over the armed groups in Mali, offer diplomatic support.

Yabi, West Africa Project Director for the Brussels-based Crisis Group, also told IPS that reintegrating northern Mali with the rest of the country could not be accomplished in the short term. Excerpts of the interview follow:

Q: In a recent report, ICG said that an armed intervention by ECOWAS carries risks, including that of widening the crisis into other countries. What is the nature of this risk?

A: Our report warned that an external military intervention would have to be carried out jointly with the Malian army, which is presently not fully under control. An intervention risks seeing the conflict spill over into neighbouring countries, which all have links with armed groups or communities originally from northern Mali. The risk of triggering conflict between ethnic communities will be high, and this would have repercussions in neighbouring countries.

There are also major risks in abandoning large areas to Islamist groups linked to terrorism. These include an increase in brutal practices such as stoning as well as seeing fresh recruitment into the ranks of the jihadist armed groups.

But this doesn’t justify a rush to armed intervention by ECOWAS countries, which are themselves fragile in political and military terms.

Q: Do you think that the ECOWAS initiatives could lead to Mali’s government recovering control of the north of the country from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and the Islamist group Ansar Dine? Will Mali get U.N. approval for a military intervention?

A: The north has largely passed into the control of the Islamist movements, particularly Ansar Dine and the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJWA), which are both linked to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The MNLA is no longer a significant military force on the ground.

I believe we must accept that the reintegration of the north into the Malian state will not happen in the short term.

Despite its willingness to act, ECOWAS does not have the means to help the Malian government – which is itself being restructured – to recover the territory captured by the Islamist forces. The political conditions in Bamako and the disarray of the Malian armed forces sharply limit the options. A military intervention in these conditions would be dangerous.

Once a new government is formed, the transitional institutions announced by interim president Dioncounda Traoré are put in place, and the real work of coordinating political, diplomatic and military actions between the Malian government, ECOWAS, and non-ECOWAS neighbours Algeria and Mauritania is accomplished… then we can expect a review of the issue of seeking authorisation from the U.N. Security Council for an external military deployment…

Mali can only have a clear position on this question when the battle for control of the transition in Bamako is finished.

Q: Do you think that a massive infiltration of Mali’s neighbours by elements of Ansar Dine and AQMI could take place?

A: That depends on what you mean by “massive”. That elements linked to Ansar Dine, MUJWA or AQMI could cross into Mali’s neighbours – or even that they already have – would not be surprising.

For Algeria and Mauritania, we can’t talk about infiltration. AQMI is originally a product of Algeria’s history and its principal leaders are still Algerians. And Mauritania has suffered several terrorist attacks in the last few years which were carried out by Islamists, directly linked to AQMI or not.

We can only talk about the risk of infiltration with regard to Mali’s neighbours in the south. There too, we can’t exclude the possibility, as it is easy to cross the borders in these areas. But the fear of an invasion of these southern neighbours by jihadists doesn’t seem reasonable to me.

Still, a handful of motivated and trained operatives could be enough to destabilise a country with terror attacks. So we can’t underestimate the threat.

Q: What’s your overall assessment of diplomatic and political initiatives by ECOWAS to resolve the political crises in Mali and Guinea-Bissau?

A: You can’t accuse ECOWAS of being unresponsive or lacking initiative in either Mali or Guinea-Bissau. The organisation has held several summits of heads of state and adopted strong resolutions on paper.

In the case of Mali, it even called for strong economic, financial and diplomatic sanctions to force a return to formal constitutional order following the coup (in March). But the framework agreement that Burkinabè mediators signed with the junta on ECOWAS’s behalf also sent mixed, even contradictory, signals to the country’s military and political actors.

Here once again, ECOWAS has shown its limitations when it comes to moving from affirming its principles to making decisions. ECOWAS is partly responsible for the weaknesses of the framework agreement and the conditions of implementation for the transitional government that it is today trying to reconstitute.

With respect to Guinea-Bissau, ECOWAS was very firm and did not hesitate once it chose a course of action, even if this left it open to criticism. The organisation condemned the April coup and worked with the military junta to set up a transitional government that was not truly legitimate, but was judged acceptable by a wide spectrum of political and military actors united against the former prime minister and favoured candidate in the presidential election, Carlos Gomes Junior.

ECOWAS sent a military mission to Guinea-Bissau which we have heard very little about. The problem is that no one really knows just what this force’s mandate is and how military and diplomatic action by ECOWAS would help the country to finally address the crucial reforms which now seem indefinitely postponed, beginning with reform of the armed forces.

This will be an important test of the capacity of the organisation to show coherence between its positions and its actions over time.

Q: Would the contribution of non-ECOWAS members such as Algeria or Mauritania be effective in resolving the Mali crisis? Is the “wait-and-see” approach of Algeria realistic and positive when the Islamist groups actually originated there?

A: All the so-called “pays du champ” (Niger, Algeria, Mauritania and Mali) are affected by the Mali crisis. They can’t be indifferent. If ECOWAS takes the military route without significant diplomatic backing from Mali’s neighbours – who can potentially influence the armed groups – then the organisation will be taking a big risk.

Diplomatic efforts in the past few weeks, especially towards Algeria, show that no one actively engaged with the Mali crisis is ignoring the importance of ECOWAS’s neighbours. That includes France, whose foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, toured several capitals in the region recently.

Algeria knows what is expected of it in this crisis, given its status as the region’s military power, as intermediary or mediator in many previous crises in northern Mali, and as the original home of AQIM.

The country’s attitude is no longer necessarily to wait and see: Algeria has expressed its preference for a political situation in northern Mali. ECOWAS and Mali’s transitional authorities must ask Algiers to say more about what it can contribute to a negotiation process with the armed groups, particularly Ansar Dine, whose leader Iyad Ag Ghali is well known in Algeria.

Excerpt:

A record number of women were sworn in as legislators as Senegal’s new parliament was inaugurated on Monday. Sixty-four women now have seats in this West African country’s 150-member National Assembly, thanks to a law on gender parity.

But the breakthrough made by women candidates has relaunched a debate on the quality of their work in the legislature.

Elections to the National Assembly, the lower of two houses of parliament, took place on Jul 1, and were comfortably won by the Benno Bokk Yaakaar coalition (BBY), whose candidate – Macky Sall – won the presidential election in March.

But the poll also served as a test of a Parity Law passed in 2010 which required all 24 parties and coalitions to put forward equal numbers of men and women on their candidate lists.

Shortly before the legislative elections, the government and women’s organisations conducted a major awareness campaign about the law.

“Our objective was to see women take 40 to 45 percent of the seats,” said Fatou Kiné Diop, president of the National Parity Observatory (ONP), which was set up under the presidency in 2011.

The campaign would seem to have been a success, with the proportion of female legislators jumping from 22 percent in the previous parliament to 43 percent for the incoming session.

“The Parity Law has been decisive. It has been a big boost for women,” Diop told IPS.

“The critical mass of women elected – thanks to the Parity Law – should allow us to make some important changes in the National Assembly,” new MP Elène Tine told IPS.

But the breakthrough has already attracted criticism.

The lower house of parliament is often considered to be a rubber stamp for the president’s decisions. Sall’s BBY coalition took 119 of the 150 seats, but the new MPs – men and women alike – campaigned with a view to breaking with the past and restoring an independent role for the National Assembly in passing legislation and serving as a check on the executive.

Questions have been raised over the role that women will play in a newly assertive legislature.

“The quality of debate in the National Assembly is seen as relatively low, particularly since the passing of the Parity Law,” said Diop. “And the people who feel that way place the blame for this on women.”

But Georges Nesta Diop, political editor for the privately owned daily newspaper Walfadjri, disagreed. “The quality of women’s contribution to parliamentary debate can only be as good as the quality of the new legislature itself,” he said.

“Most of the newly-elected women have demonstrated a high intellectual level – even if that’s not necessarily the case for those from the BBY majority. They are nearly all of leadership calibre and have established profiles,” the journalist told IPS.

“A woman like Sokhna Dieng Mbacké (a journalist and former senator) will be on familiar ground in parliament. Mama Mbayame Guèye is a doctor. Fatou Thiam is a health worker. Elène Tine, trained as an archivist, was the long-time spokesperson for the Alliance of Progressive Forces (an opposition party),” said Nesta Diop.

“This group won’t want to just make up the numbers in the National Assembly. These women will want to take up the challenge of the quality of parliamentary debate at all costs,” he added.

Sociologist Fanta Diallo, a member of the Dakar City Council, also hoped for a strong performance by women members over the five-year term of the legislature. “Contrary to what many people think, for the most part the women who have been elected are strong candidates,” she told IPS.

The breakthrough in the legislature has sparked ambitions in Senegal, where women make up 52 percent of the population. The Parity Law needs to be applied to state-owned enterprises and several important economic sectors, such as agriculture and fisheries, said Diop, “to ensure that resources are allocated equitably between men and women.”

Unfortunately the law applies only to elected positions, said Khady Fall Tall, president of the West African Women’s Association.

Walfadjri’s Nesta Diop thinks that coming out of these legislative elections, women will be emboldened to press for equal access to decision-making. “Women have won a victory and will no longer back down or make concessions over their representation in institutions, whether they are elected or not.”

But he warned that parity will not be achieved based on simple mathematical calculations. “It’s not easy to find politically engaged women, yet this type of engagement is needed to challenge for elected positions,” he said. “But I believe that women are ready to lead this political fight.”

The presence of 64 women in the National Assembly will encourage women to enter politics, said Fall. But, she added, “It would be terrible if they enter politics only to keep their seats warm.”

For her part, Tine said: “The social roles assigned to Senegalese women should have a positive impact on the National Assembly in terms of our mandate; if not, this will be a failure.”

By Souleymane Faye
DAKAR, Jul 22 2011 (IPS)

Bineta Diop, director of the non-governmental organisation Femmes Africa Solidarité, is at the forefront of the fight for better protection of women in conflict zones and their integration in peace processes.

Bineta Diop (l.) with Asha-Rose Migiro, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Credit: Ryan Brown/UN Photo

Q: In June, several governments from Africa, the Americas and Europe adopted an action plan to implement the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa. How do you see this action plan being put into practice? A: The international conference in Dakar was not just another conference. It had a clear objective… The Declaration, adopted by the African Union in 2004, has already come into in force in some countries. Rwanda, for example, is actively implementing it, as is South Africa.

But if we truly want to see this decision translated into reality, what is needed is an implementation framework with measurable indicators and a budget.

Civil society, governments and the United Nations must work together around an action plan which will speed up implementation of this declaration…

The experts have done their work: now it’s for the politicians to see what needs to be done with this declaration. This was the impetus behind all of our work during the international conference in Dakar.

Q: The fight for equality between men and women is a huge project. What are the priorities, in your view? A:It is a question of ensuring that the concerns of women are taken into account in policies and programmes. I am not sure that men can usefully represent women and express their needs…

Women’s leadership has to be felt directly in decision-making mechanisms. For this to happen, women must speak about their issues themselves. This is what is at the centre of the fight for equality between men and women.

In my view, the priority is attend to the most disadvantaged women, and those who are victims of violence in conflict zones. The priority is to help those without voices to be heard.

Q: Do you think that if women enter spheres such as the army, that opportunities to better prevent and resolve conflicts will follow? A: It’s important to have women in the army… To open the army to women is ensure a role for them in human security and to open the way for solutions to insecurity and conflict. We are working on the challenges of integrating women into the army, and helping countries to draw up action plans.

We have drawn up plans to implement 1973’s U.N. Resolution 1325, which calls for women to go into the heart of military, judicial and political structures to transform them.

Q: In gender advocacy, the issue of representation of women is often raised. But does this not risk overshadowing other issues such as conditions for rural women? A: The concerns of rural women are at the heart of the fight. Rural women, it’s for them that we must act above all. They must be given the same tools as men… we must improve their access to credit, to land, to health services and protection from early marriage.

That’s what we are doing with Femmes Africa Solidarité. We work with women living in conflict countries, trying to bring these states to improve their political and economic systems. Without this, I don’t think that we can truly transform society.

Q: Despite the many declarations and protocols that have been adopted, are both conditions for women and their representation in decision-making not still weak? A: If you look at the progress made between the adoption of the Beijing Platform in 1995 and now, you will see that there have been notable advances. This cannot be denied. We cannot say that the Beijing Platform has been ignored…

And Resolution 1325 has allowed women to sit at the negotiating table at the U.N. It has enabled women to engage in dialogue with the Security Council on fundamental questions. This resolution allowed women like me to sit down with the U.N., with the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and speak of peace, and women’s security. Alongside Mary Robinson, the former Irish president, we have influenced the Security Council…

But there is still so much to do.

I agree that rural women continue to suffer, despite the strong performance that has seen women become more than half of the Rwandan parliament.

Certainly, steps are being taken very slowly. But women are not sitting back with their arms folded, even if economic and political power remains with men. And It is on these very questions that they must be challenged.

But we don’t do it by taking up arms. We are in the midst of challenging men to share the cake: political and economic power.

Excerpt:

By Souleymane Faye
DAKAR, Apr 25 2011 (IPS)

“We no longer need to go to Hanène, three kilometres away, for vaccinations or for a check-up for our children,” said Maguette Niang, a 40-year-old mother from Keur Madaro, a village in the west of Senegal.

Keur Madaro is one of many Senegalese communities that now has staff watching over the health of the village from a community health post – a simple two-roomed building right in the heart of the village.

This is thanks to a five-year project launched in 2006 under the title Wër (meaning “good health” in Wolof) being carried out jointly by the Senegalese Ministry of Health, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the non-governmental organisations Plan International, Child Fund, World Vision and Africare.

These partners are equipping the community health points and supplying them with medicine, in order to ensure primary health services are readily available to those who need it.

“The project has led to positive changes with respect to people coming in more frequently to seek advice or to get health care. The awareness campaigns that we carry out on malaria, acute respiratory infections, tuberculosis screening, other illnesses, as well as family planning are regularly heeded by the community,” says Djiby Faye, a community health worker at Ndioukhane Sérère, in Thiès (in the west of the country).

Faye credits the health posts with improving the skills of community health workers to handle treatment of some common ailments. “One no longer needs to go to see the head nurse to treat malaria, at least if it’s not a serious case,” Faye told IPS.

Anti-malarial medication is free, but people have to pay for care and other medication, according to the health worker.

“This project is in the process of improving health for women and children,” says Mamadou Lamine Niang, head nurse at the health centre in Hanène, which covers 23 villages including Keur Madaro. “It allows us to strengthen coverage of health programmes in our rural community, Notto (part of the western region of Thiès), by retraining community health workers, the equipping of health posts, and the putting in place of community health educators in charge of supporting activities in the health posts.”

The community is pleased by the newfound proximity of health services thanks to the project which will reach its five-year term in June 2011.

“For many years, community members were reluctant to come for vaccinations. Now with the talks organised at the health posts, people are more and more attentive to their health,” confirms Sophie Diouf, a resident of Keur Madaro.

“We give immediate care. People get a consultation and care right here,” says Abdou Seck, Wër project supervisor for the Notto zone.

“One can’t say the the Wër project has attained its objectives because there is still much left to do despite the effort,” says the nurse Niang.

He pointed to the absence of mid-wives and nurses, which leaves the vital area of maternal and neonatal health an area of concern. Speaking in her personal capacity, Dieynaba Niang, a community health educator for Plan International, said the health posts are not yet adequately staffed with qualified personnel – nurses and midwives – to support births.

Niang agreed, stressing that both homebirths and deliveries at the health posts are forbidden by the Senegalese authorities who consider it unsafe.

Niang notes with dismay the re-emergence of malaria due to a lack of insecticide-treated mosquito nets, the slow functioning of health posts which are not always completely equipped, and persisting weaknesseses in the skills of community health workers who are not especially well-motivated”.

In addition to awareness campaigns for certain diseases, health workers put on talks for women, to popularise family planning and ensure regular check-up to monitor early childhood development. But this essential work is carried out by poorly-paid agents.

The community health workers are volunteers and are not paid out of the budget; the health system only provides them with basic training necessary for their function.

“We want to have our skills strengthened. We are not motivated and by way of pay, we get just 10 to 20 percent of the receipts from the sale of drugs,” says Faye.

“Moving around [in the course their duty] is difficult for the community educators due to a lack of transport. The effectiveness of this project of community health is limited, because the health centres which must support the local health posts are left stranded,” explains Niang.

Excerpt:

By Souleymane Faye
DAKAR, Apr 16 2011 (IPS)

Senegal’s small-scale fishers are challenging the government over licences granting foreign trawlers permission to fish in Senegalese waters. The artisanal fishers condemn the “selling off” of the country’s fishery resources at a time when stocks off Senegal’s coast are severely depleted.

Senegal's artisanal fear licences to foreign trawlers will destroy their livelihoods. Credit: UN Photo

“These boats are fishing under illegal protocols that have been signed by the minister of maritime economy without being recorded by the relevant technical government agencies,” Dougoutigui Coulibaly, secretary-general of GAIPES told IPS.

But the authorities accuse the group of conflating separate issues.”In 2010, we signed fishing agreements with six foreign fishing boats that were to catch pelagic, or migratory, fish that swim along the coast of Senegal, originating from Morocco and Mauritania. Once the contracts had expired, the boats left,” explains Captain Matar Sambou, head of monitoring and control of fishing.

Sambou says an advisory committee at the ministry suspended several licences in December 2010 following GAIPES’s complaints. But, since the members of this committee showed that signing the agreements would earn money for the country, the ministry was authorised to go ahead. “At the beginning of March 2011, we signed fishing agreements with 11 or 12 fishing boats for a two-month period,” he says.

Senegal’s fisheries

Fishing is one of Senegal’s main economic activities, and is the livelihood of some 600,000 people – eight times more than the 75,000 in the civil service.. In 2009, fishing constituted 13 percent of Senegalese exports and 1.7 percent of GDP, according to the ministry of maritime economy.

Small-scale fishing in Senegal has become a mere subsistence fishery because the stocks are so depleted. “There aren’t any more of the larger fish species, like carp and hake. Now, Senegalese people eat only small fish: sardines, jack mackerel, mackerel…” says Raoul Monsembula, from the environmental organisation Greenpeace Africa.

“The licences granted to these industrial fishing boats are going to lead to the disappearance of the country’s fishing resource and as a result, the loss of income of 600,000 people,” warns Amadou Chérif Diagne, a sociologist living in Gueth-Ndar, a fishermen’s quarter in Saint-Louis, in the north of the country.

The Greenpeace regional office in Dakar has lodged an appeal with the Senegalese government to revoke its decision to grant industrial licences, in order to put an end to what it describes as “the pillage” of the country’s fish stocks.

But the authorities defend the permits. “Senegal has taken the sovereign decision to make use of a portion of its fishing resources so that the Treasury can benefit from it in the same way that neighbouring countries have,” says the minister of maritime economy Khouraïchi Thiam.

“The Treasury can tax 35 dollars on each tonne fished by these foreign trawlers,” he says, pointing out that Senegalese fisheries officials board the trawlers to monitor the amounts that are caught.

“1.45 million tonnes of pelagic fish cross from Mauritania, Cape Verde, Guinea Buisseau and Gambia towards Senegal. If this stock isn’t fished, it dies and that will be an enormous loss to the country,” the minister told a private radio station on Mar. 29.

Fishers not satisfied

Sada Fall, secretary-general of the 15,000-strong National Collective of Small-scale Fishers (CNPA) threatens direct action if government won’t listen. “If the government doesn’t suspend these licences, we will go and find the trawlers and fight it out with them. We are going to chase them out of our waters at whatever price,” he warns. The CNPA is based in Saint-Louis, where a government census counted 2,800 fishing dugouts.

Coulibaly, from GAIPES, adds: “We have a whole range of actions to roll out so the government withdraws these fishing licences. We are not ruling out the removal of the industrial and small-scale fleet from the waters and thus closing down the factories.”

According to the Senegalese maritime code, “the maritime resources are part of the national patrimony. The state can authorise physical and moral persons of Senegalese or foreign nationality to fish in waters under Senegalese jurisdiction,” professor of law at the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Alassane Ndiaye, tells IPS.

According to Ndiaye, the maritime code stipulates that those seeking fishing licences must contact the minister of maritime economy, who must take the advice of the advisory committee that grants the fishing licences. If this procedure has been respected, the fishing licences in question are legal,” he says.

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By Souleymane Faye
DAKAR, Feb 6 2011 (IPS)

Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Dakar on Sunday to mark the start of the annual World Social Forum. Activists carried colorful banners denouncing land grabs, restrictive immigration laws, agricultural subsidies in Europe and the U.S. and many other issues.

Marchers at the opening of the World Social Forum in Dakar. Credit: Abdullah Vawda/IPS

Bolivian president Evo Morales, who took part in the march, invited his counterparts from poor countries to take part in this event.

“There must be awareness and a mobilisation to put an end to capitalism and clear away invaders, neocolonialists and imperialists […] I support the popular uprisings in Tunisia and in Egypt. These are signs of change,” said Morales, a former trade union leader who is a regular participant in anti-globalisation movement gatherings.

“There must be resistance and awareness. There must be a programme of social struggle to build a new world,” he said.

“We must save humanity, and to do that, we must know our enemies. The enemies of the people are neocolonialists and imperialists. We must put an end to the capitalist model and put another in its place. It’s necessary to get rid of the rich and change the world.”

The mayor of Dakar welcomed participants, but other senior members of the Senegalese government were absent; President Abdoulaye Wade himself is out of the country, though he is scheduled to take part in an event alongside the Brazilian president later in the week.

The World Social Forum defines itself as an open space where those “opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism come together to pursue their thinking.”

As this year’s event is being held in Senegal, many of the discussions will revolve around what organisers term the crisis of civilisation and capitalism gripping Africa and the rest of the world.

“This forum must contribute to changing the world. It’s a chance for all those who represent the world’s downtrodden to speak amongst themselves,” said Senegalese historian Boubacar Diop Buuba, a professor at the Cheikh Anta Diop University.

Philip Kumah, a Ghanaian social worker who works for Amnesty International, said, “We are calling for an end to injustice in our country where the government is robbing communities of their land. This forum is a chance for our government to lend an attentive ear to our complaints.”

For activist Beverley Keene, from Buenos Aires, holding the forum in Africa is an important milestone. “It’s our time to learn from each other and assess the impact that the financial crisis and the looting of the people’s minerals have on livelihoods.”

The financial crisis is prominent among the themes to be debated at the six-day forum seeking alternatives to “the crisis of the capitalist system.”

Italian feminist Sabrina Viche said the event is also an opportunity to listen to African women. “I came to Dakar to give my support to all the women of Africa, who struggle to ensure their voices are heard, I want to hear from them what their struggles are and how we in the North can support them.”

But it is not enough to meet, Canet Raphael, a sociologist from Montréal, Canada, told IPS. “People must know what a social forum is for. The spirit of the World Social Forum has its roots in grassroots social movements.”

Thierry Tulasne, who works on migration issues for a Canadian organisation said, “I’m not sure that social movements can change the world in the near future. But I am sure that little drops of water eventually become rivers.”

*Ebrima Sillah and Koffigan Adigbli in Dakar contributed to this report.

Excerpt:

By Souleymane Faye
DAKAR, Feb 6 2011 (IPS)

Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Dakar on Sunday to mark the start of the annual World Social Forum. Activists carried colorful banners denouncing land grabs, restrictive immigration laws, agricultural subsidies in Europe and the U.S. and many other issues.

Others sang freedom songs and played drums whilst marching peacefully through the streets along a route that began near the offices of Senegal’s public broadcaster, RTS, and ended at the Cheikh Anta Diop University, the main venue for the weeklong gathering.

Bolivian president Evo Morales, who took part in the march, invited his counterparts from poor countries to take part in this event.

“There must be awareness and a mobilisation to put an end to capitalism and clear away invaders, neocolonialists and imperialists […] I support the popular uprisings in Tunisia and in Egypt. These are signs of change,” said Morales, a former trade union leader who is a regular participant in anti-globalisation movement gatherings.

“There must be resistance and awareness. There must be a programme of social struggle to build a new world,” he said.

“We must save humanity, and to do that, we must know our enemies. The enemies of the people are neocolonialists and imperialists. We must put an end to the capitalist model and put another in its place. It’s necessary to get rid of the rich and change the world.”

The mayor of Dakar welcomed participants, but other senior members of the Senegalese government were absent; President Abdoulaye Wade himself is out of the country, though he is scheduled to take part in an event alongside the Brazilian president later in the week.

The World Social Forum defines itself as an open space where those “opposed to neo-liberalism and a world dominated by capital or by any form of imperialism come together to pursue their thinking.”

As this year’s event is being held in Senegal, many of the discussions will revolve around what organisers term the crisis of civilisation and capitalism gripping Africa and the rest of the world.

“This forum must contribute to changing the world. It’s a chance for all those who represent the world’s downtrodden to speak amongst themselves,” said Senegalese historian Boubacar Diop Buuba, a professor at the Cheikh Anta Diop University.

Philip Kumah, a Ghanaian social worker who works for Amnesty International, said, “We are calling for an end to injustice in our country where the government is robbing communities of their land. This forum is a chance for our government to lend an attentive ear to our complaints.”

For activist Beverley Keene, from Buenos Aires, holding the forum in Africa is an important milestone. “It’s our time to learn from each other and assess the impact that the financial crisis and the looting of the people’s minerals have on livelihoods.”

The financial crisis is prominent among the themes to be debated at the six-day forum seeking alternatives to “the crisis of the capitalist system.”

Italian feminist Sabrina Viche said the event is also an opportunity to listen to African women. “I came to Dakar to give my support to all the women of Africa, who struggle to ensure their voices are heard, I want to hear from them what their struggles are and how we in the North can support them.”

But it is not enough to meet, Canet Raphael, a sociologist from Montréal, Canada, told IPS. “People must know what a social forum is for. The spirit of the World Social Forum has its roots in grassroots social movements.”

Thierry Tulasne, who works on migration issues for a Canadian organisation said, “I’m not sure that social movements can change the world in the near future. But I am sure that little drops of water eventually become rivers.”

*Ebrima Sillah and Koffigan Adigbli in Dakar contributed to this report.

Excerpt:

By Souleymane Faye
DAKAR, Dec 8 2010 (IPS)

Senegal’s efforts to improve maternal health and reduce child mortality are hampered by a lack of health centres and poor care in those that do exist. But the government faces a major financial hurdle in financing the Bajenu Gox initiative – a community health programme intended to address this.

Nearly 1,500 women have been trained across the country under the programme. They will become links between local communities and health centres, under the supervision of doctors, nurses and midwives, according to Dr Bocar Daff , the health ministry official in charge of the initiative.

Their tasks will include raising awareness of the importance of pre and post-natal visits, as well as attending to the health of newborns and children under five. The health workers will be actively involved in promoting good hygiene, promoting exclusive breastfeeding and family planning.

According to Daff, the government wants to have between 15,000 and 20,000 such health advocates in the field by the end of 2011.

In the Kédougou region, in the east of the country, where the rate of maternal mortality is 703 deaths for every 100,000 live births. Midwife Astou Diop says 50 women have already been trained in child and maternal health, and in basic procedures for handling childbirth in the region, but she fears the training is not enough.

“They do not have the resources to pass on information, other than mobile phones distributed by the government to ease their contact with the community.”

Diop is flagging a potential weakness in the government’s plan to field thousands of trained community health workers: particularly in rural Senegal, distance magnified by poor road infrastructure could rob the expanded health network of any real impact.

For example, the leading cause of maternal death in childbirth is haemorrhage. But – assuming they can get to her in time to help with her labour – the new health workers will have limited options to assist a woman with internal bleeding,

“It often happens that patients are unable to get to health centres, for lack of transport and money. The government has to give us the necessary resources,” said Oulimata Ndao, a local health official working with the project in Keur Alpha, a village in the central Kaolack region.

Mbaye Diouf, the head of the Tambacounda health district, in the east of the country, agrees. “With a good implementation of the project… the number of cases of malaria in pregnant women will be considerably reduced. More pregnant women will be screened for HIV,” he said.

“However, the lack of financing for the project, the state of the ambulance fleet in certain regions such as Tambacounda, and the shortage of gynecologists could prevent Senegal from achieving MDGs 4 and 5.”

Eugene Kaly covers health for the government daily Le Soleil. “I think the health ministry has to provide the means to work and move around, especially the women chosen as agents of Bajenu Gox,” he told IPS.

“A project this ambitious… needs funding in the same measure to avoid failing. This project must get financing from the government and its partners, on the same level as the programmes against malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.”

The Bajenu Gox programme, which is supported by several international agencies including the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), has ambitious intentions to solve this too, but funding will be a problem. The government allocated around $200,000 to the initiative, but to achieve its millennium development goals on infant mortality and maternal health it will need around 96 million dollars.

Daff says 70 percent of this total would go towards buying equipment, particularly ambulances.

“We don’t have the budget for the project, but 100 million francs CFA ($200,000) has been directed to the training of women who will carry out the project,” he told IPS. “Over the next two years, our financial partners will tell us how much they can give to the project.”

The government also plans to raise the allocation of the health ministry from 11 percent of the total budget in 2010 to 15 percent in 2011, according to the Senegalese prime minister, Souleymane Ndéné Ndiaye.

Excerpt:

By Souleymane Faye
DIOHINE, Senegal, Oct 2 2009 (IPS)

In Diohine, a village of some 3,000 inhabitants in the Fatick region of central Senegal, real progress has been made towards educating all children, in spite of a lack of infrastructure.

Diohine has two public primary schools, each serving different neighbourhoods, and a third, privately-run Catholic school that was the first to be established, in 1948.

According to Nicolas Diouf, a teacher at the Catholic school, “Every child of school-going age is enrolled, be it in a public or private school.”

The objective of the “Primary Education for All”, developed and implemented by the Senegalese government under the auspices of the United Nations, “will be reached, even before 2015,” says an optimistic Diouf.

He tells IPS that at the Diohine Catholic school, enrolment fees and school fees amount to 24,300 CFA francs (about $53) per pupil a year, excluding supplies. In public schools, which do not charge school fees, parents pay only and enrolment fee of 1,500 FCFA (about $3.20).

Diouf says in 2008-2009 his school had a total of 285 pupils in seven classes, an average of 40 per class. The same year, Public School No. 1 had 682 students in 13 classes, an average of 52 per class. The smaller Public School No. 2 had just 79 pupils in two classes.)

Since 2002 the Senegalese government has been implementing a Ten-Year Plan for education and training, involving the an awareness campaign on the importance of schooling in villages and massive recruitment of teachers. For the past few years the state has allocated 45 percent of its budget to the education sector.

The message has been well-received by Diohine’s residents, mostly poor farmers who primarily cultivate millet, peanuts having become unprofitable in recent years because of a partial withdrawal of state funding in the marketing of the product.

“We have no problem with schooling, we perhaps have had problems around finding the means to educate our children,” says Gérôme Diouf, president of the parents’ association of Public School No 1.

“Any reluctance to educate girls as well as boys was overcome. The problem is solved; boys and girls in Diohine are all sent to school,” says Charles Diagne, principal of Public School No 1.

But he laments having a makeshift shelter at his school. Recent growth in student numbers has outstripped space to hold them.

“The public schools use temporary shelters because IDEN planned to develop classes that could not be built on time. It was expected classes would be held, and students were enrolled – then construction fell behind,” explains Abdoulaye Bitèye, planner at IDEN – Inspection départementale de l’éducation nationale, the national department with overall responsibility for education – in Fatick tells IPS.

If nothing is done, the problem will only grow. Bitèye says in the next school year, public school No 1 is expecting 162 new pupils to enrol for introductory courses, of whom 102 have already done so. Public School No. 2 is expecting 54 pupils to enrol, of whom 52 have already done so.

Serigne Fallou Mboup, planner at the Inspéction d’académie for the Fatick region, (the administrative body responsible for primary and secondary education) says, “If the classes are not built or are still under construction, we will quickly make canopies (often made of thatched straw and tree branches) to enable children to learn.” He says there is no concern about welcoming new students for the next school year.

Unlike public schools, the private Catholic school shuns the use of temporary shelters. “We charge for our services, which obliges us to house our students in good conditions,” says its director, Emile Thiaw.

On August 21, government launched a programme to build 4,360 classrooms in Senegal between 2010 and 2011. Called Fast Track, the programme is funded by the World Bank and other financial partners in Senegal, to the tune of $86.9 million).

According to the Minister of Elementary, Middle and Secondary Education, Kalidou Diallo, Senegal needs 11,000 new classrooms. Among these, it is hoped there will be a permanent building for Diohine’s Public School No 1.

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