[:nl]6 November 2016
Transport on the roads of Burkina is always a challenge. The small bus on the left is driving at 80km per hour!!!! You can count on one broken truck per 20km along the road.
a
b
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Civil servants and consultants
In previous blogs I already mentioned the difficulties to create jobs when everybody wants to be a civil servant. Well there is now a new category of “blood sucker”: the consultants, experts.
A lot of the projects in Burkina are funded via governmental agencies (the funds are coming from the IMF, World bank, European Union…). Associations, NGO’s, companies can register to those agencies in order to get funds. We looked at some possibilities to get funds for professional training ourselves. The application to get qualified for this agency is 19 pages long with a lot of attachments. The application for project funding is also as long.
A new business has started around consulting. First to make the application for qualification and then to apply for projects. Since the funding agencies we are looking for do not fund salaries, the personnel used for the project are consultants. The salaries of the consultants are sky high compared to the local salaries. Consultants do not have long term view and have little responsibilities nor care as far as results are concerned.
The worse is that since civil servants have time to have several activities, they become consultants on the side….
Entrepreneurs get very little support from the government and very few want to take risks or have the means to start a business (or hire a consultant!).
Scholarship holders in Banfora
From a maximum of 72, 5 years ago, we now have only 8 students with a scholarship in the city of Banfora (5 girls and 3 boys).

Karamoko (tutor on the left) with the 7 students


d

Eugénie took advantage of our visit to Banfora to talk to the girls and give them a kit for protection during their periods.


Visit to the village of Sissa
Sissa is the village the furthest away from Bobo Dioulasso (75km). It is a village of more than 2.000 people.
e
We had asked to meet the male leaders while Eugénie and Line were talking to the women. The pictures above show exactly the status of our relation with them. They still need to pay back some loans dating from 2004!!! Difficult for them to look at us in the eyes…
f
Sissa is a very Muslim village and our messages can be difficult to be understood. Marriages of young girls are arranged. We do talk about slavery and this is a type of slavery. More than 80% of the young girls are excised, is it not also a type of slavery?
g

omen with their protection kits of DAYS FOR GIRLS.


Vieux Farka Touré
g
 
Saturday night we went to see a Malian musician Vieux Farka Touré. His father Ali Farka Touré was a well-known “African blues man”.
It was a good and relaxing time.
Proverb of the week
The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
La roue qui grince reçoit la graisse.
Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Trop de cuisiniers gâtent la soupe.
Have a nice week,
Hervé
 [:en]6 November 2016
Transport on the roads of Burkina is always a challenge. The small bus on the left is driving at 80km per hour!!!! You can count on one broken truck per 20km along the road.
a
b
Civil servants and consultants
In previous blogs I already mentioned the difficulties to create jobs when everybody wants to be a civil servant. Well there is now a new category of “blood sucker”: the consultants, experts.
A lot of the projects in Burkina are funded via governmental agencies (the funds are coming from the IMF, World bank, European Union…). Associations, NGO’s, companies can register to those agencies in order to get funds. We looked at some possibilities to get funds for professional training ourselves. The application to get qualified for this agency is 19 pages long with a lot of attachments. The application for project funding is also as long.
A new business has started around consulting. First to make the application for qualification and then to apply for projects. Since the funding agencies we are looking for do not fund salaries, the personnel used for the project are consultants. The salaries of the consultants are sky high compared to the local salaries. Consultants do not have long term view and have little responsibilities nor care as far as results are concerned.
The worse is that since civil servants have time to have several activities, they become consultants on the side….
Entrepreneurs get very little support from the government and very few want to take risks or have the means to start a business (or hire a consultant!).
Scholarship holders in Banfora
From a maximum of 72, 5 years ago, we now have only 8 students with a scholarship in the city of Banfora (5 girls and 3 boys).

Karamoko (tutor on the left) with the 7 students


d

Eugénie took advantage of our visit to Banfora to talk to the girls and give them a kit for protection during their periods.


Visit to the village of Sissa
Sissa is the village the furthest away from Bobo Dioulasso (75km). It is a village of more than 2.000 people.
e
We had asked to meet the male leaders while Eugénie and Line were talking to the women. The pictures above show exactly the status of our relation with them. They still need to pay back some loans dating from 2004!!! Difficult for them to look at us in the eyes…
f
Sissa is a very Muslim village and our messages can be difficult to be understood. Marriages of young girls are arranged. We do talk about slavery and this is a type of slavery. More than 80% of the young girls are excised, is it not also a type of slavery?
g

omen with their protection kits of DAYS FOR GIRLS.


Vieux Farka Touré
g
Saturday night we went to see a Malian musician Vieux Farka Touré. His father Ali Farka Touré was a well-known “African blues man”.
It was a good and relaxing time.
Proverb of the week
The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
La roue qui grince reçoit la graisse.
Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Trop de cuisiniers gâtent la soupe.
Have a nice week,
Hervé[:fr]6 November 2016
Transport on the roads of Burkina is always a challenge. The small bus on the left is driving at 80km per hour!!!! You can count on one broken truck per 20km along the road.
a
b
Civil servants and consultants
In previous blogs I already mentioned the difficulties to create jobs when everybody wants to be a civil servant. Well there is now a new category of “blood sucker”: the consultants, experts.
A lot of the projects in Burkina are funded via governmental agencies (the funds are coming from the IMF, World bank, European Union…). Associations, NGO’s, companies can register to those agencies in order to get funds. We looked at some possibilities to get funds for professional training ourselves. The application to get qualified for this agency is 19 pages long with a lot of attachments. The application for project funding is also as long.
A new business has started around consulting. First to make the application for qualification and then to apply for projects. Since the funding agencies we are looking for do not fund salaries, the personnel used for the project are consultants. The salaries of the consultants are sky high compared to the local salaries. Consultants do not have long term view and have little responsibilities nor care as far as results are concerned.
The worse is that since civil servants have time to have several activities, they become consultants on the side….
Entrepreneurs get very little support from the government and very few want to take risks or have the means to start a business (or hire a consultant!).
Scholarship holders in Banfora
From a maximum of 72, 5 years ago, we now have only 8 students with a scholarship in the city of Banfora (5 girls and 3 boys).

Karamoko (tutor on the left) with the 7 students


d

Eugénie took advantage of our visit to Banfora to talk to the girls and give them a kit for protection during their periods.


Visit to the village of Sissa
Sissa is the village the furthest away from Bobo Dioulasso (75km). It is a village of more than 2.000 people.
e
We had asked to meet the male leaders while Eugénie and Line were talking to the women. The pictures above show exactly the status of our relation with them. They still need to pay back some loans dating from 2004!!! Difficult for them to look at us in the eyes…
f
Sissa is a very Muslim village and our messages can be difficult to be understood. Marriages of young girls are arranged. We do talk about slavery and this is a type of slavery. More than 80% of the young girls are excised, is it not also a type of slavery?
g

omen with their protection kits of DAYS FOR GIRLS.


Vieux Farka Touré
g
Saturday night we went to see a Malian musician Vieux Farka Touré. His father Ali Farka Touré was a well-known “African blues man”.
It was a good and relaxing time.
Proverb of the week
The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
La roue qui grince reçoit la graisse.
Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Trop de cuisiniers gâtent la soupe.
Have a nice week,
Hervé[:de]6 November 2016
Transport on the roads of Burkina is always a challenge. The small bus on the left is driving at 80km per hour!!!! You can count on one broken truck per 20km along the road.
a
b
Civil servants and consultants
In previous blogs I already mentioned the difficulties to create jobs when everybody wants to be a civil servant. Well there is now a new category of “blood sucker”: the consultants, experts.
A lot of the projects in Burkina are funded via governmental agencies (the funds are coming from the IMF, World bank, European Union…). Associations, NGO’s, companies can register to those agencies in order to get funds. We looked at some possibilities to get funds for professional training ourselves. The application to get qualified for this agency is 19 pages long with a lot of attachments. The application for project funding is also as long.
A new business has started around consulting. First to make the application for qualification and then to apply for projects. Since the funding agencies we are looking for do not fund salaries, the personnel used for the project are consultants. The salaries of the consultants are sky high compared to the local salaries. Consultants do not have long term view and have little responsibilities nor care as far as results are concerned.
The worse is that since civil servants have time to have several activities, they become consultants on the side….
Entrepreneurs get very little support from the government and very few want to take risks or have the means to start a business (or hire a consultant!).
Scholarship holders in Banfora
From a maximum of 72, 5 years ago, we now have only 8 students with a scholarship in the city of Banfora (5 girls and 3 boys).

Karamoko (tutor on the left) with the 7 students


d

Eugénie took advantage of our visit to Banfora to talk to the girls and give them a kit for protection during their periods.


Visit to the village of Sissa
Sissa is the village the furthest away from Bobo Dioulasso (75km). It is a village of more than 2.000 people.
e
We had asked to meet the male leaders while Eugénie and Line were talking to the women. The pictures above show exactly the status of our relation with them. They still need to pay back some loans dating from 2004!!! Difficult for them to look at us in the eyes…
f
Sissa is a very Muslim village and our messages can be difficult to be understood. Marriages of young girls are arranged. We do talk about slavery and this is a type of slavery. More than 80% of the young girls are excised, is it not also a type of slavery?
g

omen with their protection kits of DAYS FOR GIRLS.


Vieux Farka Touré
g
Saturday night we went to see a Malian musician Vieux Farka Touré. His father Ali Farka Touré was a well-known “African blues man”.
It was a good and relaxing time.
Proverb of the week
The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
La roue qui grince reçoit la graisse.
Too many cooks spoil the broth.
Trop de cuisiniers gâtent la soupe.
Have a nice week,
Hervé[:]

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