The following week was defined by feelings from all ends of the spectrum during the grand Bamako sub-regional workshop. There, I met 3 other EWB long term overseas volunteers based in Senegal, Ghana and Burkina Faso, all of which are working at different levels on the Multifunctional Platform Project. I was anxious to dive into the Malian culture after my wonderful stay in the village, but we were lodged in what here is considered a fancy hotel, living and eating like tourists for the entire week. This is when it occurred to me that Malians working in our development NGO live very comfortable lives, to say the least.

One day, at the end of the scheduled workshop, the first rain of the season was pouring down violently. The conference room where we were located was about 200 metres from the hotel. Within minutes there were United Nations Development Program (UNDP) SUVs lined up to drive people back to the hotel. How ironic! The SUV represents in all its glory the antithesis of the humble development approach. That day, during a workshop, I almost fell off my chair when I realized that a 27 million dollar budget was going to be spent on the next phase of the project. I hopped in an SUV that day to spare everyone an inappropriate sight of me in a soaked white shirt, but I couldn’t help but wonder what proportion of this budget will go towards these luxurious vehicles, the numerous drivers and the deliciously inflated “overhead costs”.

One thing that struck me that week is the lengthy and sincere salutations. You cannot walk by somebody without saluting them if your eyes happen to cross. Contrary to what we are used to, a polite smile will not do. Basic salutations include: “Hello!”, “How is your family?”, “How is your health?”, “How is your husband/wife?”. And the most impolite thing you can possibly do is to approach somebody and start talking business or asking for a favor without this essential salutation ritual. It is likely more impolite than eating with your left hand, which is strangely the more widely-known “faux pas”. Amongst EWB volunteers, we became used to inquiring about each other’s bowel movements on top of the regular salutations, since those were generally the defining factor for our overall attitude on any given day...

It is important for me at this point to give an overview of the Multifunctional Platform (MFP) Project. This project started in Mali in 1998, with the intention of providing an efficient solution to poverty alleviation. The project proposes an appropriate technology to lighten the intense workload of rural women. The objective of the services offered by this technology is to liberate time that can be invested in education, caring for children, improving sanitary conditions and creating activities that may generate income. The success of the MFP is explained by the comprehensive social, economic and technical approach.

The MFP is in fact an 8 to 10 hp diesel engine mounted on a chassis that can power various agro-processing machinery like a mill, dehusker and oil press. It can also serve to generate electricity to activate a water pump or power a 250-bulb lighting network. The MFP can simultaneously charge batteries or power welding equipment. The approach also integrates an alphabetization program since the MFP is simply an energy business created and managed by women cooperatives. These cooperatives consist of a few female villagers who may not have had the chance to attend school and that are empowered by the management responsibilities resulting from the platform operations. Local artisans are trained to ensure the adequate maintenance of the machinery and the technical sustainability of the MFP. The female cooperative is responsible for mobilizing 8% of the initial equipment costs of $11,000 for the basic model including the engine, mill, deshusker and battery charger. All operation and maintenance costs are also responsibility of the women cooperative upon start-up, while the rest of the amount is financed by the MFP project through partners like the UNDP.

The three of us Junior Fellows were never really supposed to attend the workshop and it was a last minute decision to include us all, but we were kindly asked to keep a low profile. So the circumstances made for a very strange week. Presentation after presentation, my head kept getting filled with more and more questions that I could not ask openly. For instance, I really wanted people’s opinion on the Burkina Faso initiative to promote the privately owned and managed MFPs instead of the female cooperative management strategy adopted in Mali. Sure the affordable energy services remain to liberate time for women to improve the livelihoods of their families, and these benefits should not be undermined, but what happened to the important aspect of empowering these women through the alphabetization program and management training? It seems like this new wave of the project loses a significant part of the added value of the program that should not be neglected.

Approximately 535 platforms have been installed over the past five years. The audacious plan for the Mali MFP Project is to install 1500 more platforms over the next three years in an attempt to contribute to the achievement of the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) for 2015. The MFP project actually tackles three of the eight MDGs more directly by promoting gender equality, achieving universal primary education as well as reducing hunger and poverty.

I did learn a lot throughout the week as the countries were focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of the program, their lessons learned and the urgent actions to be taken. By sitting through some long discussions I was able to grasp the important challenges that will be faced in the second phase of the program, enough that I could identify areas to which I can contribute and shape my internship accordingly. In particular, I discovered the roles and dynamics between different levels of management of the program, which will certainly come in handy given the importance of hierarchy in the Malian workplace. I also witnessed the interesting dynamics of our work groups, the difficulty of facilitators to control the workshops, and the interesting habit of giving a never ending introduction before a question, critic or comment!

We finally left Bamako and were driven by one of the many chauffeurs of the MFP Mali project in a good old SUV to Sévaré, where I am supposed to settle for a while. It felt so good to leave the movement, craze and alarming poverty of the sidewalks of the capital. I have always been comforted by the small town atmosphere and the stronger community feeling that gives hope to even the poorest of the poor. Somehow people’s shells are not as thick in less populated areas, and villagers are less inclined to turn a blind eye to their neighbor in need… Not to say that the reassuring community feeling was not observed in Bamako. This is Africa after all and the strong sense of solidarity is one of the riches that no one has yet succeeded to steal from its citizens. This preference of mine rather found its roots in Canada, where I have never seen someone sleep on the streets of my tiny rural hometown but where I saw countless homeless people make a home of the busy Toronto sidewalks. Perhaps things will be different from Bamako (or Toronto) in Sévaré. But I am well aware that when exploring a country that stands in the bottom five ranks of the Human Development Index, it is unreasonable for me to even hope for small towns without a single soul holding on for dear life on the side of the street. I knew I would find out soon enough when the sun came up.