May 30, 2009

A little bit about where I am…

I arrived at Gomponsom on the evening of May 19 on the back of Abdoulaye’s Yamaha 100cc motorcycle, obediently wearing my helmet, and wondering what my home for the next 3 months would look like. Abdoulaye is my counterpart, and I’ll be working with him a great deal this summer.

Riding on the back of Abdoulaye's motorcycle.

Gomponsom is located about 13 km east of Yako, the capital of the Passore province. Yako is about 100 km north of Ouagadougou. Yako is connected to Gomponsom by a gravel road, on which you can always find a fellow traveller on a motorcycle, a scooter, on a bicycle, or on foot. The road passes through agricultural lands and the village of Zambele.

The village of Gomponsom has a population of about 1200 people, and is the capital of its department, which shares the same name. The Department of Gomponsom encompasses 15 neighbouring villages.

It is currently the end of the dry season. The rains are beginning to fall, signalling the beginning of the rainy season. For farmers, this means that it’s time to start planting.

My first impression of Gomponsom was that it was full of large open spaces. Imagine yourself in rural Quebec right after the snow has melted. This is what it is like now in Gomponsom, with the addition of farm animals roaming around freely (these include cattle, goats, chicken, guinea fowl, donkeys, pigs, dogs, cats, and horses)

The wide open spaces of Gomponsom

I’m currently living in sleeping quarters that my partner organization has for interns, it is located on the grounds of my partner organization. The first night I arrived at Gomponsom, Abdoulaye gave me a tour of the AKNGS (Association Kombi Naam de Gomponsom pour le Sahel… aka the organization I am partnered with): an office, a stockroom, a multifunctional platform, a learning center where various workshops are held, a shop for farmers to buy inputs such as seeds and fertilizers, a bank for farmers to get credit loans…

The learning center at AKNGS

A little bit about my work…

I am partnered with an organization called l’Association Kombi Naam de Gomponsom pour le Sahel, which from now on we’ll call AKNGS.

The focus of my work with the AKNGS is to support one of their various programs: the CEF program. CEF stands for ‘Conseil à l’exploitation familiale’; here, ‘exploitation familiale’ means ‘farm’, and ‘conseil’ is similar to ‘management consulting’.

What is CEF?

CEF is an approach aiming to reinforce farmers’ capacity to plan, monitor, and evaluate their activities, in the aim of providing them with a tool to facilitate their decision-making.

What context is it operating in?

During the rainy season (~May/June - October), families prioritize growing millet, sorghum, and maize. The harvests of the rainy season will be stored within their households and serve to feed the family for the year. Some farmers will have their ‘greniers’ full in November, but will run out of food stocks by June or July, leading to hunger for many families.

What I see when I get up in the morning. In the middle of the picture you can see a 'grenier', where millet from last year is currently stored.

There are many reasons why this happens; one reason that has been identified is that it is challenging for farmers to take into account all the necessary factors while making decisions concerning their farms, at critical times during the year. CEF acts like a mirror that provides farmers with the necessary information to consider important factors.

What does CEF look like in Gomponsom?

My counterpart is a field worker in charge of accompanying farmers through the CEF program. Here is the list of activities he carries out with CEF:

1. Outreach

- The field worker holds a session with farmers within the association. The goal is to make farmers aware of the CEF program and invite them to join

2. Planning

- The field worker holds a session with each CEF farmer group, where every farmer highlights his needs for the year, what he plans to grow during the season, and how he intends to meet his needs

- The field worker holds a workshop with each farmer group on how to use the monitoring logbooks and CEF tools

3. Monitoring

- The field worker holds individual follow-ups with farmers. He follows-up on each of their crops, their agricultural practices, and their data recording in their logbooks

4. Analysis of logbooks

- The field worker tallies the results and prepares positive and constructive feedback for each farmer

5. Conclusion and Evaluation of results

- The field worker holds individual sessions with each farmer to review the results of the year. Together, they review the information recorded in the logbook throughout the season and reflect on what went well, and what the farmer can improve.

- A session is held with each farmer group where the results of the season are shared with everyone, and farmers share best practices and challenges


P.S. When I first began learning about the CEF program I had a lot of questions. My goal through this entry was to give an introduction to the CEF program and what it aims to achieve, in doing so I left out a lot of details.

On the road to Yako

May 18, 2009

Here's a video clip on the road from Ouagadougou to Yako. Some parts of the video are not very good, but if you're patient you'll get to the more visible parts. Hope you enjoy it!

Getting to Ouagadougou...

May 16, 2009

I'm writing this entry sitting on my bed at the Centre Zoungrana in Ouagadougou, where there is a light breeze blowing in our room. It is about 37 degrees, and the air is dry. Very early this morning, before the sun rose, the rain came down really hard. Now it is sunny and calm. There are birds continuously chirping in the mango trees, little lizards running up the walls on the outside walls of the buildings of the centre, and red dust on my feet.

I decided to share how I arrived here, and our adventures along the way…

After 4 months of learning about Burkina Faso, the development sector, and EWB’s overseas work, I left for Toronto on May 6th to arrive at EWB’s National Office, where I met the other 23 Junior Fellows from across Canada. During training we learned more about life in Burkina, about health and safety, about strategies for working with Burkinabe farmers, and about dynamics in Burkinabe society.

The Burkina JFs gearing up for pre-departure training

Streetcar traffic in Toronto

We had a field trip to Food Share, a local NGO in Toronto. If you find yourself in Toronto at any time, I'd definitely suggest visiting Food Share. I learned about how an NGO supports the community, about differences in challenges and opportunities for NGOs like Food Share, NGOs like EWB, and our overseas partner organizations. We also had the chance to get our hands dirty!

On the morning of May 13, we packed up, got on a streetcar and headed to Pearson International Airport. Next stop: Burkina Faso. We flew off of Canadian soil at 5:00 pm, had a 5-hour lay-over in Paris, a short stop in Niamey, and then touched ground in Ouagadougou.

After an intense week, the JFs take a little nap at Charles-de-Gaulle airport in Paris

Stepping off the plane, I was eager to walk away from the aircraft as I thought the heat was coming from the plane… turns out it wasn’t! Once we passed through customs, we retrieved our baggage and bargained with a taxi driver to take us to Centre Zoungrana, where we would be spending the next few nights. Sharing the passenger seat with another EWB volunteer, I got a front row seat to the exciting spectacle that is driving in Ouaga. The rule is simple: drive where there’s space, and pray to God you don’t hit something, or something doesn’t hit you.


Our room at the Centre Zoungrana

Our next few nights in Ouaga, we had the opportunity to work with EWB’s long-term overseas volunteers and learn more about our placements and on the strategy we are using in Burkina. After 3 days in Ouaga, along with 2 fellow JFs, we jumped head first into our placements with a meeting with the president of the FEPA-B. No pressure. The FEPA-B is a new partner to EWB, and this is the first time we are working with them. Along with 2 fellow JFs, a big part of my work this summer will involve building a relationship with our new partner.

A little bit about Burkina Faso...

Literally, "Burkina" translates into "men of integrity," from the Mòoré language, and "Faso" means "father's house" in Djoula. Burkina Faso can be translated into "the land of men of integrity" ( en français... "pays de hommes intègres").

Burkina Faso is located in West Africa, and its capital is Ouagadougou. Burkina Faso is divided into 13 regions, 45 provinces, and 301 departments.



Burkina Faso gained its independence from France in 1960, and was called the Republic of Upper Volta, but this was changed to Burkina Faso on August 4th, 1984, by President Thomas Sankara.

What languages are spoken in Burkina?

The main languages in Burkina are Mòoré and Djoula, as well as French which is the official language, however there are very many dialects spoken throughout the various regions in Burkina.

What's the currency?

The currency here is the West African CFA franc. If you're curious to know what that looks like, 1 Canadian Dollar (CAD) = roughly 420 CFA francs (XOF). CFA stands for 'Communauté financière d'Afrique' ("Financial Community of Africa").

The CFA franc is the common currency of 14 countries in West and Central Africa, 12 of which are former French colonies. The purchasing power in each of these countries varies according the the strength of each of their respective economies. The CFA franc is pegged to the Euro, meaning that it has a fixed exchange rate with the Euro.

What is the climate like?

Burkina Faso has a primarily tropical climate with two very distinct seasons: the rainy season and the dry season. The rainy season lasts approximately four months, May/June to September, and is shorter in the north of the country.

Burkina is located between the Sahara desert in the north, and the coastal regions in the south.



A little bit about Agricultural Structures in Burkina... (this is related to the work that I'll be doing...)

In 1991 the IMF (International Monetary Fund) introduced a Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) in Burkina. SAPs were programs targetted at reducing poverty through macro-economic solutions. It's important to note that they were highly unsuccessful in most countries. The SAP introduced in 1991 asked for:

• Burkina to devaluate its currency, which would in theory increase its exports
• Burkina to liberalize its markets
• AND... the government had to dissengage itself from its agricultural sector

This last point plays a large role in what the agricultural sector in Burkina looks like today, as this gave rise to Federations, which fulfill a role similar to that of a Ministry of Agriculture, only that they are non-government organizations.

There are several Federations in Burkina, these operate at a national level. One of the largest federations in Burkina is called the FEPA-B (Fédération des Producteurs Agricoles du Burkina), and is the federation I am working with. At a regional, provincial, and departmental level, the FEPA-B is broken up into Unions. I am working at the departmental level mostly.