Every year, Global Citizen Year chooses a group of young Americans to spend nine months working as apprentices in rural communities all over the world. Mat Davis, a 2009-2010 fellow, talks about his experience working on a farm in Senegal.
Agriculture is a love of mine. I have been gardening on plots of land in inner city Indianapolis for five years.
It’s this love that led to me become a founding fellow for Global Citizen Year . The program helps young Americans gain a global perspective and develop skills to help address the global issues we’ll face in the future. Each fellow has an apprenticeship. Mine was agriculture.
I worked on a small scale farm for Pate Diop in Gorom, Senegal. I saw just how hard it is to grow enough food for one’s family and for the global market. And I saw just how hard these farmers have to work, overcoming technological disadvantages to do their work.
With Pate and his four sons, I watered 500 tomato plants, 300 pepper plants and whatever other plants he needed to make ends meet. The watering cans we used were made from a plastic gas container that was cut in half. A branch was nailed to either side. They weren’t pretty gardening cans from Sears, but they worked. We worked from 7 AM to 10 AM and then took a donkey-drawn cart back to Pate’s house to escape the hot sun. When we pulled up into the front yard, the women in Pate’s family would be waiting to carry the produce off the markets in huge baskets on the top of their heads. One small box would be kept for the family.
But I often felt frustrated at the markets. There were tables lined up and down the street with women selling vegetables and fish, but all the tables and all the food looked exactly the same. Working hard every day to see the people in my community left with only a small box of food and a market where they couldn’t compete was difficult for me. These were things I had heard and read about, but to gain the different perspectives and to actually live the story was powerful.
My experience on Pate’s farm helped me realize that even with a lot of hard work, farmers often fall short—they’re not able to grow enough food or it’s not at the right price to compete. So in the end, food security is really about giving farmers like Pate the capacity to cultivate more from his land and more for the community.
Earlier today, I linked to this great piece by Elisa Lai on climate change and its impact on women. Now DipNote has a post– that went up a couple days ago, I confess– from Jared Banks. He reflects on a recent trip to Senegal and what he observed in the relationship between climate change, the environment, and migration in the region.
He writes:
The visit to Senegal provided me an opportunity to discuss this issue with policymakers in the national and local governments, nongovernmental organizations, academics who are studying the phenomenon, and leaders of local communities that have been affected by displacements. The team was also able to examine first-hand the impact of environmental and climate changes at very local levels, including among fishing, herding and agricultural communities. For example, we met with the leaders of a fishing community in Camberene (near Dakar), which has experienced both an inflow and outflow of migrants.
The local imam opened the meeting with a prayer and told us the story of the founding of the community by a religious man — a history that continues to influence the community’s generally welcoming attitude toward incoming migrants, including those leaving farming communities in northern Senegal because of desertification. The community members lamented the loss of their beaches to coastal erosion, the rising sea water temperatures, and the slow decline of fishing as a sustainable livelihood. Some of the women said that it is good for young men to migrate abroad, but others lamented that migration isn’t a long-term solution for the community and that the financial crisis has taught them that they cannot always count on remittances.
We also met with a community in Lebar Boye in northern Senegal where the land has become too salinated to farm because of the decreased amount of fresh water, accentuated by a dam that was built to prevent flooding. As a result, most of their children were now working in urban centers. Some farming continued in the Senegal River Valley despite the drought conditions because of a government-funded irrigation system. At one of the farms, we met two young men from Guinea Bissau who travel north to work during the dry season and then head back to Guinea Bissau during their community’s farming season. Climate change and the consequences are not bound by national boundaries.
As part of their 31 in 31 series, Child Fund International recently highlighted recording artist and humanitarian Youssou N’Dour and his efforts in standing up with Senegal against malaria. Surround Sound: Senegal, a campaign by Malaria No More and Foundation Youssou Ndour, kicked off last June and recently held a Xeex Sibbiru (Fight Malaria) concert in Guediway, Senegal.
Creating a “360-degree malaria education and advocacy campaign” in the small West African country is no easy feat. The idea is to mix multiple communication channels with local marketers of entertainment, sport, faith, and business so everyone on every level is included in the education process. Step one: promote malaria prevention through song. Senegalese icon Youssou N’Dour crafted the song Xeex Sibbiru, or Fight Malaria in English, which challenges Senegalese to see the impacts of malaria and choose to take action against it. You can listen to the song on the Child Fund International blog here.
The USAID funded project has many other key contributors including Child Fund Senegal. The NGOs distribute the song at the community level to decision makers such as community leaders, mothers, grandmothers, and heads of households. The song is also broadcast on the radio and discussed in awareness raising sessions.
Surround Sound: Senegal involves community-based maternal and child health services as well as the President’s Malaria Initiative.
Find out more about how the Surround Sound campaign works within Senegal and how great work is being done in the prevention of malaria on the Malaria No More site here.
Yesterday the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) signed a $540 million, five-year compact with Senegal. This is the 11th compact with a sub-Saharan African country and the 19th compact globally. The signing, which took place on Wednesday morning at the U.S. Department of State, was presided over by Republic of Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The compact itself was signed by Senegal’s Minister of Finance and Economy Abdoulaye Diop and Acting MCC CEO Darius Mans.
At an afternoon event hosted by Congressman Donald Payne (D-NJ), a packed room on the Hill heard from Representative Payne, Darius Mans, Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), and President Wade, among others. It was evident that each speaker was proud of this new compact, the partnership it reflects, and the potential it has to further development in Senegal. Rep. Payne lauded President Wade for his commitment to democracy, and Rep. Jackson-Lee said that the Senegal compact was an “…affirmation of President Wade’s commitment to democracy, tolerance, and the future of his young people.”
In his address, President Wade said “I am proud to be the president of a country that the American people believe deserves support for our development.” He praised the U.S. for recognizing the critical role infrastructure plays in development, a factor that Wade himself has made a priority for Senegal.
Darius Mans welcomed this new partnership, and said that the compact reflects Senegal’s own development priorities, emphasizing long-term growth through infrastructure and agriculture. This compact, he said, signals that Senegal is “open for business” with the private sector, and that the next step will be to deliver on these promises. Mans expressed his hope that the MCC compact with Senegal will provide frameworks for lasting growth in the country.
The compact, which is one of the largest signed to-date, focuses on road rehabilitation and irrigation, with an eye towards bolstering agricultural productivity and food security in Senegal, and boosting rural markets and trade. The plan will involve rehabilitating crucial roads in northern and southern Senegal, which is intended to help agricultural communities get their goods to local and international markets and improve access to services like schools and hospitals for rural communities.
The compact will also fund a water and irrigation management project in the Senegal River Valley to increase crop yields. Senegal currently imports 70 percent of its rice, which makes it vulnerable to the dramatic increases in food and rice prices that took place as recently as last year. The irrigation program is designed to increase crop production as a way of improving Senegal’s food security.
One is excited about the Senegal compact, as you can see in the press statement we released today; we look forward to following its implementation and results.
Today the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) approved a five-year, $540 million compact with Senegal—the 11th compact to be signed with a sub-Saharan African country. Senegal was declared eligible for an MCC compact in May 2004, and has spent the time since developing their proposal. The compact aims to reduce poverty and spur economic growth by investing in projects in the transportation, irrigation, and agriculture sectors.
In the MCC’s press statement released today, acting MCC CEO Darius Mans said, “On behalf of MCC, I want to congratulate the people and Government of Senegal for developing an innovative compact that will make a tremendous difference in reducing poverty through economic growth by bolstering food security and transportation connectivity. The Senegalese have laid out a clear vision of improving the quality of their lives through a results-oriented plan. MCC welcomes the opportunity to work together to achieve these compact goals.”
The compact intends to invest in rehabilitating crucial roads in northern and southern Senegal, which, the MCC believes, will enable agricultural communities to get their goods to local and international markets and could mean improved access to services like schools and hospitals for rural communities. Senegal’s compact will also fund a water and irrigation management project that will develop up to 10,500 hectares of land in the Senegal River Valley. Senegal and the MCC hope that the new irrigation scheme will also help prevent the abandonment of 26,000 hectares of land by revamping drainage canals and ensuring secure land-tenure for farmers. The irrigation project is intended to increase crop yields, an essential step towards food security for Senegal, which, as the MCC notes, currently imports 70% of rice consumed in the country.
The compact is expected to be signed on September 16th; be sure to check back here as we will post additional details on the blog.
Right now, some of the world's biggest oil companies are fighting to keep some of their deals with foreign governments secret. Let's tell big oil we won't be bullied.
Cuts to poverty-fighting programs won't balance the budget, but they will set back progress on Canada's development priorities and risk jeopardizing existing investments.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
