The Mali Project

Sometimes it is quite interesting how you get involved in things.

My best buddy from University, Juergen, went to an international development conference in Sydney in September 2006 and met his future girlfriend and now my good friend, Elise. Representing a Melbourne-based NGO called Reach, Elise delivered a presentation to the ocnference participants about a Malian-based project she has led since 2004. The project centres mostly around raising funds for educational infrastructure - building schools, assuring the right equipment for teachers and students and developing an education curriculum that could be integrated with the national standard. After the first year of construction and fundraising more than 130 students were enrolled.



Key to the Mali Project is its community-based leader Youchaou Traore, who grew up as an orphan on the streets of Kalabankoro, a small village community on the outskirts of Mali's capital - Bamako. See a short video introducing the Mali Project here. Mali remains one of the five poorest country's in the world according to the latest UNDP Human Development report. 80% of the 12 million inhabitants have never been to school or learned how to read or write.

Politically, Mali continues to be a peaceful country with a democractically elected government. This has followed many decades of dictatorship. While not a "donor darling" like Botswana the international community is very supportive of the Malian government and the reforms it has taken to reduce poverty levels since 2003.

From an economic viewpoint - Mali is unattractive to foreign direct investment because it is landlocked, has a limited resource base (cotton, gold) and thus vulnerable to external shocks (Can you say WTO failure to reverse Western farm subsidization!), low levels of human development and very weak infrastructure. Almost the entire country lives off a little more than $1/day. Given all these factors it is not difficult to see why the average life expectancy in Mali is a shocking 48 years of age.

But all these negative factors is neither here nor there. Since March 2007 Elise, Juergen and I have (with the help of many supportive friends and family) discussed how we can take the Mali project to the next level. What does this mean? Well, at the present moment we have an amazing base to build from - two schools, a vocational school (No need to focus only on math/science when the country has a shortage of masons/plummers), healthcare centre, women's entrepreneurship project and street children social entrepreneurship project. We also have incredible drive, passion and vision from Youchaou on the ground in Western Africa. I was fortunate to meet Youchaou here in Sydney when he visited in June 2007.

The local and international personalities are key to this project - each one of us brings in something complementary to the overall team: Youchaou as community leader and founder, Elise as founder, program architect and successful fundraiser; my previous experience working for the UN in East Africa, and experience with government and international donor institutions and finally Juergen - dreamer, compassionate Buddhist and extensive private sector experience - key to securing donations from companies like Google and inculcating a business mindset in all of us!

So how do we scale up? Where does the Mali Project go from here - how does it grow? How do Elise, Juergen and I along with Youchaou - ensure the project is sustainable through 2010 and beyond? Western donors I have met with - World Bank, Canadian International Development Agency have provided some good advice on our scale up potential. Currently, the projects we have are all noteworthy and necessary but the Mali project needs more focus - current projects read too much like a 'wishlist' and in western donor jargon I know that means they are concerned the current consortium of projects are not sustainable and achievable and, particularly if they are going to put in a large sum of funding - success could be difficult to evaluate/measure.

The challenge therefore is to take the constructive critiques of western donors, and perhaps advance a more sectoral approach to the project. So, instead of tackling three broad-based sectors simultaneously - healthcare, social entrepreneurship and education - the Mali project team may choose education and focus our proposals around this and develop a long-term strategy that satisfies donor requirements for funding. This will mean developing project objectives, goals, criteria for success and integrating our concept into the Mali Country Assistance Stratgey (developed by Malian government and int'l donors). I think we can do this, and not just to satisfy donors funding requirements but because for the communities in Mali - ensuring a long-term vision and continuous funding for the project is sensible.

There is hard work ahead for all of us to translate this into reality.

We will take the passion from Mali and nuance this to fit with Western donor expectations. However, all of us will certainly be mindful to never lose sight of the fact that this project remains driven by those in Mali. The goal has always been to reduce poverty and create new opportunities - Millennium Development Goal #1. The Mali Project began after a call for assistance from Youchaou. No one dreamed the Mali Project would be where it is now. Three years on the project has evolved and donors are showing interest. We will take this enthusiasm and draft a strategic plan with Youchaou and Kalabankoro that works - not to suit a bureaucratic requirement far away in the West but because this makes sense for the community and supports the livelihood of its people.

The day will come when Western funding is no longer necessary in Mali and Kalabankoro. This is still some time off but it is my hope in seven to ten years residents of Kalabankoro will have attained educational levels that attract and create more productive employment opportunities, increased investment in local infrastructure, better health care and ultimately, improved living standards. It can be done...