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February 02, 2006

Famine Relief in Burkina Faso

I bought some cereal today. Not Kellogg's cornflakes (although they can now be found at 'Self-Service' supermarket in Ouagadougou hoorah hoorah), but 46 tonnes of maize. I need it in order to reimburse the World Food Programme for the quantity which I 'borrowed' during the food security crisis in the north of the country last year.

The WFP sources grain like this - they put out an appel' to all suppliers saying they want to buy x tons and please to give them a quote. The suppliers all submit their quotes independently and the WFP chooses the cheapest. A contract is signed, the grain is delivered and then it is quality-tested. The contract I signed today with Al Haji Tera (grain merchant extraordinaire) specified that the grain he supplies me with should contain maximum 1% foreign bodies (sand, stones, husks etc) and 0% 'predateurs vivants' (literally 'living predators' - e.g. weevils). Which is fair enough, really; there's nothing worse than finding a living predator in your maize flakes when you are breakfasting.

Both the primary school feedings and the seed distributions were only possible through your donations, so thank you again for your support. See the famine relief category for more on those projects.

I am rather in two minds about whether I would get involved in exactly the same way another year. Shortly after the harvest, President Blase Campare (deliberate misspelling) spent the equivalent of 1.8 million US dollars on merchandise for his re-election campaign - money which was sitting there all through the food security crisis. Locals and ex-pats alike were furious when they found this out. How do you relate to a government that seems to have little concern for the rural poor? Do you let them depend on the generosity of NGOs to fund emergency aid? Or do you flounce off in a huff and leave them to it? Wisdom forbids the former, compassion forbids the latter. So what are the middle ways?

Posted by sahelsteve at February 2, 2006 11:54 AM