What am I doing in Sengal? Prensenting the AFVP

While in Paris, I never wrote a blog to explain exactly what I’m doing at l’AFVP. I have a few drafts but was always reluctant to publish them because my tone, no matter how objective I tried to be, sounded critical. And since my colleagues are welcome to visit my website, I feel it best to keep my opinions to myself. However, I will give you a general summary of the Association.

The AFVP was created back in 64, not too long after the emergence of big multilateral and bilateral accords (Bretton Woods, Marshall Plan) to manage global affairs. The U.S. had their peace corps and Charles DeGaulle, convinced it was necessary to protect French influence in newly independent francophone Africa, secured the money and politicians necessary to launch l’Association des Volontaires du Progres. Back in the day, most volunteers left on missions concerning agriculture. When the volunteer arrived in the African village the first thing he would do was build his house. Over the next 15 years, as aid became more accessible for developing countries, missions expanded to include infrastructure (building of dams, schools and hospitals, etc). The Minister of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the "unofficial" head of the AFVP board, decided the Association would be operator of development projects. This meant that from then on, not only would they be in charge of recruiting volunteers and following up on them, but they were also to place bids with large organizations like the IMF, World Bank and the UN to run and execute large projects. Their work mostly involved initiatives in francophone Africa but in the last 10 years extended towards Latin-America and Asia. The AFVP has an impressive list of partners co-financing their activities.

In 2000 everything changed. The MFA told AFVP that it was no longer to take on projects. The main reason for this, they say, is that developing countries are now able to find solutions to their own problems with the explosion of local NGOs and associations and the growing number of educated Nationals. The AFVP, with their 30 years of experience managing projects must return to their first objective of recruiting volunteers and placing them throughout the world as beacons of international solidarity. No longer should the volunteers be the ones in charge of projects, but rather will offer their presence as technical and organizational support for local initiatives. In making this change the government sliced their subsidies by half saying that the large structure running the Association was no longer necessary. Whereas the MFA used to give them a nice fat sum every year, they now peg their contribution to the number of volunteers on the field. AND, they now only finance 2/3 of the cost of volunteers. AFVP is required to find the last third themselves. To make a long story short, these massive changes caused an Internal CRISIS. Right before I arrived at the AFVP, they had just laid off half of their workforce… approximately 55 people.

My 2 months at the headquarters consisted of an intensive study of the Association’s history, its goals, structure, management, and activities. I spoke at length with department heads and employees. Most folks there have worked for the AFVP between 10-30 years! I really wanted to take advantage of the great accumulation of experiences and competencies in the development world. And I must say, I learned a lot. However, if I had to sum it up in one sentence it would be "by in large, the occidental method of imposing projects designed to solve occidental objectives didn’t work".

So what are my concrete actions? At the headquarters I worked closely with the Director of Communications and Recruitment. I prepared project descriptions for presentation packets aimed at establishing partnerships (w/ associations, municipalities, regions, businesses, etc). Now that the AFVP must secure funding with a partner before the government puts in their two-thirds, it is extremely important to establish these "cooperations". I also went to a couple University job fairs to help recruit potential volunteers. And, I did some translation work. The need for their documents to be translated in English has grown with the increase of Asian partners.

In Senegal, I’m working with the Regional Director. He checks up on projects in 7 West African countries. Once again, I’m working on updating project descriptions. However it is also in the plans that I do some work synthesizing ongoing projects by theme… for example, women’s health, eco-tourism, youth programs, etc. It will be a enriching experience. I will travel quite a bit, visiting project sites throughout Senegal and maybe in a couple other countries. Finally, the last goal is to produce a 20 minute recruiting video to replace the current super dull powerpoint presentation shown to graduate students. The video will try to capture the spirit of working in Africa… introduce the variety of projects, show volunteers talking about their experiences, share some culture. I’ve been given the o.k. to have Phil come over and put it together with his mad digital media skills. The AFVP can only cover his plane ticket though… which is very expensive.

My website says Ill be helping the destitute of Senegal. I plan on changing this promptly. I really had no clue, nor did the AFVP, as to what my concrete actions would be. It is actually quite the contrary, for it is the Senegalese who are helping me. They have shown me a world completely different from anything I’ve ever known. I admire their amazing work ethic, especially the women, their family values, their gaiety of heart. It is refreshing to be surrounded by folks with a decisively communal spirit. Sharing is the only option here. Yes, there is an amazing amount of potential to be harnessed on this vast continent. The key is in education. It is the youth who will build the better tomorrow. Bringing awareness and dignity to women’s status and role is also of utmost importance. I’m jumping off my soap box now. Tomorrow, I promise little text, lots of pictures :-)