Les Echos (Bamako)
19 Février 2008
Publié sur le web le 19 Février 2008
Ogopémo Ouologuem
Avec la pauvreté des milliers de Maliens, nos compatriotes, particulièrement ceux vivant en zones rurales, se rabattent de plus en plus sur les institutions de micro finance. Un secteur fortement sollicité mais en danger parce que les conditions pouvant assurer sa pérennité ne sont pas encore réunies.
La micro finance se définit comme l'offre des services financiers destinée aux personnes n'ayant pas accès au système financier classique. De 1980 où les institutions de micro finance ont vu le jour en Afrique de l'ouest à aujourd'hui, les institutions de micro finance (mutuelles d'épargne et de crédit, institutions de crédit solidaire, etc.) n'ont cessé de gagner du terrain. En Afrique occidentale, le nombre de personnes qui se servent de ce qui communément appelé « la banque des pauvres » se chiffre aujourd'hui à environ 8 millions. Ce qui démontre tout l'intérêt des populations au secteur. Au Mali, ils sont des centaines de nos compatriotes à épargner dans les structures de micro finance et les emprunteurs sont tout aussi nombreux. « J'économise ma pension à la mutuelle d'épargne et fais des retraits quand je veux sans aucune entrave », a témoigné un septuagénaire. Ce qui le touche particulièrement, c'est que ses parents peuvent directement verser de l'argent dans son compte en un laps de temps. « Mon fils m'envoie régulièrement de l'argent de l'extérieur que je vérifie sur mon compte sans aucun problème. Ce système m'épargne beaucoup de déplacements et de procédures que je ne peux plus supporter », s'est-il félicité.
Les femmes ne sont pas en reste des services offerts par la micro finance. Elles sont légion celles qui économisent ou sollicitent même des prêts qu'elles restituent par la suite. « Notre caisse d'épargne m'a permis d'avoir un fonds de commerce avant de rembourser l'argent prêté. Aujourd'hui, je dois beaucoup à cette caisse », a dit une femme de la commune rurale de Kita. Dans la capitale de l'Arachide, la micro finance est aussi en pleine expansion avec des habitants qui font de plus en plus confiance aux structures locales d'épargne. « L'on peut aisément voir les femmes prendre la direction des centres d'épargnes informels pour sauvegarder leurs maigres ressources ou solliciter des prêts », a avoué un conseiller municipal de Kita.
Des Dangers
Dans la ville « des trois caïmans », ce sont les tontines, qui s'illustrent pour non seulement souder les liens sociaux mais surtout pour permettre aux adhérents de faire des réalisations. « Je me sacrifie en m'inscrivant à la tontine mensuelle que nous organisons entre nous à l'école. Mais, quand je l'obtiens, je construis sur ma parcelle, qui est sur le point d'être habitable », a dit un enseignant du secondaire.
Cependant, le secteur fait face à des défis énormes. Selon Boubacar Diallo, conseiller technique en micro finance à « Freedom from hunger », la marge de progression du secteur est impressionnante mais fragile. En effet, il est confronté aux problèmes de la professionnalisation du contrôle interne et externe et au perfectionnement du système d'information et de gestion. C'est à ce dernier point que se trouve le gros des problèmes dans la mesure où souvent « les responsables ne savent pas exactement qui a prêté et qui a épargné ». Une situation qui entraîne donc des pertes à la structure dans la mesure où avec un déficit de communication entre les différentes structures les « mauvais clients » naviguent entre eux pour obtenir des crédits.
A ces difficultés, il faut ajouter, « la faiblesse des ressources financières, notamment les ressources longues, les difficultés administratives et judiciaires, la problématique de la sécurisation des fonds, la fragilisation des acquis institutionnels et financiers par la désaffiliation de certaines structures de base de leurs faîtières, l'instabilité du personnel et le non-remboursement des crédits », a laissé entendre le président de l'Association des professionnels des institutions de la micro finance (Apim)
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
MALI: Rural youth rarely find fortunes in the city
BAMAKO, 12 October 2007 (IRIN) - When Nouhoum Sangaré left his wife, three children and village in southern Mali for the capital Bamako 240km away, he expected to find stable work and a comfortable life, and eventually have his family join him.
He found a different and unglamorous reality. He goes from small job to small job, barely making ends meet. He often comes home after a day’s work with 100 CFA francs (22 US cents).
“It’s not easy,” Sangaré told IRIN, “because I have to share the crumbs I earn with my parents and my family in the village.”
Sangaré is one of a growing number of young rural Malians who are leaving their homes to find work in the city.
Mali’s capital, Bamako, is the fastest growing city in Africa and the sixth-fastest growing city in the world, according to data compiled by the Mayor’s Association, a global network of city officials.
Urban areas are booming throughout West Africa. In Mali’s western neighbour Mauritania, more than 60 percent of the traditionally nomadic people there are estimated to have moved to towns and cities.
Analysts say most do not find what they are looking for and in some cases end up worse off.
Fleeing poverty
No national study has been conducted to gauge the magnitude of migration within Mali; but in the western region of Kayes - one of the hardest hit by migration - a non-governmental organisation (NGO) found that 40 percent of its population had left the region in the period 1993-2002 to move either to Bamako, elsewhere in West or North Africa, or to try to get to Europe.
Sangaré, 26, blames decline in his village for his decision to flee. “The fields don’t produce any more. The fruits rot because we don’t have the means to turn them into other products [for example, juice] or to take them into town,” where there is more of a market for them, he said.
“After the rainy season we have nothing to do but rub shoulders with poverty every day.”
Observers say the majority of the young men and women who move to Bamako and other urban areas do not fare much better there than they did in the countryside, because in the city they have to start from scratch and pay for things they used to just pull out of the ground.
Worries
“At first they are busy trying to find work. They do whatever work they can find - labourer, factory worker, hawker - and if they don’t find anything to provide for their immediate needs, they get into theft and robbery,” Drissa Guindo, national director of youth at the Ministry of Youth and Sport, told IRIN.
“It’s really only a handful that succeed.”
Sangaré has tried everything from selling sunglasses to building work, and shoe-shining. He is now a rickshaw driver by day and a security guard by night. He says his children are no better off since his move to the city: he gave his daughter up for adoption to his aunt, and none of his children are in school.
“In the village, we worry more about what we will feed our children than their education,” he said. “I’d like to put them in school, but our financial situation makes that impossible.” He hopes in two years to make enough money to enrol his youngest son.
Sanogo, unable to find work in Bamako, is now planning to go abroad. It is a choice that 70 percent of young migrants make after internal movement fails to produce results, the NGO Mali-Folkecenter said.
Working girls
The situation is worse for young girls, who are increasingly migrating because of poverty and in search money for a dowry. They find work as cooks, maids, nannies and in small businesses.
According to the Association d’aide aux aides ménagères, an agency that places girls looking for work with families, many girls are exploited because they are young, easily manipulated, unaware of their rights and afraid to expose their employers. In the worst of conditions, the association says, they work more than 15 hours a day, are beaten, badly fed, poorly paid and treated like quasi slaves.
“If we don’t go to work in a town to prepare our future as wives, who will? It’s the only way we can afford clothes, shoes and cooking utensils to take back to our village,” said 15-year-old servant Amina Coulibaly. “Our mothers and sisters did the same.”
“We have to give rural youth the means to stay in their communities,” said Soumana Satao, director-general of the government’s Agency for the Promotion of Youth Employment. “Otherwise, we will not be able to stop this rural exodus.”
sd/ha/cb/nr
[END]
© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.irinnews.org
[This item comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States. Reposting or reproduction, with attribution, for non-commercial purposes is permitted. Terms and conditions: http://www.irinnews.org/copyright.aspx
He found a different and unglamorous reality. He goes from small job to small job, barely making ends meet. He often comes home after a day’s work with 100 CFA francs (22 US cents).
“It’s not easy,” Sangaré told IRIN, “because I have to share the crumbs I earn with my parents and my family in the village.”
Sangaré is one of a growing number of young rural Malians who are leaving their homes to find work in the city.
Mali’s capital, Bamako, is the fastest growing city in Africa and the sixth-fastest growing city in the world, according to data compiled by the Mayor’s Association, a global network of city officials.
Urban areas are booming throughout West Africa. In Mali’s western neighbour Mauritania, more than 60 percent of the traditionally nomadic people there are estimated to have moved to towns and cities.
Analysts say most do not find what they are looking for and in some cases end up worse off.
Fleeing poverty
No national study has been conducted to gauge the magnitude of migration within Mali; but in the western region of Kayes - one of the hardest hit by migration - a non-governmental organisation (NGO) found that 40 percent of its population had left the region in the period 1993-2002 to move either to Bamako, elsewhere in West or North Africa, or to try to get to Europe.
Sangaré, 26, blames decline in his village for his decision to flee. “The fields don’t produce any more. The fruits rot because we don’t have the means to turn them into other products [for example, juice] or to take them into town,” where there is more of a market for them, he said.
“After the rainy season we have nothing to do but rub shoulders with poverty every day.”
Observers say the majority of the young men and women who move to Bamako and other urban areas do not fare much better there than they did in the countryside, because in the city they have to start from scratch and pay for things they used to just pull out of the ground.
Worries
“At first they are busy trying to find work. They do whatever work they can find - labourer, factory worker, hawker - and if they don’t find anything to provide for their immediate needs, they get into theft and robbery,” Drissa Guindo, national director of youth at the Ministry of Youth and Sport, told IRIN.
“It’s really only a handful that succeed.”
Sangaré has tried everything from selling sunglasses to building work, and shoe-shining. He is now a rickshaw driver by day and a security guard by night. He says his children are no better off since his move to the city: he gave his daughter up for adoption to his aunt, and none of his children are in school.
“In the village, we worry more about what we will feed our children than their education,” he said. “I’d like to put them in school, but our financial situation makes that impossible.” He hopes in two years to make enough money to enrol his youngest son.
Sanogo, unable to find work in Bamako, is now planning to go abroad. It is a choice that 70 percent of young migrants make after internal movement fails to produce results, the NGO Mali-Folkecenter said.
Working girls
The situation is worse for young girls, who are increasingly migrating because of poverty and in search money for a dowry. They find work as cooks, maids, nannies and in small businesses.
According to the Association d’aide aux aides ménagères, an agency that places girls looking for work with families, many girls are exploited because they are young, easily manipulated, unaware of their rights and afraid to expose their employers. In the worst of conditions, the association says, they work more than 15 hours a day, are beaten, badly fed, poorly paid and treated like quasi slaves.
“If we don’t go to work in a town to prepare our future as wives, who will? It’s the only way we can afford clothes, shoes and cooking utensils to take back to our village,” said 15-year-old servant Amina Coulibaly. “Our mothers and sisters did the same.”
“We have to give rural youth the means to stay in their communities,” said Soumana Satao, director-general of the government’s Agency for the Promotion of Youth Employment. “Otherwise, we will not be able to stop this rural exodus.”
sd/ha/cb/nr
[END]
© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.irinnews.org
[This item comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States. Reposting or reproduction, with attribution, for non-commercial purposes is permitted. Terms and conditions: http://www.irinnews.org/copyright.aspx
Quick Note
The Malien government created an Agency in 2004 to tackle youth employment issues. A website has been created and the address is as follows;
www.apej-mali.org
Another website with useful links and sources is the national employment website;
www.anpe-mali.org
For anyone interested in employment issues in Mali, these two sites are great places to start learning more.
www.apej-mali.org
Another website with useful links and sources is the national employment website;
www.anpe-mali.org
For anyone interested in employment issues in Mali, these two sites are great places to start learning more.
BBC Article on Youth Issues in Mali, Saturday, 3 December 2005
Africa summit focus on youth jobs
Previous France-Africa summits have had mixed successFrench President Jacques Chirac has joined leaders from across Africa in Mali for a two-day summit focusing on youth issues.
More than 50 African heads of state or senior officials are taking part in the two-yearly meeting, in Bamako. Topping the agenda are Africa's problems with youth unemployment and migration, as well as conflict. More than 60% of the 860 million people living in Africa are under the age of 25 and youth unemployment is rife.
Message from the young
The 23rd France-Africa summit was opened in Bamako's congress hall by Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure. He was followed by Mr Chirac, who is making his first trip outside of Europe since he was hospitalised in September following what doctors called a "vascular incident".
At the ceremony a message written on the behalf of the youth of Africa was read to the delegates. Speaking after his arrival in Mali on Friday evening Mr Chirac said that most young Africans were seeking peace and democracy and the chance to enjoy "normal living conditions for our times".
"African leaders are determined to hear and see to it that we can bring, with international co-operation, the responses expected by all these young people," he said.
Ivory Coast security
The BBC's James Copnall says that youth unemployment is a huge problem for Africa and linked to that is the desire of so many Africans, both young and old, to emigrate to the West.
On Thursday the UN office for West Africa issued a report in Senegal saying nearly 75% of Africans under 30 are unemployed.
In recent months, this has been highlighted by the thousands of sub-Saharan Africans desperately trying to break into the two Spanish enclaves in Morocco, our correspondent says.
The summit will also consider the conflicts on the continent, including Darfur and Ivory Coast.
France currently has 4,000 soldiers deployed in Ivory Coast, alongside a 7,000-strong UN force. However, Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo is not attending the meeting. According to his office this is due to the ongoing security situation in his country.
Our correspondent says Ivory Coast and several other Francophone African nations have a poor relationship with France, their former colonial power.
In recent years, the France-Africa summits have often been condemned for achieving little concrete progress. But that has not always been the case, our correspondent says - in 1990, the-then French President Francois Mitterrand said all future French aid would be conditional on democratic advances. Shortly afterwards, a number of Francophone states introduced multi-party politics for the first time.
Previous France-Africa summits have had mixed successFrench President Jacques Chirac has joined leaders from across Africa in Mali for a two-day summit focusing on youth issues.
More than 50 African heads of state or senior officials are taking part in the two-yearly meeting, in Bamako. Topping the agenda are Africa's problems with youth unemployment and migration, as well as conflict. More than 60% of the 860 million people living in Africa are under the age of 25 and youth unemployment is rife.
Message from the young
The 23rd France-Africa summit was opened in Bamako's congress hall by Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure. He was followed by Mr Chirac, who is making his first trip outside of Europe since he was hospitalised in September following what doctors called a "vascular incident".
At the ceremony a message written on the behalf of the youth of Africa was read to the delegates. Speaking after his arrival in Mali on Friday evening Mr Chirac said that most young Africans were seeking peace and democracy and the chance to enjoy "normal living conditions for our times".
"African leaders are determined to hear and see to it that we can bring, with international co-operation, the responses expected by all these young people," he said.
Ivory Coast security
The BBC's James Copnall says that youth unemployment is a huge problem for Africa and linked to that is the desire of so many Africans, both young and old, to emigrate to the West.
On Thursday the UN office for West Africa issued a report in Senegal saying nearly 75% of Africans under 30 are unemployed.
In recent months, this has been highlighted by the thousands of sub-Saharan Africans desperately trying to break into the two Spanish enclaves in Morocco, our correspondent says.
The summit will also consider the conflicts on the continent, including Darfur and Ivory Coast.
France currently has 4,000 soldiers deployed in Ivory Coast, alongside a 7,000-strong UN force. However, Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo is not attending the meeting. According to his office this is due to the ongoing security situation in his country.
Our correspondent says Ivory Coast and several other Francophone African nations have a poor relationship with France, their former colonial power.
In recent years, the France-Africa summits have often been condemned for achieving little concrete progress. But that has not always been the case, our correspondent says - in 1990, the-then French President Francois Mitterrand said all future French aid would be conditional on democratic advances. Shortly afterwards, a number of Francophone states introduced multi-party politics for the first time.
YEN MALI
Welcome!
My name is Caroline Vavro, and I am the YEN Associate for Mali. During my time here I have been assisting on an ILO capacity building project to assist the Malien government development and implement youth employment strategies as part of the country's wider poverty reduction campaign. I hope to share with all of you details of the progress that has been made and the challanges that remain. Replies to my blogs posted are most welcome!
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