Gender and Development (GAD)

It all started with a session during Post Service Training (PST) on GAD. The training left mes thinking. I started researching on the internet on what GAD means and what kind of activities people who work in development do to promote gender and development.

During In Service Training two GAD committee meetings were scheduled. Out of that came ideas and a plan to meet at least quarterly. This can be hard since many volunteers need a day or two to travel anywhere here in Mali and places to stay when they get to Bamako or where ever the meeting is going to take place.

Koro, my homologue attended one of these meetings and asked a volunteer who's Bamabara was good to explain what GAD was. When I got back to Koutiala Koro set me up with an NGO that does GAD work. So every Tuesday afternoon I go and attend a group that teaches women and leadership as well as dealing with some hard issues such as female excision and birth control.

When the announcement of a West African Gender and Development conference sponsored by Peace Corps Volunteers in Senegal I emailed the Country Director right away to get on the list of participants. Here is a link to SeneGAD's website http://senegad.org/index.html. The conference had a lot of good information and stimulated a lot of ideas.

Peace Corps Mali has a long way to go to establishing a GAD committee but hopefully we have several dedicated volunteers that will see this project through.

One study I read is quoted as saying;

"The poverty reduction agenda, in particular, would benefit from paying attention to gender issues. One study (Klasen 1999, cited in World Bank 2001) estimates that if the countries in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Middle East and North Africa had addressed their gender gap in schooling similarly to East Asia—which began tackling the issue in 1960 and closed the gap by 1992—their income per capita could have grown by 0.5–0.9 percentage points"

Since Mali is in Sub-Saharan Africa this would apply to all of us doing Gender and Development work here. And it's true the educated people speak French and so far I have met very few women artisans who speak French, many can't read or write.

This work seems overwhelming so I try to look at the little things that seem to be making a difference and hope that I can contribute.

In Service Training Bamako

After three weeks in Bamako for an in service training. Back in Koutiala a cloud of dust has settled over the city and it hasn't rained in four months. The temperatures have ranged from 41 to 94 degrees.

The trip to IST started from Koutiala at 8:00 am in the morning. About mid morning the bus broke down and low and behold they did a break job in an hour and a half and we were on our way. This bus ride was a big improvement to our 20 hour bus ride going to Mopti. The bus from Koutiala to Mopti should takes six hours, we spent the night on the side of the road because the bus was broken down. Got to love West African transportation.

This is how my IST started. I met my stage (training group) at Tubaniso in January for more training. I call Tubaniso “Camp Peace Corps” because we stay in dorms three to a room, eat in a cafeteria, and our time is not our own.

The first two weeks we were there without our homologues. Small Enterprise Development has sessions on accounting Malian style, illiterate accounting, along with sessions on our sub-sectors of Tourism, Artisans, and Government. I work with artisans. There many field trips planned and I went to the National Tourist Artisan organization in Bamako and a radio station.

Several days I escaped to Bamako. Since I brought my bicycle this turned out to be real easy as well as a good way to get to the capital city. The first day I went in the same circle three times. Giving directions here is hard with virtually no street signs, people not wanting to disappoint you so they tell you how to get somewhere when they don’t necessarily know themselves. Finally realizing the med unit was close to the Niger River I headed that way until things looked familiar.

Many volunteers met during IST to start forming a Gender and Development committee and/or sector here in Mali. In February 2009 Peace Corps Senegal is hosting a Gender and Development conference that Peace Corps Mali has given me permission to attend. I am looking forward to this opportunity.

Koro, my homologue received a certificate for attending and I gave a speech at the closing ceremony. Now it is so good to be back in Koutiala, Home Sweet Home.