Oct 19

The last day of this project and as I leave Benin, I finish this diary where I began, “what is it all about?” Youth Action for Change International (www.yaci.co.uk) supports children and vulnerable adults in poor countries through local charities. They needed a finance volunteer to help them help a charity called Espoir de Demain (EDEM) based in Porto-Novo, Benin.

EDEM aims to support orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) in Benin through schooling, apprenticeship, social support and awareness raising. They have already managed to school 198 OVCs in Porto-Novo, but there is always greater need…

If you wish to make a personal contribution to the lives of these vulnerable children, please do so through the fundraising page:

https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/beninvoluntary

All donations go to YACI which directly funds EDEM in Benin. EDEM then pays the school fees and provides school supplies for OVCs.

In order to expand, EDEM needs to strengthen their financial management. That's where I’ve been helping these two weeks. I reviewed the financial risks, independently verified the expenses of EDEM, reviewed the financial procedures in place as of today, proposed updated financial procedures, taught EDEM staff bookkeeping, reporting and budgeting and also identified some potential future projects…

As the financial volunteer, I was connected with YACI and EDEM by “Accounting for International Development” (AfID). If you are a finance professional and would like to help similar charities around the world, please contact AfID. As an organisation their objective is to provide non-profits and social enterprises with specialist volunteer programmes designed to build the financial management capacity of small community organisations (www.afid.org.uk).

Thank you YACI, EDEM and AfID. Good luck!

Photo: this year’s school-start ceremony with the distribution of school supplies.

Oct 18

“So, what do you think of Benin?” I was asked today. My answer was that my first impressions regarding the culture have been confirmed. The people are both warm and cool: warm in the sense of open and friendly; cool in the sense of relaxed and tolerant. This welcoming culture manifests itself in everything: for example in commerce, there is no hassle from the vendors; and in the traffic, the driving does not appear to be aggressive. I have seen very few outward signs or displays of stress and apparently the crime rates are minimal: I have certainly felt very safe here!

The cultural focus seems to be to accentuate the positive. People appear to celebrate what they have rather than lament what they don’t. I heard a hair-raising case of one vulnerable child today: this particular 12 year-old girl gets up at 6am each day to help her mother get ready at the market; then she returns to make breakfast for the rest of the family before starting her 2 hour walk to school (which starts at 10am). School continues until 7pm but on arriving back home at 9pm she takes over from the mother at the market until about 11pm. If there’s any homework to be done it is after all that!

So to focus on the positive, the good news is that this girl has shelter, food and education; nevertheless her education is precarious.  An “agreeable” culture in Benin means that projects like EDEM’s are possible. The context is favourable for direct action to work without negative cultural forces prohibiting it. EDEM visits the parents and helps children like this girl by following their progress and intervening as necessary. For less fortunate cases, EDEM helps get the child to school by providing uniforms, school supplies and paying their school fees.

If you wish to make a personal contribution to the lives of these vulnerable children, please do so through the fundraising page:

https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/beninvoluntary

All donations go to Youth Action Charity International (YACI) which directly funds EDEM in Benin.

Photo: the sort of market mother might work at…

Oct 17

 Today was spent meeting many more people regarding microfinance and it seems to me that microfinance offers might have now moved away from the original objective of helping those at the “bottom of the pyramid.” Microfinance offers could now be defined as personal or business loans but for small amounts (as can be typically found at any bank). To get a loan, the individual usually has to offer guarantees and (if applicable) have a business already in place with a business plan to expand! This does not match the needs of the poor parents of vulnerable children that EDEM is helping. They have no guarantees and business plans might be no more than an idea. Fortunately, the “original” microfinance solution can still be offered but only on a project basis in partnership with a funding sponsor.

We also met with a consultant who has been engaged by EDEM to perform a needs analysis of the orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs). Some of his initial insights were quite fascinating! For example, we had been thinking of a project to provide breakfasts for the OVCs; however his analysis revealed a more fundamental need: water! Only approximately one in four households have access to drinking water, so to help the OVCs at school there might certainly be a need for a drinking water project (either drilling for fresh water, purifying rain water or purchasing and distributing mineral water). Another identified need was safe lighting so the children can do their homework at home: again, only 25% of households have electricity and the consultant had witness accounts of many children leaving the safety and security of the home to find a street light to work under! Giving rechargeable solar lamps to the OVCs might be a solution…

We did not have a meeting with the minister of microfinance today. As anticipated earlier in the week, meeting such a high-ranking official was always quite ambitious – the original schedule was yesterday! Nevertheless, it is still a possibility and it is tentatively planned for tomorrow. Not that it’s straightforward to get access to a minister in any country, but the approach to time and organising this meeting here in Benin has highlighted to me a particularity of the local culture: everything is in the “moment”, life is in the immediate present with little regard for the future. A planning exercise here seems to be a “high level” review of possibilities – more like scenario planning than scheduling! We did get to see the secretary of the minister in person today and being there face-to-face did give us some leverage to get further: we will try again when tomorrow becomes today!

If you wish to make a personal contribution to the lives of these vulnerable children, please do so through the fundraising page:

https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/beninvoluntary

All donations go to Youth Action Charity International (YACI) which directly funds EDEM in Benin.
 

Photo: motorbike taxi with mother, rice and (the little bundle at the back) baby strapped on…

 

 

Oct 16

Microfinance is often cited as a solution to many of the problems facing developing countries. Only a few years ago, financial corporations such as Danone were the stars of the case studies being taught in business schools and Prof. Yanus won a Nobel prize for his endeavours with Grameen bank. Microfinance has since boomed. In Benin, there is a ministry for “microfinance and the employment of youth and women” and in the private sector, there is an abundance of readily available microfinance “offers”. With the boom, the offers have become more complicated and it is no longer as simple as the original vision of “providing small loans to the poor”.

For EDEM, providing microfinance to poor parents of vulnerable children might be a solution to ensuring a family income if one of the parents is consequently able to become an entrepreneur. To find out how this might work we today reviewed the idea with microfinance experts and I certainly learnt just how much the microfinance “offer” has evolved! For example, the microfinance establishment performs all the “back-office” services of credit reviews, loan-issuance, receipt management and reporting (for which they charge a fee); however they take no credit risk themselves. Instead, the initial capital funding for the exercise comes from the charity itself and as loans are recovered, the capital can be recycled…

So whilst we continue our review of how microfinance might work I am getting to know this country better and better. Regarding food, the French influence extends to breakfast with baguettes readily available, but later in the day the old colonial influence wanes. Of the two main meals, one might be rice-based with thick, spicy, oily sauces to cover the accompanying “protein” (as all meat, poultry and fish are referred to); the other might be a different type of carbohydrate such as cassava or yams with only a sauce rather than anything else. Pineapple for desert; peanuts for snacks – although I’d never before seen fresh (not dry roasted) peanuts: they have similar taste but with their moist texture, it is an entirely different eating experience!

If you wish to make a personal contribution to the lives of these vulnerable children, please do so through the fundraising page:

https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/beninvoluntary

All donations go to Youth Action Charity International (YACI) which directly funds EDEM in Benin.

Photo: downtown Cotonou is growing...

Oct 15

Another week in Benin and this week we are looking to the future. We’re building a budget and reviewing a number of further possible projects. The principle project is getting the vulnerable children to school and there is no shortage of candidates in Porto Novo; however EDEM can only grow incrementally so the plan is a steady increase in numbers. Meanwhile, as the numbers grow, there are lots of other potential projects which could further help those vulnerable children such as providing homework spaces, solar lamps for evening study and breakfasts for students.

One project in particular deserves special attention: microfinance for the parents. The parents want to work, but there are few jobs available so they have to become entrepreneurs. This is however often prohibited by lack of capital to make the initial investment. Microfinance could be the solution whilst ultimately allowing the children to become less vulnerable in the future. We’ve got some meetings planned this week (including with Benin’s minister of microfinance) to research the market and regulations and to see how such an offer could be positioned and delivered.

So that’s one of the reasons I’m in Cotonou this week. The place is entirely different to Porto Novo and the difference can be summed up succinctly by the items on sale at the traffic lights. When you stop at one of the few red lights in Porto Novo you have the opportunity to buy food; here in Cotonou, whilst waiting for various green lights I today had the opportunity to buy irons, toasters, fire extinguishers, shelving and wall clocks! How many are sold to passing traffic is another matter, but there is evidently another level of commerce here than in Porto Novo!

If you wish to make a personal contribution to the lives of these vulnerable children, please do so through the fundraising page:

https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/beninvoluntary

All donations go to Youth Action Charity International (YACI) which directly funds EDEM in Benin.

Photo: the port and market...

Oct 13-14

The weekend and time for some sightseeing! Porto Novo is located on the edge of a large lagoon – an ecosystem which is fragile at the best of times but even more so now with an increasing population and only limited sanitation infrastructure. The mangroves are impressive and in amongst them, thousands of people make their livelihood principally catching fish. The lagoon villages are built on stilts and all the inhabitants (including young and old) demonstrate tremendous amphibious dexterity: they looked like they were walking on the water standing in their small wooden boats or floating devices made of old petrol cans. When I asked the guide if there were any dangers in the lagoon his retort was to clarify my question: “what, apart from the crocodiles and the lions…?”

Also time to change city: from Porto Novo to Cotonou. Only a couple of ministries remain in the official capital of Porto Novo whilst the rest of the government has decamped to the larger city of Cotonou. With its large port, this urban centre is the principle economic hub of the Beninese economy. Many foreign embassies are also located here and it’s evident that Cotonou is the de facto capital of Benin. However, it is not for the faint-hearted: business takes place on all the crowded streets and it seems to be conducted with an almost urgent energy. On the roads, hurried motorbikes overtake lorries overtaking pushcarts which move out into the street to avoid the pedestrians jolted onto the road by the bustle of the commerce!

In order to recuperate my energy for the week ahead I escaped the bright sights and noisy sounds of downtown Cotonou and checked-in to a “European-style” hotel by the beach for the weekend. An oasis of calm in an otherwise tumultuous place, I soon noticed what I had come to miss in such a short time away from Europe: coffee! I never realised that I was so addicted but after a week of drinking black tea I was delighted to be reunited with a proper espresso! It was nice to just “escape” for a short while and swap the fumes of the two-stroke engines for the fresh sea breeze! Still, now that my weekend draws to an end, I’m “recharged” and I’ll be back in the tumult tomorrow!

Photo: amphibious dexterity...

Oct 12

In town I saw a small girl walking down the street with a bundle of firewood on her head. She must have been about 5 years old and this single image brought into sharp relief the concept of child labour. It is not just economic activity but also domestic activity which is categorised by UNICEF as child labour and with the burden of domestic responsibilities linked to traditional expectations about gender roles, girls are particularly at risk. It is very difficult to find time for schooling if firewood has to be fetched by foot every day!

A typical Benin citizen will have only spent 4.5 years at school; however looking at the figures in more detail, girls really are worse off. Regardless of urban or rural, females of the poorest 20% of the population only achieve on average just over one year of education. Anything less than 2 years is classed by UNICEF as “extreme education poverty”. For the similar segment, boys fare better with an average of 3 years of education. For the richest 20%, girls are better off (avg. 5.5-7 yrs.) but still lag behind boys (avg. 8.5-9 yrs.). Fortunately EDEM is here to help!

Whilst living in Europe, it is hard to get a real sense for the poverty and some of the many challenges facing developing countries. If the challenges I have seen in Benin are representative of what other developing countries are experiencing then the world has a big challenge on its hands! In Europe we tend to take education for granted and sometimes forget what an important a privilege it is! Meanwhile every little helps and getting involved in the dynamic is just what EDEM is doing locally and Accounting for International Development is doing globally!

Photo: Child engaged in domestic activity…

 

 

Oct 11

Today has been a training day. This project seems to have “education” written on it from every angle: not only is EDEM all about access to education, but today I have been teaching. Now that we have progressed with the reviews, the time has come to actually implement the new financial procedures and so I spent the day with Herve and Mineve going through cashbook expense accounting (basic bookkeeping), quarterly reporting and cash flow/funding request processes.

Today has really taken me back to the absolute essentials of accounting. We are making financial records – it is as simple as that. There are no computers: we are using paper and pen. There is no prior experience of accounting here so going through the process meant that I was challenged to explain everything from “point zero”. The exercise gave me great insight into how many implicit professional references we ordinarily make; when those become worthless, I had to be explicit.

Herve’s motorbike is broken so today we did a lot of walking and I got to see Porto-Novo close-up. Today’s rains seem to have turned the “contrast” up even higher: the red earth roads seem to luminesce against the dark grey skies. In amongst the beauty there were lots of not-so-beautiful things: mounds of rubbish, stagnant ponds, derelict buildings, pot holes you could lose a child in… But the locals don’t seem to notice: around town today I saw cheerful people with lots of friendly smiles!

Photo: Herve and Mineve at the office…

Oct 10

Having visited a school it became clear that getting the children to school is only one part of the challenge as the schooling situation is very difficult! There is an average teacher to student ratio of 1:50; only 1 in 3 primary school teachers and 1 in 20 secondary teachers are on permanent state contracts; and 71% of teaching hours are delivered by unqualified teachers. Furthermore only 2 in 3 schools are considered to be in “acceptable” condition today; and in the future, to meet the growing demographic demand, 25,000 more schools will have to be built and staffed by 2030.

Now that EDEM is already significantly helping orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) by getting them to the schools, they have further project plans to help children maximise the value of their school attendance. Herve tells me that he really wants to set up a breakfast distribution for children and we also reviewed the idea of creating a “homework” space to assist the children to learn after school. To compensate for the lack of books and computers at school, their offices could become a school lending library with computer access. Even just offering basic sanitation (on the way to/from school) might encourage some children to go to school rather than stay at home…

Meanwhile the finance review is progressing – the first chapter of the report is drafted! We know what needs to be done to make the systems more robust so that donors can have greater confidence in the future when EDEM both increases current activities and starts new projects: both of which will require more funding. This type of work and intended benefit is very much in line with Accounting for International Development’s mission. Read more in the The Guardian: www.guardian.co.uk/social-enterprise-network-partner-zone-santander/safeguarding-overseas-charities-from-recession

Photo: What EDEM recently presented to 198 OVCs at the start of the school year...

Oct 9

After having worked on the accounts today, Herve took me to visit some of the families of the children whom EDEM supports. There are two very positive points in Benin regarding orphans and schooling. First, the orphans are not without shelter – the surviving parent or aunts and uncles provide for the child. Second, Benin has the schools – it is simply a question of getting the children to the schools. The negative point regarding orphans and schooling is the relative poverty which is exacerbated by no longer having one or both parents earning an income. This poverty can mean that it is not just the school fees which are a barrier to going to school but the fact that if the child goes to school, there is one less person to earn an income for the family.

And the poverty really is pronounced. For me, the culture shocks continue but despite becoming slowly acclimatised, nothing prepared me for what I saw today. It’s such a different world that it’s quite difficult to believe that we share the same planet! In the centre of town people call home a lean-to shack with no electricity, water or sanitation. Cooking is done on wood fires and there are no modern conveniences. Whilst the setting is urban, it as if the way of life is still principally rural. In this environment, the people have considerable needs and hopes: not least the children, but almost half the children aged 5-14 work. Hopefully, education is a means to escape the poverty trap.

EDEM acts as a sort of “guardian” for the children to not only help them get to school but to then encourage them and follow their progress. This also means visiting the families and offering support and advice to the parents. This is what I saw today, zooming round town and through the market on the back of Herve’s motor bike. I was glad I was not driving because for a visitor the rules of the road seem impossible to decipher! Later, watching the national news headlines, the culture shocks continued: a chimpanzee that was causing havoc in town was shot by police (much to the delight of a watching crowd); at the market a thief was lynched; and there were “only a few” road accidents today!

Photo: the EDEM office and transport

 

Oct 8

Benin is a developing country and “Espoir de Demain” (EDEM) is a very apt name for this local NGO: hope for tomorrow is what it is all about. Benin needs to train a whole battalion of engineers, doctors and professionals to take this country to the next level. For all the proposed infrastructure improvement projects of today, locally there isn’t yet the talent available to deliver. Meanwhile, primary schooling is free and secondary school fees have just been reduced. The demographics mean that the young outnumber the old so the challenge is to make sure that as many children as possible get to benefit from this education so they can help their country grow.

EDEM is doing just that by supporting orphans and vulnerable children who are those most at risk from not being able to benefit from the education. Whilst 65% of boys and 58% of girls attend the (free) primary school, for a country with 47% of the population living below the poverty line (1.25$/day), it is not surprising that attendance rates drop to 34% of boys and 23% of girls for the (fee paying) secondary schools. Those fees are relatively little compared to developed countries. To get a child through secondary school (fees, uniform, equipment and books) would cost less than two euros per week per child!

I met with Herve from EDEM today to get an overview of the charitable “offer”, how it’s positioned, what other NGOs are doing and not only what is done today but what can be done tomorrow. We have plenty of ideas for the future but whilst the ideas are free, implementing them is not and EDEM would need to achieve more funding. In order to achieve more funding EDEM needs to have robust financial and operational systems in place that can give confidence to the donors that their donations are being used correctly. That’s where I might be able to help.

Towards the end of the day I got to see Porto Novo. I saw Nigerian immigrants attending a service in English in their makeshift church and Catholic nuns herding their charges into theirs. The Moslem call for prayer drew my attention to the mosque which, like most of the other buildings is principally a concrete block except for the roofing. There are not many paved roads – dirt tracks prevail – but with people selling wares from shelters and shacks that line the streets, with wandering merchants balancing their stock on their head and with the aroma of bar-be-ques here and there, the whole town seems like one big street market!

Photo: downtown Porto Novo.

 

Oct 7

Sunday the 7th was a very long day: whilst the flight was only 6 hours to travel the 3000 miles to get here, it took another two and a half hours to collect the baggage. That would be a long time to collect your bags at the best of times, but with 380 other passengers in a baggage collection space designed for about a hundred, with 32 degrees and 95% humidity, it was an experience!

Still, I was reunited with my bag and the experience did not influence my first impressions. Through the eyes of a Westerner visiting this country for the first time, the place appears louder, brighter and more colourful than home! It’s like someone has taken a European television and pressed the plus button on every scale to make an African version!

More animated, more life, more living in the moment. That seems to be the essential: the loudness and bright colourfulness are perhaps just the consequences of this dynamic. Time certainly appears to be fluid here, as illustrated by my very kind hosts who took me to a great street-side restaurant on the way to my hotel. We had wonderful chicken-and-rice and time just melted.

Arriving late at the hotel it had been quite a journey! It was so late when I arrived that Porto-Novo was actually quiet; but not so from the early hours of this morning! The traffic is very much part of the loudness and this hotel is located on an intersection so it was a good job I had anyhow planned to get up reasonably early!

Photo: view from by hotel window...

Oct 6

The day before: the time to answer why: what is this all about?

It started with "Accounting for International Development", an organisation who provides non-profits and social enterprises with a specialist volunteer programme designed to build the financial management capacity of small community organisations (www.afid.co.uk).

I'm the volunteer and this seemed to be a perfect fit for me: as a financial professional and chartered accountant I wanted to be able to offer my specialist skills to help others on a voluntary basis.

AfiD matched me with Youth Action for Change International (www.yaci.co.uk) who support children and vulnerable adults in poor countries through local charities. They needed a finance volunteer to help them help a charity called Espoir de Demain (EDEM) based in Porto-Novo, Benin.

EDEM aims to support orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) in Benin through schooling, apprenticeship, social support and awareness raising. They have already managed to school 158 OVCs in Porto-Novo, but there is always greater need.

In order to expand they need to strengthen their financial management. That's where I can help, and that's why I'm going. In a brief couple of weeks the plan is to perform a financial and strategic audit, review the financial controls and accounting systems, and advance with funding applications.

The journey starts tomorrow!