Posted by Patrick Haverman | May 6, 2009 | Tinyhttp://2mp.tw/7 | Comments
Agriculture • Millennium Development Goals • Tiby, Mali
Mali MDG Scale Up
As the Millennium Villages Project moves toward its second 5 years, the vision of the project, of jump-starting the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the poorest countries, is becoming reality. With existing villages showing “remarkable results,” several countries have developed bold plans to scale up the successful interventions to the national level. The MDG scale-up phase based on the lessons learned of the MVs is on the verge of taking off, notably in Mali and Nigeria, and the government of Senegal has requested support in the last few weeks, as well.
Mali’s scale-up plan shows special promise, because of the enormous political will on the part of President Amadou Toumani Touré’s government to implement MV-inspired interventions in 166 of the country’s 703 communes, and because there is already a strong decentralized local government system with extensive community participation on the ground. The target communes have been chosen for their lack of infrastructure to achieve MDGs (health centers, schools, electricity, water, etc.) and because they are the most vulnerable to food crisis (according to the 1999-2005 food risk index). A broad range of international actors, recognizing the Mali scale-up’s potential, have come together to seize this exciting opportunity to lift two million of the world’s poorest people out of extreme poverty by 2015.
The Malian government’s “Initiative 166” is moving forward, supported by the initial MV partners – the Earth Institute at Columbia University (EI), the Millennium Promise Alliance (MP) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) – along with a variety of governmental, non-governmental and private partners. Structured in terms of the MDGs, the scale-up meshes with the mandates of contributing UN agencies: The UN Capacity Development Fund (UNCDF) is providing capacity assessment and building at the regional and communal levels; the UN Volunteers (UNV) is enlisting national volunteering programs in the implementation of the scale-up; the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is contributing to the water, sanitation and school meals components; the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is strengthening the Food Security Commission (CSA) and coordinating agricultural support, while the Open Society Institute of George Soros has indicated its support of the initiative as well. As in the Millennium Villages project, where donations of inputs like fertilizers and water pipe have been arranged from private companies, the government of Mali is looking for active participation of the private sector to make “Initiative 166” a reality.
Currently taskforces in Bamako and New York are at work on the preparatory phase of the scale-up, preparing guidelines and starting with the 166 Local Development Plans that have been elaborated by the communes in a grassroots consultation process that surfaces local priorities and engages the commitment of local actors. The MVP brings to the government’s National Food Security Programme and Economic and Social Development Project a more targeted and trans-sectoral action plan. It is an integrated approach with low-cost, low-tech interventions in Education, Health, Infrastructure and Agriculture based on the lessons learned from the first Millennium Villages. Quick results like increased agricultural yields through inputs, reductions in malaria through bednets, and increased school attendance through school feeding programs are combined with improvements in infrastructure and human capacity building to make lasting changes in levels of human security.
In February, 2009, a scoping mission was organized by the UNDP, Regional Bureau for Africa (RBA) including participants from the UN Bureau for Development Policy, UNICEF, UNCDF, FAO, UNV, MP, EI, and OSI. In Mali the scoping mission met with the United Nations County Team (UNCT), several Malian Ministries, the MDG Centre West and Central Africa, and undertook visits to the existing MV cluster in Tiby as well as as a visit to one of the future sites. Work is underway on next steps including finalizing the institutional arrangements and financing structure, and presenting the latest plans to donor countries and NGOs.
Patrick Haverman is Project Manager, Millennium Village, Regional Bureau for Africa, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). He is based in New York.
RSS Feed
Yes! This is tremendously exciting. We at the University of Alberta are working to implement a student fee through referendum to raise the $1.5 million USD to sponsor a Millennium Village.
Kind regards,
Mark McCormack
Student Group President
Make Poverty History
University of Alberta
780.619.7142
That was a very interesting video. Thanks for putting that up.
So what I understand is that in the village of Tiby villagers have been given several tons of improved millet seed for free. They also have been given the chemical fertilizer to go with it.
The head of the farmers’ association seems to indicate that after the first or second year the farmers had to buy the millet seeds and fertilizer. I wonder why that is. Are they forbidden from keeping seeds to sow from the harvest as they would normally do?
I wonder also where these improved millet varieties were developed, and what the scientific basis is for implementing them here in this water-constrained area.
IFPRI (2008) concluded in one of their research studies of the region that: “Imported, improved varieties are not likely to perform as well as local varieties, and seed system interventions
should aim to enhance access to good quality, local seed.”
Yes, improved millet variety seeds (Toroniou) were made available to farmers along with fertilizers to be applied on the planting plots. The technology is known as micro-dosing and it allows more efficient use of fertilizers for improved yields. The millet variety was developed here in Mali by the Institut d’Economie Rurale (IER) and is recommended for, among other qualities, (1) its resistance to insects, (2) its intermediate growing cycle (90 to 110 days) as compared with the traditional varieties and (3) its higher yield potential (2000 kg per ha vs. 700 kg per ha for the traditional) when micro-dosing is applied. This was seen as the best way to improve yields using available technologies locally developed by our national scientists.
Farmers are not forbidden from keeping their own seeds as they would traditionally do but, as scientists we have the responsibility to teach the farmers about the value of utilizing the most efficient seeds. Good seeds account for more than 30% of crop yields. We used R1 seeds from which, seeds can normally be selected for 1 or 2 more cropping seasons. After that, it is recommended to buy new seeds. Having the national seed production system based here in Segou, we are certain that seed availability would not be any constraint to adoption.
Also, seeds and fertilizer were not given for free. The farmers reimbursed 50% of the cost with in kind (millet and/or sorghum) contributions to the school feeding program in the project area. It was after this experience that the team developed a very interesting fertilizer financing strategy based on a kind of farmer-managed revolving fund. This will, after 3 years, allow farmers to buy their own fertilizers over time without having to take expensive bank loans. For example, in 2008, they financed, through this strategy, 50% of their fertilizer needs and this year they will buy 75% through this method.
==============================
Bocary Kaya, PhD
Science Coordinator and Team Leader
Millennium Villages Project
Segou, Mali
Congratulations for moving into the critical scaling-up phase of the MV program. As you do so, you may wish to look at some of the lessons from scaling up experience elsewhere. We have recently completed a review of this experience (See Hartmann and Linn, “Scaling Up: A Path to Effective Development”, Wolfensohn Center for Development Working Paper No. 4 to be found at http://www.brookings.edu). Best wishes for your efforts — now comes the hard part, but also the most rewarding!
Johannes Linn
Director, Wolfensohn Center for Development at Brookings
Washington, DC, USA
I do hope that before inception of the scaling-up phase the issues of giving each individual farmer a free choice to participate in the MDG programs will also be addressed.
It seems obvious that farmers should be thoroughly informed of the whole scope of the program and given the free and fully informed choice to participate or not on an individual basis.
But because of the communal nature of farmer collectives, the free handouts of mosquito nets and seeds/fertilizer in the first year and the perceived social status benefits associated there is a high incentive for farmers to participate without considering the consequences.
Therefore it should be considered by project management that compulsory child vaccination programs and schooling for girls -which are also part of the Millenium Villages intervention package- remain controversial interventions in Muslim countries.