Michael Kevane

Not sure what metric Joe Penny uses for the “no development” criteria.  Burkina Faso is still way at the bottom on the global scale of human development, but that is not the same as no development.  There has been very large investment in schooling and health care, and education attainment and mortality and morbidity are much improved over 30 years.   The economy is changing rapidly.  I would also say that Blaise Compaoré is neither strongman nor democrat…. just because English doesn’t have a complex noun to describe him in a single word doesn’t mean the default is to choose whichever extreme noun he is closer to.

In Mali’s neighbor, Burkina Faso, strongman Blaise Compaore is still holding on to power at all costs since killing popular leader Thomas Sankara in 1987. After 25 years in power backed by the West, there has been no development in the country.

via Mali – Burkina: Sahel Instability : Joe Penney – Photo and text journalism.

C’est pour toutes ces considérations que nous attirons une fois de plus l’attention de tous les acteurs de l’éducation dont l’Etat autour des problèmes ci-dessous :

1. La construction d’infrastructures dans les différents ordres d’enseignement ;

2. L’amélioration des conditions de vie, de travail et d’études des élèves, des étudiants et du personnel du système éducatif dans tous les ordres d’enseignement ;

3. Le respect du cahier de charge dans l’ouverture des écoles et établissements privés dans tous les ordres d’enseignement ;

4. L’audit de la gestion des Associations de parents d’élèves et le respect des textes portant création des associations.

5. La normalisation de l’université de Bobo afin d’accroître l’offre de formation et la création de toutes les filières de formation ;

6. La garantie de la liberté d’expression et de construction de la citoyenneté.

That from the unions in southwestern part of the country.  Teacher and student strikes can often be flashpoints of political instability.  There doesn’t seem to be any significant social movement behind the current wave of mini-strikes in Ouagadougou.  Seems more like hard bargaining.  Education policy is complex, as government manages line of state vs. private schooling, and decentralized control at commune-level vs. centralized ministerial control.

via Education : Appel du SNESS et de la F-SYNTER à la communauté éducative – leFaso.net, l’actualité au Burkina Faso.

In Econ 1 we call it monopsony, and monopsonists are bad people… that’s why they have to talk about “empowering women”… so they can feel good about buying BMWs and other luxury vehicles with the money they got using their market power….

Antoine Turpin of IOI Loders Croklaan – a worldwide supplier of edible oils — says “shea is an important source of revenue to millions of women and their families across Africa. Empowering these women economically is crucial to the industry’s sustainability.”That sustainability is in his interest too. His firm purchases an estimated 25 percent of all the shea nuts picked by women in West Africa for use in confectioneries.

The NY Times reporter seems not to have even looked up IOI on Wikipedia.  via After Fair Trade Coffee, Fair Trade Shea – NYTimes.com.