May 2016 : CCFD Paris Mission - Togo-Bénin
Our partner CCFD-Terre Solidaire gave us another mission
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The purpose was on one hand to reconnect with 3 NGOs supported by CCFD in Togo and Benin and somewhat neglected for 4 years; on the other hand the aim was to monitor a CCFD representative in Benin.
Just like during the previous mission carried out in Chad, timing was very tight, 7 days a week, including Sundays. No respite for a visit to a market or a bath in the Equatorial Atlantic warm waters.
Reconnecting with the 3 NGOs took place positively,
and the assistance I provided to them dealt with legal, financial, accounting governance and general development matters.
In particular, I spend nearly a week in the very hot Northern Togo, to reconnect with a peasant movement with 22 000 members across the country.
The goal was to restart newly appointed teams, not only the Board of Directors, Management Oversight Committee and Budgetary Commission, but also the Operational Team. I also devoted 2 days for training senior management to proper governance, general organization and financial management. This was an exciting mission. It is highly likely that I will have to come again to assist this large structure next October, during the process of drawing up the 2017 budget.
I also had to support two smaller structures, one in Lomé, the other in Cotonou, in reference with matters of general organization and compliance with operating rules.
Finally, CCFD asked me to audit one of their representatives in Benin; important amounts of capital were entrusted to him in order to renovate water conveyance systems to lakeside villages.
I had to drive a lot of kilometres on the difficult and only road linking Togo to the Sahelian countries of Niger and Mali, with the numerous truck accidents that can be witnessed on this kind of African roads. I also had to reach Benin from Lomé, going along the Atlantic coast and walking through the land border with its multiple administrative hassles. I arrived in Cotonou during a violent tropical storm; the car broke down in 40 cm deep of water, its engine flooded. I ended up on foot, with my suitcase on my back and my shoes only good to discard.
Relationships between AVe and CCFD seem now well-anchored
And CCFD asked me to remotely monitor the various NGOs I assisted, and even to step up my interventions in the field, at least for CCFD’s most important partners.