Why get involved in complex and unstable countries in West Africa? Because it really can help, according to Koert Jansen and Kees Matthijssen. See the success of a rice factory in Sierra Leone.
Extreme poverty hangs like a dark cloud over sub-Saharan African countries, warns the World Bank. Some 80 per cent of the poorest people are expected to live in countries such as Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso by 2030. There, cash flows are now drying up from both governments and private parties.
Strange it may not be; the situation in West Africa is becoming increasingly complex. Can we contribute to solutions at all? Do we still want to?
Yet it is short-sighted to think that we have enough to worry about. Many West African countries face crises that fuel violent conflict. Partly because of corruption, stable governments are often lacking. The uprising in Mali, for example, in 2012, was due to the marginalisation of the Tuareg ethnic group in the northern part.
Climate change
In addition, advancing jihadism is causing hundreds of thousands of displaced people in large parts of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. This puts further pressure on scarce supplies elsewhere. Coups, ethnic tensions and illegal trafficking such as drug smuggling add to violence in the region. Climate change and high population growth exacerbate the problems. Especially in fragile states, the consequences are severe, but due to political instability, climate initiatives have little chance.
Our security
The idea that we can keep these problems outside Europe is an illusion. Instability in the Sahel is already affecting our security. Refugee flows persist, and the breeding ground for extremism remains.
But we can do something. Economic growth in the Sahel provides a basis for poverty reduction and resilience, according to the World Bank. Sierra Leone built the country's largest rice factory with money from Canadian-Catholic, Dutch-Protestant and German-Canadian Mennonite investors. This enabled hundreds of thousands of mouths to be fed in recent years, provided stable sales for thousands of rice farmers and created jobs.
Investing and working together on development offers West Africa perspective. As far as we are concerned, it is first and foremost our Christian mission to help our neighbours and offer them a future - at any cost. Giving up on the poor is simply not an option.
Moreover, investing in economic growth helps countries in West Africa stand on their own feet. Failure to do so will only increase instability, with major consequences for Europe.
By:
Koert Jansen, Director of Incluvest and Fair Factory Development Fund
Kees Matthijssen, lieutenant general (retired) and former Force Commander of the UN Minusma mission in Mali.
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