Burkina Faso

Real lives

Socio-economic impact of the Ivory Coast crisis on Burkinabe women & children

© UNICEF/Burkina Faso/Kent Page

By Kent Page

"I used to be able to make about CFA15-20,000 per day selling fruits", says 28-year-old Lalla. "Look at my fruit stand now – there's nothing here. All I've got to sell are these baskets, but no-one buys them on this side of the border because we're the ones that make them."

Lalla has been running her fruit stand ever since taking it over from her mother who died 12 years ago. But, today – like every day since the Ivory Coast conflict started over 6 months ago and the Burkina-Faso-Ivory Coast border was closed - her fruit stand is empty. A small, but important and telling indicator of the negative economic effects that the Ivory Coast conflict has had on mothers like Lalla - mothers who are trying earn a basic living to support their families and children.

Lalla lives in Banfora, Burkina-Faso, a city located about 50 kilometres from the south-western Burkina-Faso-Ivory Coast border. "We market women used to work together … we would buy these hand-made baskets from the local Muslim villages. Then one of us would take a whole bunch of them across the border into Ivory Coast where they don't have baskets like these and would sell or exchange them for Ivorian fruits and vegetables that we don't have here in Burkina-Faso. The woman would come back from Ivory Coast with sweet bananas, pineapples, avocados, papayas, plantains, atieke and grapefruits. We would divide them up and sell them here in the market", says Lalla. "It was a good business because they needed our baskets in Ivory Coast and we needed their fruits here. Everyone was happy and I could help pay for my son to go to school and make sure that he had the books and clothes that he needed to study and learn. Now, I consider myself lucky if I make in a week what I used to make in a day … and that doesn't happen every week."

Lalla, like most of the Banfora market women, never finished school, but considers herself fortunate to be at least semi-literate. "Even while I was in school, I always had to come and help my mother here in the market. It wasn't very long before I was spending more time selling than being at school because we were not a rich family and my mother was getting old. By the time she died and I took over, I was only 16 and out of school."

© UNICEF/Burkina Faso/Kent Page

"I don't want my son to end up like me – only capable of selling fruits in the market. But if this conflict in Ivory Coast goes on much longer, I won't be able to afford to keep him in school. They closed the border between Burkina-Faso and Ivory Coast right after the start of the conflict. That was in September last year and it still hasn't opened.

People have tried to smuggle goods across the border, but some have been caught and shot. Even if they do make it across, they raise the prices so much that we can't buy from them anyway. Ever since the border closed none of us have been able to conduct our 'baskets for fruits' trade and now my husband and I are worried about being able to afford to keep our son in school."

"We all listen to the radio every day to hear the news about Ivory Coast and we're not very hopeful that anything will change soon. We hear a lot about this meeting in Paris and that meeting in Accra, but all we know is that the government and the rebels are still arguing and fighting about things. And, now there's some war in Iraq and we don't even hear much about Ivory Coast anymore. There are too many wars in the world and none of them do any good for anyone. People just want to eat and work and see their children in school."

"Before the fighting started in Ivory Coast, I wasn't rich, but I was proud. The money I made really helped in my family and I felt like I made a difference in my son's life. But now, I feel ashamed that I can't contribute and it causes some stress in our family. I'm embarrassed and feel bad when my son needs something for school or needs new clothes and I have to tell him I can't buy them for him", says Lalla. "He doesn't really understand that the war is the reason that he can't have the things he needs, but he knows that there has been a change in our lives and asks me why I am sad sometimes and why he can't have the things he needs for school. But the worst is when he gets sick and we need to find money quickly for medicine."

Lalla is joined by her friend Sanou, a widow and a grandmother who has worked in the Banfora market for 20 years. "This is the first time in 20 years that I've had to stop working in the market. I've run out of the money I had saved and now I can't even buy a few cheap baskets to try and sell", she says, tilting up her large, empty fruit bowl that used to be full of Ivorian fruits to sell.

"I became so depressed after the rebellion started in Ivory Coast and our trade stopped that I stopped coming out of the my home to see my friends here in the market. My children try to help me by giving me small amounts of money but it doesn't make me feel good. Now, the women have convinced me that I should come to the market everyday, anyway. Even if it's just to talk with them it feels a bit better, but I am still depressed on the inside.

"I am lucky that I only have one child", continues Lalla, stacking and re-stacking the baskets that she can't sell. "For the time being, we can still afford to send him to school. But there are other mothers here in the market who have 4, 5 and 6 children. They have been as hard hit by the border-closing as I have, but they have had to make the choice of which children to keep sending to school because they can't afford to send them all any more. They usually choose the boys, but they don't want to have to make the choice. The situation is even worse in the Muslim villages where they make the baskets for us to buy. We've stopped buying from them because nothing sells anymore."

Within view of the market is the Banfora train station. A short stroll takes us to what used to be a bustling commercial link between Burkina-Faso and Ivory Coast. Now, there are no passengers buying tickets, no merchandise being loaded and no vendors selling drinks or snacks.

There's just the station manager, some empty train wagons and a lot of goats wandering about eating the grass that's growing between the tracks. "We used to have 8 trains pass through Banfora every day" says Ouamara, the station manager. "Eight trains – some 35 wagons long – filled with passengers, but mostly merchandise heading for sale in Ivory Coast and then returning with goods for sale here in Burkina-Faso. But the day the rebellion started in Ivory Coast, the border was closed and since then not a single wagon has crossed in either direction. It's been over 6 months."

The Ivory Coast conflict is killing our town economically. I used to have 48 men working for me at the station, but I am the only one working now. The rest were laid off, starting with a few in September and the rest were laid off by 7 November. Many of them come by asking me for money to help keep their children in school or to help buy medicine for the kids when they are sick. I have helped a few, but I can't help everyone. I've got my own family to feed to and someday I may be out of work also if the conflict doesn't get resolved very soon."

"But, I think it's even tougher on the other side. Every day we see truck-loads and busloads of Burkinabe passing through Banfora, filled with men and their wives and children. They've lost their jobs working on the plantations in Ivory Coast and many have been threatened and some of their family killed and injured in attacks. Most haven't lived in Burkina-Faso for years and they've had to flee Ivory Coast with only what they can carry. I feel bad for us, but I feel even sorrier for them. They look desperate and know it will be difficult to find jobs here for them. That's why they went to Ivory Coast in the first place. We're all in a real bad mess. I hope it gets better soon."

The Ivory Coast conflict has had a major sub-regional, socio-economic impact, particularly on the neighbouring countries of Burkina-Faso, Mali, Liberia, Ghana and Guinea. In all the affected countries, UNICEF continues to support the needs of vulnerable women and children, particularly those fleeing conflict, in the areas of health, nutrition, education, water and sanitation. For example, UNICEF Burkina-Faso provides Vitamin A and free vaccinations against polio, yellow fever, measles, meningitis and tetanus for all children and tetanus for all pregnant women fleeing conflict in Ivory Coast at emergency health posts set up on the Burkina-Faso-Ivory Coast border. UNICEF also provides emergency schooling and education materials for children affected by the sub-regional crisis, as well as water & sanitation facilities at transit centres. UNICEF Burkina-Faso also assists local authorities track both the flow of returnees and the impact on the communities to which they return. When funds are available, this will ensure that measures are taken so that all returnee children have a place in school and affected women like Lalla and Sanou can find new ways to earn a living.