Development cooperation and the desire to integrate project beneficiaries in a sustainable way: feedback on the current situation of former beneficiaries who have started self-employment in Mali

In June 2021, the interventions carried out by Swisscontact Mali within the framework of an EU-funded project (PROJES) were coming to an end. For 21 months, the NGO had launched training for young beneficiaries and deployed its support system for professional integration through which each of them would pass. Naturally, a great deal of attention was paid to post-training support, with the obvious objective of building the self-confidence of each of the future self-employed.

More than a year and a half later, with the aim of observing the evolution of the young beneficiaries of the project launched in self-employment, several ex-collaborators of the project living near these young people were contacted in order to receive news about them. If the contentment expressed by some parents regarding the professional integration of their child—always important—is clearly a reason for satisfaction, some more interesting observations were, however, raised, especially in Bandiagara (Mopti region). 

Indeed, a former collaborator still in contact with about twenty young people launched into self-employment within the framework of PROJES was asked to explain why, according to him, the young people trained and accompanied toward integration a year and a half earlier were doing well.

To make his point, he noted the establishment of support groups by the young people themselves. 
For example, he mentioned the group of young people trained in the installation of solar photovoltaic systems inform each other about existing contract opportunities in certain municipalities in order to offer these systems to those who lack them. 
Or the group of plumbers, also present on WhatsApp, who work together to overcome any technical difficulties they encounter in their work, in order to improve. They do not hesitate to consult their former trainer, sending him photos of their work sites, and he makes himself available to assist them with helpful advice. 

Other young people from Bankass have also been reported to have come back to some of the project's workers to find out what requirements they need to meet in order to move into the position of assistant trainer.

But the former Bandiagara collaborator is also solicited when self-employed young people have administrative questions, particularly in relation to the formalization of their small businesses. Not to mention the questions that still come to him from the parents of these young people - whose support had been requested at the end of their child's training - and which are generally aimed at ensuring that their child's business continues to perform well.

So, of course, these few facts could give the impression that these are only micro-events and that the ex-intervenors are much (too) solicited. But put together, these facts show, above all, that the young people in question are not (or any longer!) stuck in a vicious circle of unsuccessful integration. 

​For even if some of them still experience some difficulties—be they on a technical level or in accessing work contracts—these young people have not abandoned their new activities but are seeking to consolidate them via their support groups. This is a positive dynamic and reflects their feelings of being able to manage the difficulties they encounter by finding appropriate solutions. For others, this demonstrates their willingness to move on to the next step—when they want to become assistant trainers, for example. 

In conclusion, and, of course, with all the precautions required for this relatively summary analysis of the data collected, the young people of Bandiagara seem to have had a fairly solid professional integration.

This deduction is not only based on the fact that the inserted young people are still working in the fields for which they were trained 1½ years after the end of the project but also on the fact that they are still trying to improve their activity. This attests, in our opinion, both to the presence (now) of a fairly solid self-confidence in these young people and to the relevance of the approaches chosen within the framework of this project to accompany these young, future self-employed people toward integration.

So obviously, taking into account the beneficiaries as a whole, and therefore also their psychological needs, may seem cumbersome in terms of intervention for those who want to launch a training project to facilitate the professional integration of young people.
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​But what if we viewed it as a way to achieve desired results that are both gratifying for any actor in the field of development cooperation and fully aligned with the socioeconomic needs of the beneficiaries of our interventions?
 
Catherine Ukelo and Swisscontact Mali, December 2022