http://blogs.reuters.com/africanews/2009/10/02/ivory-coast%e2%80%a6it%e2%80%99s-all-about-the-crisis/ African business, politics and lifestyle Fri, 17 May 2013 00:10:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 http://blogs.reuters.com/africanews/2009/10/02/ivory-coast%e2%80%a6it%e2%80%99s-all-about-the-crisis/comment-page-1/#comment-5158 Lydie Boka Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:17:22 +0000 http://blogs.reuters.com/africanews/?p=2142#comment-5158 Indeed, the "crisis a bon dos" as we say in French, meaning it is used as an excuse for virtually anything going wrong in the country. With regard to the cocoa sector, why did not reforms work? Ivoirians were told then (in 2000) that farmers were finally empowered and were going to manage the sector. A plethora of organisations (les structures such as BCC, FDPCC, etc.) were put in place and what they did was really siphoning money off from real farmers. Today, most of the managers of the cocoa sector are in jail, and it has nothing to do with "the crisis". Meanwhile, due to the country partition, a parralel economy flourished. An estimated 20% of Ivoiran cocoa was (is?) diverted through rebel-controlled areas. Diamonds as well, until the UN took sanctions including an embargo. Ex-rebels collected (collect?) taxes in "their zones". But they are not the only ones to blame for meanwhile, in the Government controlled zones, lack of transparency in the productive sectors including oil and gas continues. Donors have demanded an audit, so let us wait and see. The continuous postponement of elections cannot be due to a mere coincidence due to vested interests of the political elite. Parliament is illegal, so is the government because elections are overdue. Free and fair elections will bring an end to the crisis, but will they be? StrategiCo. risk analysis has rated Cote dIvoire 10 on a scale of 14 (riskies), against 9 in June 2009. http://www.strategico.org Indeed, the “crisis a bon dos” as we say in French, meaning it is used as an excuse for virtually anything going wrong in the country. With regard to the cocoa sector, why did not reforms work? Ivoirians were told then (in 2000) that farmers were finally empowered and were going to manage the sector. A plethora of organisations (les structures such as BCC, FDPCC, etc.) were put in place and what they did was really siphoning money off from real farmers. Today, most of the managers of the cocoa sector are in jail, and it has nothing to do with “the crisis”.
Meanwhile, due to the country partition, a parralel economy flourished. An estimated 20% of Ivoiran cocoa was (is?) diverted through rebel-controlled areas. Diamonds as well, until the UN took sanctions including an embargo. Ex-rebels collected (collect?) taxes in “their zones”. But they are not the only ones to blame for meanwhile, in the Government controlled zones, lack of transparency in the productive sectors including oil and gas continues. Donors have demanded an audit, so let us wait and see. The continuous postponement of elections cannot be due to a mere coincidence due to vested interests of the political elite. Parliament is illegal, so is the government because elections are overdue. Free and fair elections will bring an end to the crisis, but will they be? StrategiCo. risk analysis has rated Cote dIvoire 10 on a scale of 14 (riskies), against 9 in June 2009. http://www.strategico.org

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