Ann Wessling

Ann Wessling received the MPIA in Economic and Social Development in 1995 and has been working in international development since.  She discusses the situation in Mali:

“I don’t mind sharing how the Mali coup has affected me (personally and professionally) but I’m still processing it all and wonder how much it will impact my life.
 

In October 1997, I moved to Timbuktu to work on a refugee resettlement project – it was the end of an armed conflict that had detiorated into ethnic fighting and massacres of civilian populations by the Malian military. Getting Tuaregs to move back to the region from the refugee camps in Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Algeria was no easy task… I spent 4 years there, helped build some schools, irrigated perimeters and solar powered water pumps; and I met my husband who is a Tuareg from Timbuktu. His livelihood is tied to the cultural heritage of Timbuktu and he is heavily invested in promoting the history of the region.

After 8 years in Dakar, we decided to move back to Mali in mid-2008 so that he could be closer to his business – based in Bamako, I worked for a program co-funded by DANIDA (Danish development) and CIDA (Canadian development) and he went back and forth to Timbuktu, we had two children and life seemed to be moving along peacefully. My job as a technical advisor consists of advising two public sector partners attached to two different ministries as well as working with a professional association and its private sector members; this makes for many different relationships that need to be managed and the power struggle between the public and private sector partners is often difficult to manage. 

Today, all is in flux – my husband’s business is pretty much destroyed and he feels threatened in his own country, development aid is suspended so even if I still have a job, I can’t do any work for the moment and if/when we start again, so much ground has been lost that I’m not sure where we will start, we are currently safe in Dakar but have to face decisions about going back to Bamako, and wondering about friends and family that have been scattered (part of my husband’s family is in Mauritania and part in Burkina Faso)…”