DDD in Madagascar?

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Cambodia, on the other hand, is by no means a fully developed business environment, but the amount of time and money it takes to set up a business here is much smaller. As a result, there is greater capacity, more industry, and more job opportunities in Cambodia than in Madagascar. And from what I have seen since I have been with DDD, this opportunity shifts people’s mindset.

Elana Fiekowsky is working as a Social Mission Fellow at DDD in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for the summer. Her work includes piloting a social impact survey tool and building capacity within DDD’s local staff in Cambodia.

These past four months in Phnom Penh are my first experience in Cambodia, let alone Asia. In the past, I lived in southern Africa so I thought I knew what to expect in terms of socio-economic development. But since I have been here, I have been struck by how different Cambodia is compared to what I have seen in southern Africa. When I lived there, I spent the largest part of my time in Madagascar. For a year, I conducted case studies of companies working in Madagascar, both foreign and domestic, and their community development projects. This work taught me about the human development levels in Madagascar, and the time and money companies needed to invest in their work force to be efficient and profitable.

Starting and running a business in Madagascar is a huge effort. Firstly, setting up the physical structure is a hurdle. All three companies I studied in Madagascar–Rio Tinto, Aqualama, a local shrimp company, and Telma, a local phone provider–had to bring in their own generators, water, and solid waste disposal systems. They had to pave roads. Rio Tinto even had to build a port. And this was not even in the rural provincial towns.

Infrastructure was just one hurdle. Human capacity in Madagascar is very low. Malaria, tuberculosis and syphilis are rampant. Clinics can be hard to come by and even if you can get to a clinic, there is no guarantee that there will be a doctor or medicine. According to the World Bank, only 55% of the work force has completed primary school. Companies who want to set up business in Madagascar ,have to invest time and money in the physical and human capital to make sure that they have healthy, trained employees who can work in lighted buildings.

Cambodia, on the other hand, is by no means a fully developed business environment, but the amount of time and money it takes to set up a business here is much smaller. As a result, there is greater capacity, more industry, and more job opportunities in Cambodia than in Madagascar. And from what I have seen since I have been with DDD, this opportunity shifts people’s mindset.

When I was in Madagascar, so many of the people I met and interviewed felt that they should be given a job simply because they lived in the same town as a company and could see industry growth so assumed there was available employment. They placed less emphasis on securing the proper training to equip themselves for the position. This is not what I have seen in Cambodia. We have hundreds more applicants than we can take – applicants who are serious about Data Entry training, job experience and scholarship to university so they can develop personally and help their families rise out of poverty.

In Cambodia, I have been lucky enough to work with various operators in all three offices. These operators took the training I gave seriously and worked to learn. They commit themselves to DDD. All the operators I have met are working towards a college degree and have a plan for their future. They do not take the DDD program for granted, nor expect to keep their job at DDD or their scholarship just because they show up to work. Instilling the values of a merit-based workplace system is one of the ways in which DDD makes its impact.

Malagasy youth may have the same hopes for their future as our operators, but without job opportunities, there is little motivation to stay in school. Madagascar is on a path forward, but there have been a lot of speed bumps lately, including a political coup. Private companies are scared to invest in Madagascar because of the cost of the initial investment and the political instability. As I muse about how one could ever start anything like DDD in Madagascar, I realize that though it’s these countries that most need social enterprise, it’s also here where building a sustainable business is most difficult.