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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Ivory Coast
Index
Given the top priority it has assigned to socioeconomic
development, the government has regarded the armed forces
as an
instrument of nation building as well as national defense.
In fact,
in the 1960s it entertained the somewhat naive hope that
the armed
forces would become self-sufficient rather than a drain on
the
economy, and for that reason the National Service enjoyed
strong
presidential backing. Until 1983 the Ministry of Defense
was known
as the Ministry of Defense and National Service,
signifying its
dual role of protector and nation builder. Initially, the
National
Service drafted its recruits, but recruitment soon became
voluntary
to make it more attractive.
The National Service program sought to train soldiers
as
farmers, halt migration to cities, teach useful skills,
and provide
a general education along with military training. (Within
a short
time, however, the military training was abandoned,
although the
National Service remained under the Ministry of Defense,
was funded
within the army's budget, and practiced military
discipline.)
National Service trainees, under the supervision of
Israeli
military and agricultural technicians, established the
National
Service Center at Bouaké in 1964. The National Service
Center,
which coordinated programs in the Bouaké area, also
processed
agricultural produce and provided materials, seeds, and
machinery
to regional centers. Various regional centers experimented
with
mechanized agriculture and poultry, egg, and livestock
production.
Plans called for transplanting National Service volunteers
to
villages where they were to serve as agents of change. The
government, through the National Service program, created
"Progressive Villages" as demonstration projects, which,
upon
attaining economic independence, were to be transferred to
the
Ministry of Agriculture. The government also transformed
some
existing villages into "Villages under Supervision," which
cultivated certain experimental crops like tobacco, rice,
and
cotton.
By the mid-1960s, the National Service had expanded
into other
areas. The Company of Pioneers, also supported by Israeli
technical
assistance and led by officers and NCOs detailed from the
army,
undertook national construction and other projects. A
Women's Corps
was set up, with Israeli women officers as advisers.
In 1964 the National Service Center at Bouaké opened
with 330
fifteen- to eighteen-year-old women trainees. Regular
recruits
attended a one-year course of instruction, and instructors
attended
for two years. The curriculum included French-language
training,
home economics, hygiene and nutrition, child care, animal
husbandry, and poultry raising. After completing their
service, the
trainees, with government help, were expected to settle in
villages
and assist local women; however, only about two-thirds of
the
trainees completed the program, and the impact they had in
villages
was probably negligible.
The National Service program was as misconceived as it
was
ambitious. Two years were insufficient to turn raw
recruits into
proficient soldiers and farmers, and the government made
no
provisions to keep trainees on the farm once they had
finished
their course. Consequently, in 1983 the government
transferred the
National Service from the Ministry of Defense to the
Ministry of
Rural Development. This transfer recognized that the
primary
mission of the National Service was development rather
than defense
and permitted the Ministry of Defense to concentrate on
its more
conventional military responsibilities.
Veterans were not prominent in Côte d'Ivoire's
independence
movement and have not been a major force in the country's
social
and political life. The relatively small size of the armed
forces
and the correspondingly small career service corps,
coupled with
the limited role of the military in public affairs, has
contributed
to their quiescence. Veterans of the colonial armed forces
have
received generous pensions, as have military personnel who
have
retired from the national armed forces. The National
Veterans
Administration Office has been subsidized by the Ministry
of
Defense and Maritime Affairs.
Data as of November 1988
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