ABSTRACT

The West Africa Rice Development Association's (WARDA's) concern about health clearly extends beyond its farmer clients to its own staff and their families. At WARDA, the main divide is between the small percentage of staff holding top research and administrative jobs, who are internationally recruited, and the much larger number of support staff termed General Services Staff (GSS). By law, GSS employees gain permanent status after four years on the job—after an initial two-year contract and a renewal for the same period. Nevertheless, tensions over hiring and firing are likely to persist and employment policy for the WARDA work force to continue to be a sensitive issue. When WARDA was established, it was constitutionally obliged to operate in a thoroughly bilingual fashion. With employees in lower grades, however, WARDA had lost its clear comparative advantage. In the words of one former WARD administrator, "The market caught up with WARDA."