GEL Sud Benin, or Local Economy Office (LEO) South Benin, represented by its General Manager Geoffroy Mele, received support from two TDC coaches until the end of 2022. Isabelle Van Pachterbeke is one of these coaches. She is in charge of financial and organisational aspects. Let’s take a look back at a highly educational experience.
Geoffroy Mele has been General Manager of the GEL Sud Benin since the organisation’s inception as an independent structure in 2013, after Louvain coopération withdrew from the venture [see box on Louvain coopération with Vincent Henin, Note]. We met Geoffroy Mele when he came to Belgium in November 2021. He made the trip to meet various players in the social economy and business support sectors. It was an opportunity to discuss the situation with Isabelle Van Pachterbeke, coach for Enabel’s Trade Development Centre (TDC), who has provided managerial and organisational support to GEL Sud Benin.
GEL Sud Benin: The need to stand out and professionaliste
First, Geoffroy Mele takes us back to the history of the Local Economy Office (LEO) – GEL Sud Benin: “GEL Sud Benin is a structure that arose from the initiative of Louvain coopération, but became autonomous in 2013. To continue our mission of supporting Beninese entrepreneurs in rural and peri-urban areas, we needed to professionalise and specialise, i.e. differentiate ourselves from the existing business support players in Benin. The idea behind this coaching via TDC was to work with the entire GEL Sud Benin team on its coaching skills, professionalism and service offering. That is why we answered the TDC’s call. Our aim was to strengthen our leadership in our sector. We were particularly keen to improve marketing, finance and organisation. It has to be said that we were also experiencing a turnover problem within our teams. Perhaps we weren’t offering the best working environment. These different needs prompted us to answer the call.”
This LEO was selected by the TDC following an assessment by Groupe One, which confirmed the findings of the LEO South Benin. The work with two coaches, Valérie Vangeel for marketing and Isabelle Van Pachterbeke for financial and organisational management, could begin. Geoffroy Mele tells us what the LEO South Benin coaches learned from the experience: “Our ten coaches at GEL Sud Benin worked with Valérie Vangeel and Isabelle Van Pachterbeke on their positions: how to approach entrepreneurs, how to adopt a professional attitude with solid tools, as well as with a vision. Because, as I like to say, you have to be an entrepreneur yourself to support entrepreneurs. Thanks to them, we learned a lot about current innovations and thinking in the entrepreneur support business. We also developed a structure. And our tools are stronger now.”
“It’s easier for me to think outside the box and come up with innovative solutions”
The professionalisation of our teams is reflected in the quality of the support provided by the LEO South Benin today: “Yes, because, inevitably, when I feel more practised, things flow between me as a coach, and the coachees. It’s easier for me to break out of the shackles and propose customised, innovative solutions for the different cases I encounter,” asserts Geoffroy Mele.
Work with the two coaches began in 2020. The upheavals linked to the Covid-19 health crisis have come and gone: “We had a very difficult year,” admits Geoffroy Mele. “Online coaching was a real pain because of technical problems. The quality of the connection stopped us from working properly, despite all our goodwill. So we started individual coaching for myself and the LEO department head. But technical problems prevented us from making any headway there either. It took six months of trial and error before Valérie came to us for a first session in March 2021, enabling us to work on our needs and make a diagnosis. We were also able to work on the vocabulary and nuances between coach, trainer, etc.”
After the March face-to-face session, one-to-one coaching continued just for Geoffroy Mele at a rate of two online sessions a month for most of 2021: “I was able to ask myself about my challenges as General Manager in relation to the LEO. This was an exercise that everyday life doesn’t necessarily allow me to do. I was also able to discuss team management with the two coaches. Where necessary, we were joined by the Administrative and Financial Manager and the Head of Digitalisation and ICT (Information and Communication Technology).” Isabelle Van Pachterbeke confirms: “Despite the fact that these sessions were chaotic due to technical issues, we were able to make progress on the turnover problem already mentioned by Geoffroy. There was a real need for team-building and team dynamics, which I believe involved two things. Firstly, on the management side, with challenges in terms of internal operations, as the team expected greater internal structuring and consolidation of the LEO. Secondly, this involved professionalising the team, as working on attitudes means building a relationship of trust with the entrepreneurs coached by the LEO from the very first interviews. Working on the way we present ourselves is also very important.”
Another challenge identified by the coaches was financing
A second phase of face-to-face coaching saw the two coaches travel to Benin in October 2021 for a week of intensive coaching for Geoffroy Mele and his teams: “We worked hard to resolve the problems identified in the diagnosis, and in doing so, new questions arose. It was very rewarding,” says Geoffroy Mele. Isabelle Van Pachterbeke confirms: “The first question we explored in depth was that of the relationship between the beneficiary, i.e. the coachee, and the coach. To do this, I used multiple tools that the team could take ownership of and use afterwards”. Isabelle Van Pachterbeke also points out that, in the working methodology developed with TDC, “after the diagnosis, the idea is really to focus on the objectives set by the LEO. We really start from the needs of the structure.”
“Another challenge identified by the LEO was to be able to personalise the support offered to entrepreneurs,” continues Isabelle Van Pachterbeke, “because the profile and expectations of entrepreneurs vary. LEO coaches therefore need to adapt to each entrepreneur and ask themselves what motivates each one. Some tools have been translated into local languages to make them easier to learn.” Isabelle returns to the question of attitude: “It’s central. The coaching profession is not simple, contrary to what you might think.” Another fundamental issue is financing: “This is another issue of the utmost importance. As the entrepreneurs are not in a position to finance their own support, it’s the LEO that does all the fund-raising work, and Geoffroy in particular.” Geoffroy Mele admits that, “it takes a lot of energy”. Isabelle Van Pachterbeke will be working with him over the coming months on the issue of professionalising the response to calls for tender.
The challenges for the months ahead are clear
The next coaches’ trip will take place in spring 2022: “We’re moving forward in line with the structure’s priorities,” says Isabelle Van Pachterbeke. “In relation to the team, we have defined an action plan with quite a few things that the LEO advisors would like to establish. When it comes to creating this relationship of trust, for example, team members will test several of the elements highlighted. They are keen to test, redo the exercises and role plays, etc.” Isabelle Van Pachterbeke insists on the importance of co-creating “to make things more sustainable”. Geoffroy Mele adds: “The challenges are above all to foster stability within the team. We need time for discussions and mobility. I am one of the few people who can travel to the different sites. We would like to set up team-building events where we can involve all the teams. These would be different times from the usual meetings. These times would allow us to get to know each other better”.
For Geoffroy Mele, “The challenge, in a nutshell, is to make the structure sustainable on many levels: partnerships, team, financing.” He mentions another challenge: “Install a database so that all teams can access tools via an online platform. This would also encourage the exchange of information.” For Isabelle Van Pachterbeke, there is more generally “the visibility of the LEO to be improved, even if many things already exist and are being improved.” And, lastly, in the pipeline for 2022 is the development of several certified training courses: with a focus on gender and the environment in collaboration with Louvain Coopération; and with a focus on the pineapple sector and product processing and certification with TDC: “We work particularly with Enabel to support entrepreneurial processors in the pineapple sector. Pineapples are already being processed into juices, powders, dried fruits, cookies and more. But we still face challenges in certifying these products. Our coaches are training and there’s a lot of competition in this area.”
GEL Sud Benin currently employs 12 people, including ten advisors and two administrative employees, divided between the two offices in Lokossa and Abomey Calavi. It also makes occasional use of specialist advisors “as and when required”. With regard to location, one of the ideas for the near future is to create a more versatile site: “In our vision, we are integrating the question of how we can manage to have a partner village with services brought together for entrepreneurs: incubator, spaces to meet, to audit. They need a place to bring together all the good energies needed for this entrepreneurial business.”
Interview by Charline Cauchie.
GEL Sud Benin was created via Louvain coopération in 2010 and became independent of the Belgian NGO in 2013. Vincent Henin, Louvain Coopération’s Entrepreneurship, Environment and Community Microfinance Manager, takes a look back at these early years.
Can you first explain what Louvain coopération is exactly?
Louvain coopération is UCLouvain’s cooperation NGO. It has three areas of intervention in its programmes involving the South: firstly, health, with support for health structures; secondly, access to healthcare, with support for mutual systems; and thirdly, food and economic security, with support for entrepreneurial activities. I took charge of this last area in 2009, when the idea of GEL Sud Benin was launched.
What was your expertise in setting up GEL Sud Benin?
We worked with Groupe One back in 2005 to develop a local economy office, initially in South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Then, on our own, we set up one in Oruro, Bolivia, in 2006, and in Burundi, called the Maison de l’entrepreneur.
