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Overview
of Sustainable Development Context
A. Situations
Burkina covers an
area of 274,000 km², with an estimated population in 1996 of about
10,5 million inhabitants (5,6 million in 1975) of whom more than 80
% obtain their income from the rural sector.
With a total growth
percentage of 2.64 % and an average population density of 38 %, Burkina
Faso is part of the group of countries called Sahelian where the majority
of the population continues to live in almost absolute poverty, deprived
of decent living conditions, and lacking sufficient quantities of vital
necessities like food, water, health care, housing, education and employment.
As a matter of fact,
human indicators testify of a difficult socio-economic situation: life
expectancy at birth is 52 years, sanitary coverage estimated at 50 %
access to potable water for 46 %, brut school attendance percentage
of 38 % in 1996, literacy rate of 22 % in 1994. The level of human development
is very low in the rural sector; it is lower than 20 % and 56 % respectively
in comparison with the national and urban environment levels. These
disparities are found equally among men and women. When referring to
data on income, about 55 % of the population lives below the poverty
threshold, estimated at 420 USD per person/year.
At the economic
level, after a net gain from 1982 to 1987 marked by a GIP growth percentage
of about 4.5 % per year, the GIP per inhabitant has dropped 9 % in real
terms between 1988 and 1994. In 1995, the GIP per inhabitant/year was
estimated at less than 250 USD, and the primary sector share of the
GIP reached 40 % in 1996. Foreign debts passed 39 % of the GNP in 1993,
evaluated in 1992 at 310 USD per inhabitant.
In such a situation,
if one admits that the environment is the total of physical and social
resources available at a given moment to satisfy human needs, and that
development is the process aimed at by all in view of improving the
well-being of humans, one is led to convince oneself that the ultimate
goal of policies on the topic of environment and development is to improve
the quality of life, starting with fulfilling the essential needs of
the people without destroying the environment.
As a matter of fact,
absolute large-scale poverty of populations generates types of human
behaviour damaging to the environment, in particular the stress of the
pressure on natural resources (water, soil, vegetation) and consequently
of the desertification process. The 1992 World Bank report estimates
the level of annual deforestation in Burkina Faso to be of 800 km²
between 1981 and 1985.
At the political
level, the country has started on the course of democratisation since
1991. It has equipped itself with new democratic institutions of which
the most recent are the municipal councils elected in February 1995
and the Chamber of Representatives.
B. Principal
Activities Carried out in Favour of Sustainable Development and the
Environment
1. National
Action Plan for the Environment
The Rio Conference
on the Environment and Development has brought a new vision in the conceptualisation
of developmental strategies. This is why, with the goal of harmoniously
integrating the environmental management issues in the developmental
policies, Burkina Faso has proceeded with a revision of its policies
in the subject of the environment, defining it through the National
Action Plan for the Environment (NAPE; PANE in French). NAPE is an integral
part of the National Action Plan for Economic and Social Development
(NAPESD; PNDES in French).
This 1993-94 review
has allowed to adapt NAPE to the national realities, in particular the
issues linked with decentralisation, and to take into account the conclusions
of the Rio Summit and other commitments made in the environmental field.
Since then, environmental and developmental activities take have been
registered within the logical framework of the revised plan, which should
be periodically reviewed.
2. Convention
on Bio-diversity
This convention
has been ratified by our country on September 2, 1993 in view of a larger
participation in the process. Information workshops have been organised
in all provinces for the attention of the national responsible parties,
NGOs and partners in development, to explain the importance of biological
resources for people and to collect opinions related to cooperative
and sustainable management of these resources.
Collecting information
and defining action priorities in the identified fields have helped
prepare the national monograph on bio-diversity; its document has been
amended by decentralised regional workshops and a national ratification
workshop. The base document has already been finalised, while the annexes
are in the final stage. All will be submitted to the government for
adoption in December 1998.
The process of preparing
the national strategy and management plans for diversity takes place
based on a participative and cooperative approach. Thus 10 regional
planning workshops have been organised, and the regional strategies
and the action plans and related documents will be integrated in the
national strategy and action plan for bio-diversity that forms an integral
part of NAPE.
3. Convention
on the Battle against Desertification (CBD)
Burkina Faso has
ratified the International Convention on the Battle against Desertification
on January 26, 1996.
The implementation
process of this convention comprises three large phases: preparation
of the first forum, preparation and adoption the National Action Plan
(NAP), implementation and follow-up evaluation of NAP.
During the first
phase, a methodology, essentially based on information and awareness
raising of the actors, their organisations as well as on a series of
consultations with the latter, has made possible the organisation of
the first session of the National Forum in July 1997 that has given
the main actors the occasion to exchange their points of view on the
preparation process and implementation of the NAP based on their situations,
experiences and means respectively.
The conclusions
of this forum have allowed the programming of the second phase of the
process. For its implementation a methodological strategy has been designed
based on specific objectives to be implemented in order to obtain the
final goal, being the participative preparation and adoption of the
National Action Program (NAP) for the battle against desertification,
as well as of the principal implementation tools of follow-up and evaluation
indicators, National Fund for the battle against desertification, and
communication strategy. In view of the preparation of the 2nd
session of the national forum that must validate NAP, actions have been
undertaken or are in progress.
The concept of NAP
is a reference document that will be integrated in the National Action
Plan for the Environment
4. The
Framework Convention on Climate Changes
Burkina Faso has
ratified the UN Convention Framework on Climate Changes on September
2, 1993. Following this act, an inter-ministerial committee for the
implementation of the actions of the convention has been created and
is in operation since 1995.
As one of the activities,
the committee had to take inventory, with the financial support of the
Danish Cooperation, of the emission sources and the absorption holes
of greenhouse gasses in Burkina Faso. The report has just been validated
by a national workshop in January 1997.
5. The
Decentralisation Process
The process in progress
constitutes an important institutional development in the process of
sustainable development. Its objectives are (i) reinforcement of local
capacities in the subject of sustainable use of the soil; (ii) reinforcement
and improvement of the participation by local communities or different
groups targeted by the programs, development projects, and urban and
rural environmental management.
In accordance with
the spirit of this decentralisation, and out of concern for the adaptation
of legislative and statutory texts to the realities of the grounds in
view of effective participation of all social-professional layers in
natural resources management, one has proceeded with a cooperative revision
of a certain number of these texts and the preparation of others. These
measures relate to:
The law providing
for Agrarian and Land Reorganisation (RAF in French) of 1995.
Environmental Code
ADOPT2 of January 30, 1997 and promulgated on March 17, 1997.
Forestry Code adopted
on January 31, 1997 and promulgated on March 17, 1997.
The Montreal Protocol
related to Ozone Layer Damaging Substances - Ratified January 1, 1989.
The political attention
paid by the constitution (1.2) to the environment has translated into
terms of action by the institution on June 2, 1994; six commitments
for a social and economically sustainable development. These commitments
are:
- protection of
the environment and battle against desertification;
- increase of
agro-grazing production;
- organisation
of and support for the informal sector and crafts;
- development
of the network of small and medium-sized enterprises, and small and
medium-sized industries;
- support for
women's activities contributing to productivity;
- raising the
general level of basic knowledge, and the development of sports and
cultural activities.
8. Sustainable
Human Development
The evaluation of
present institutional capacities reveals that efficiency of economic
management is still limited.
The letter of intention
for the sustainable human development policy has been composed in order
to overcome this gap. It aims to contribute to centering the country's
development on the concept of human security, allowing access to:
- economic security:
access to a paying job;
- health security:
lower cost access to preventive and curative medical care;
- food security:
access to basic nutrition, including water;
- environmental
security: linked to the conservation of a healthy environment;
- individual and
political security.
This policy lies
within the perspective of a decade starting in 1996.
- In the Area
of Agriculture and Livestock Raising
The Political
Letter of Sustainable Agricultural Development (PLSAD; LPDAD in French)
(July 1996) is meant to be a more coherent reformulation of the 1992
agricultural development policy in order to better integrate the institutional
and economic reform aspects, of sustainable development, in a way
to ensure a balance between agriculture, environment and population.
With these goals,
the PLSAD takes into account the commitments made by Burkina Faso
during the Rio Conference, and those made by the government, in particular
the six commitments of June 1994.
Controlling water
in Burkina Faso forms one of the basic conditions for economic and
social development, and improvement of the health of the population.
Therefore, the water policy depends on a better knowledge of water
resources, taking into account the following priorities for its use:
drinking water and household needs; agricultural and grazing hydraulics;
development of energy resources; fishing; industry.
The essential
goal of the forestry policy is to contribute to the battle against
desertification, to reach food self-sufficiency, and to satisfy the
national needs for energy, fire wood and wood materials.
The cautious options
are: significant reduction of the imbalance between supply and demand
in wood energy; rehabilitation of degraded forests; improvement of
the standard of living.
- In the Area
of Wild Fauna
The options are:
reinforcement of hunting as tourism; reinforcement of the protection
of hunting resources and bio-diversity; promotion of livestock raising
on ranches; supplying the population with animal protein.
- In the Area
of Fishing Resources
The cautious options
are among others: augmentation of national productivity; protection/conservation
of aquatic ecosystems; promotion of fish consumption.
In 1991 Burkina
Faso had 9,190,179 inhabitants. This population figure reached 10,5
million inhabitants in 1996. The urbanisation percentage has passed
successively from 6.4 % in 1975 to 12.7 % in 1985, then to 14 % in
1991. It will reach 24 % in the year 2010. The urban population was
1,287,285 inhabitants in 1991, and will reach 1,913,000 inhabitants
in the year 2000 (MTPHU, 1995).
The habitat problematic
has for a large part been taken into account by the 1985 Agrarian
and Land Reorganisation. Thus, master plans for urban planning have
been foreseen within the framework of national planning.
- In the Area
of Sanitation/Improvement of the Standard of Living
In January 1996
Burkina Faso has adopted its national policy for sanitary improvements
with, among others, as guiding principles: involve all social layers
in the planning process and reinforcement of their capacities to intervene;
divide the responsibility for management through institutional arrangements
among administrations, the private sector, the NGOs and base communities;
include sanitation measures in policies and developmental strategies.
At the level of
actions to be undertaken, besides the mechanisms of partnership to
be installed, the relevant fields are household water and waste, rain
water, municipal solid waste, industrial, hospital and toxic waste,
and the research of appropriate technologies.
- In the Area
of Transportation
With regard to
the strategic importance of transportation, Burkina Faso has defined
the strategies to adopt in order to create participative conditions
in the sector for restarting of the country's economic development.
The transportation structural adjustment program aims to repair and
maintain the existing essential infrastructure, and to improve the
efficiency of the sector through reinforcement of structures and the
restructuring of the public services of the sector.
In view of facilitating
the participation of the private sector in the realisation of the
program, specific measures have been put in place, thus facilitating
the procedures for transferring power, and liquidating markets. In
this way the participation of the private sector in maintenance work
of the roads went from 73% in 1993 to 81 % in 1994.
In 1992, the energy
consumption of Burkina Faso increased to about 1,7 million in total
energy produced, distributed as follows:
| - tradtional energy |
91% |
| - hydrocarbon |
8% |
| - electricity |
1% |
As one can note,
the present predominance of traditional energies predicts that these
types of energies will continue to occupy an important place in the
total energy consumption of the country for a long time to come. This
causes continuous pressure on the ligneous resources, making it difficult
to conserve the ecological balance, already fragile because of persistent
desertification and droughts. This is why the forestry policy defines
options to satisfy energy needs, and those of the battle against desertification.
10. Environmental
Education
In the field of
formal and informal environmental education, programs have been initiated,
among which are worth mentioning: the introduction of environmental
education at primary, secondary, higher and technical schooling levels,
the Program for Environmental Training and Information (PFIE in French)
initiated by CILSS (in French), and aimed at primary schools, etc. In
view of harmonising all these initiatives, a national committee has
been commissioned to reflect on the tools to use in the field of environmental
education.
11. Favourable
Factors for the Participation of Civil Society in Sustainable Development
At a political level,
the constitution recognises the necessity to treat rational environmental
management as a priority, and guarantees freedom to form associations
and enterprises. The two dispositions constitute major advantages for
the development of initiatives in favour of environment and development.
The decentralisation
in progress is an organisational system of the State that can be defined
as a participative process allowing decentralised collectives to channel
towards a society in progress (NCD, 1995). This process constitutes
an important institutional fitting in the overall process of sustainable
development.
The concept of participative
development has always formed a driving force in the country's developmental
efforts since the beginning of developmental plans. That is the reason
that throughout the various five-year plans the country has known, the
responsibility of the base communities in the freedom of choice and
the realisation of developmental actions at the base has always been
called upon.
In support of this
participative developmental tradition, a strong associative movement,
also with traditional origins, has emerged and experienced a large expansion.
The NGOs, which number has considerable grown after the big drought
in the beginning of the 70's, have made great contributions to implanting
the concept. They, about 200 in number, are organised in collectives.
At a legal and judicial
level, the known public utility companies benefit from a privileged
status with specific advantages and obligations defined by law. The
cooperative and pre-cooperative societies are also regulated by a Presidential
decree. Moreover, the government has established a Bureau for the Follow-up
of NGOs (BSONG in French) in 1984 responsible for the follow-up of framework
conventions linking State and NGOs.
The private sector,
which provides about 10 % of non-agricultural employment, is largely
dominated by micro-enterprises and informal activities. These have known
a remarkable boom since the beginning of the 80's during the confusion
of the economic crisis which was then hitting the modern sector. Historically
it is still closely linked to the country's tradition of crafts, with
a rich and varied potential still largely under-exploited.
The last census
in 1985 indicates the existence of 230 modern enterprises (small and
medium), and 90,000 micro-enterprises. In total these companies employ
almost 260,000 persons, or 6 % of the active population. The informal
sector produces almost 30 % of the GIP, and provides 60 % of the urban
jobs. Industry is still in the beginning stage, limited to some transformation
units located essentially in Ouagadougou and Bob-Dioulasso. However,
weaknesses have been noted in this private sector.
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