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Part
I:
Description
of the Different Palnning Frameworks in Burkina Faso
Introduction
As
soon as Burkina Faso achieved its independence, the country opted for
a planned management of its economic and social development. Prior to
that, in 1959 a service was created to design a national planning system
with the support of a statistic office. From 1960 to 1983 the planning
service implemented activities related to the elaboration of six draft
plans which were not all approved.
After
a provisional period from 1982 to 1983 during which there was no planning
process, the popular development programme (PPD) was elaborated in 1984/85
with the advent of the revolution. This programme's aim was to meet the
populations essential needs in short term. It was elaborated in accordance
with the objectives of the populations social needs.
From
1960 to 1983 the authorities were greatly concerned about promoting a
planning system which could be adapted to the realities of the country.
But, in spite of all efforts made to establish a sound planning system,
the process somewhat failed, due to the fact that the planning was supported
by inadequate and often inexperienced structures (Parliament, Ministry
of Plan, Sectorial commissions, etc.).
On
the other hand, the methodology used to elaborate the plans was generally
simple : the Presidency determines the overall orientations and the plan
global objectives while taking into account the country economic and social
situation ; then, the department in charge of planning selects the project
which will make up the investment programme. The population direct participation
is not expected in this action except through their representatives at
the Parliament.
In
fact, the planning system was weak during this period (insufficient technical
staff, inexperience in planning systems).
Public
authorities became aware of this constraint and attempted to deal with
it by orienting actions towards a real development planning. The advent
of the revolution in 1983 led the authorities to opt for participatory
development involving all the populations in the planning process. In
this respect, all grassroots communities were involved in the implementation
of the different five year plans.
The
first popular development five year plan was adopted and executed from
1986 to 1990 in the context of the Political Orientation Speech (DOP)
in 1983. This plan determined quantifiable objectives and adopted sectorial
strategies and actions to reach them.
The
new planning system urged a growing popular participation in several actions
in the form of "public debate".
In
the long run, progress was achieved and planning instruments were skillfully
used and became efficient means to manage the national economy. The PIP
technique which was designed as an adjusted annual section of the plan
was introduced to facilitate the monitoring of the plan execution.
Following
the first popular development five year plan, a second plan was elaborated
to cover the period 1991-1995. But, because of economic reforms started
in 1991 in the context of the SAP, this plan, which was considered as
a planning document lost its nature to become a document for guiding economic
policies in short and medium terms. In addition, its macro economic objectives
were modified by those which were defined in the framework documents for
economic policy (DCPE) covering the period 1991-1996.
Therefore,
the adoption of the SAP turned the second five year plan down and enabled
the establishment of a flexible planning and a three year public investment
programme (PIP). In this context, the objective was to change an unstable
three year programming into an instrument to control investments in order
to attain the plan objectives in medium term each year.
In
other words, the idea was to elaborate annual plans based on the three
year delicate programme in compliance with the State budget. However,
these plans couldn't be elaborated due to the lack of economic resources.
If the PIP can be considered as an example of annual programmes, they
are not actually annual execution plans. Moreover, their elaboration and
management are often impeded by enormous difficulties related to project
financing. These factors usually undermine the monitoring and execution
of medium term plans.
Similarly
to other African countries, Burkina Faso was seriously affected by the
economic crisis in the 1980s. To address this situation, strategies, policies
and measures were adopted.
But
it happened that investment policies defined by public authorities to
address the situation led to a deterioration of public finances and an
increase of the external debt. Besides, the financial situation in the
banks was unsatisfactory with debts accounting for 30% of the economy
credit in 1990.
These
difficulties urged the authorities to think about the insufficiencies
and constraints of the economy in order to define a new strategy for economic
and social development. As a result, in 1990, during national seminars,
they found it necessary to implement a structural adjustment programme
and seek the support of the international community.
The
first SAP (1991-1993) mainly emphasized the reestablishment of financial
balances and the implementation of certain reform measures (restructuring
of public companies, sanitation of the civil service) without paying much
attention to economic growth. After the implementation of the first SAP
and the devaluation of the CFA franc in 1994, poverty expanded considerably.
This situation led the Government to consider the fight against poverty
as the main development objective for the forthcoming decade. In 1995,
the Government elaborated an intent letter for the policy of sustainable
human development (LIPDHD) in order to include development actions in
a long term perspective covering the period 1995-2005. Public authorities
have defined a medium term strategy in the context of the LIPDHD.
The
objective of this policy is to focus the country development on the concept
of human security while ensuring the access of each Burkinabe to a remunerative
employment, preventive and curative medical care and environmental, individual
and political food security.
(i) PRESENTATION
OF PLANNING FRAMEWORKS EXECUTED OR BEING EXECUTED
The
LIPDHD and two other documents (the national strategy note and the framework
document for economic policy) are the substructure of the country development
strategy. Right now, Burkina Faso is involved in several sectorial and
transversal planning processes.
1.1 Frameworks
and sectorial plans
- the national strategy
of the sanitation sub-sector ;
- the ten year health
plan ;
- the strategy to
develop the private sector ;
- the agricultural
sectorial adjustment programme and the investment programme for the
agricultural sector ;
- the strategic plan
for scientific research ;
- the structural
adjustment programme and the framework document for economic policy.
1.2.
Transversal frameworks and plans
Context
During this period,
the Burkinabe public authorities made important efforts to improve basic
education. The increase of allocations and the experimentation of new
formulas related to classes organization, curriculum development and
teaching methods (multilevel classes, double group classes, satellite
schools, non formal basic education center, etc) contributed not only
to improve the educational coverage but also to involve more grassroots
communities in school management.
Despite these achievements,
there was a certain number of constraints especially related to poor
management of the education system, inequalities in access to education,
the low schooling and literacy rate and the importance of educational
losses.
To address these problems, the ten year development plan for basic
education was elaborated, inspired by both the guidelines of the States
General on Education (1994) and orientations defined by the strategic
programme for education development (1996).
This plan was based
on the four strategic objectives of the second five year plan while
restructuring them. The ten year plan was designed as a reference framework
aiming at orientating all actors' actions in the area of basic education.
It defined four major actions to be executed :
- increase the basic
education offer to reduce all kinds of inequalities especially pertaining
to geographical membership, the socio-economic situation and gender
;
- improve the quality
and efficiency of basic education while promoting consistency and integration
between the different levels and education modalities ;
- develop literacy
and support alternative educational formulas ;
- improve capacities
for steering, managing and evaluating these sectorial sectors and enhance
coordination of external actions.
The
implementation of these measures defined by the plan should last ten years.
Activities were planned to be executed successively per three year phase
with specific objectives for each phase.
Most
partners of the education sector participated in the formulation of the
ten year plan and adopted the principle which consisted of including any
other sectorial action in the plan. The process started in 1997.
On
the other hand, most donors involved in the sector have now adopted the
principle of sectorial approach which is strongly supported by the Dutch
Cooperation and the World Bank. Recently, other financial partners got
actively involved in the support (European Union, French Cooperation,
Canada).
By
adopting the principle of sectorial approach, development partners have
agreed with the following conditions :
- from now on, actions
should be carried out through a reference framework jointly approved
;
- because of shortcomings
related to implementation modalities, the projects will be discarded
to emphasize support to MEBA services to implement activities ;
- the national party
leader's role in the coordination and arbitration of the donors intervention
modes has been recognized and highlighted
- there will be more
focus on the technical and financial support for national capacity building
which is important in the process.
Donors
agree with the principle of the state leadership in this process, and
despite important observations on the ten year plan, they have decided
to follow MEBA's pace.
Actors
The
actions plan results from an internal reflection by the central structures
of the Department in charge of basic education. During the whole process
the Ministry maintained close relations with cooperation agencies working
in the education sector. The outline of the plan and the different versions
amended were regularly transmitted to them for comments.
However,
social partners (teacher unions, students parents associations and officers
of private and religions education) were only involved in the process
during the validation phase.
Integrating
institutions and initiatives
MEBA'S
DEP conducted the activity while including other central structures of
the Ministry (particularly the Directorate of education projects) and
certain decentralized services (provincial Directorates of basic education).
A
communication mechanism has been established with development partners
in order to collect their opinions and proposals. However, national institutions
depending on other ministerial departments, local collectivities and the
civil society organizations were not actually involved in the preparation
of the plan.
The
process was financially supported by the Netherlands and the World Bank
(through the fourth education project).
The
donors consulting framework (presided over by the Dutch Cooperation) managed
to establish a dialogue which resulted in a consensus between cooperation
agencies, but unfortunately some important partners such as BAD, BID,
UNDP, etc were not involved.
The
plan has defined global strategic choices based on an analysis of the
current education system and perspectives for the system evolution, aiming
at :
-
promoting a national
execution formula which includes the different technical and financial
partners supports ;
-
urging the harmonization
of actions ;
-
improving the
quality and efficiency of the basic education system and ;
-
promoting opportunities
for local collectivities to support activities in the context of decentralization.
Lessons
drawn from the experience may urge the plan to discard the project approaches
whose impacts are very limited. In fact, designing projects and financing
them per phase could be impeded by constraints. Moreover, the renewal
of project phases doesn't always follow the same principles of actions.
This situation has been worsened by "the inconsistency of the partners'
intervention caused by insufficient coordination of services support".
In order to improve consistency, the plan has suggested a better management
of external aids and the establishment of a sound system to follow up
programme execution.
On
the other hand, the plan recommends that ongoing reforms at national level
(restructuring of public administration and promotion of local authorities
in the context of decentralization) be better used and integrated in the
operational management of basic education. "The Ministry of Basic Education
and Literacy will work in close collaboration with the National Commission
for Decentralization to coordinate decentralization and devolution measures
and local and community-based initiatives pertaining to development, including
the development of basic education".
The
ten year plan has not defined a global monitoring/evaluation system. But
the logical framework of the first three year development programme for
basic education ((2000/2002) includes performance indicators of selected
activities.
The process
Preparation
of the ten year plan was launched in 1996 to enable the Ministry to make
proposals for the basic education sector in order to adopt a new economic
development plan, upon completion of the second five year plan.
The
first orientations were discussed during a meeting held by the department
CASEM. Later, the DEP invited decentralized structures (Provincial Directorates)
to make proposals. The summary of provincial reports was examined and
amended during a meeting attended by senior managers of central structures
and provincial Directorates.
In
1997, a planning workshop was organized during which the department technical
offices defined the plan logical framework. Work groups were set up to
better reflect on the proposals made under the DEP supervision.
During
their meeting they addressed the following three themes :
-
the quality of
basic education,
-
financial resources
required to implement the plan, and
-
literacy issues.
For
the time being, ongoing innovations concern the adoption of an approach
and the designing modalities of the ten year plan (content and principles).
These principles comply with national priorities aiming at harmonizing
actions (multisectorial integration). The decentralization process has
also been taken into account by the plan. It is also important to reinforce
MEBA management capacities.
After
a dull period related to internal functioning difficulties faced by the
DEP, the plan was completed in 1999 with the preparation of a synthesis
report which was approved during a national validation workshop and was
adopted by the Cabinet in 1999.
A
joint mission of technical and financial partners of basic education occurred
in Burkina Faso in April and May 2000. It was made up of the following
donors : AFD, World Bank, Canada, Cathwell, CCEB/BF, Swiss Cooperation,
FDC/SC, USA; France, HKI, Jica, UNAIDS, OSEO, PAEB, WFP, the Netherland,
UERD, UNESCO, UNICEF, European Union, Tin-Tua. The nature of the mission
showed that a wide range of donors were concerned about the issue (the
most important NGO's of the sector and even a national NGO are all involved).
Objectives
were as follows :
- support MEBA in
improving the PDDEB ;
- help MEBA to conduct
arbitration activities ;
- operationalize
the PDDEB ;
- make a first estimation
of the PDDEB cost while taking into account :
-
budgetary constraints,
-
global perspectives
for the debt alleviation,
-
poverty alleviation
and
-
the necessity
of providing Burkina children and adults with access to quality
education and literacy.
The
mission objectives show that they are greatly concerned about providing
support to the process and establishing dialogue with the national party.
The
donors have attempted to implement their actions in compliance with the
provisions of other frameworks (such as the framework programme for growth
and poverty reduction) and new financing opportunities in the context
of the debt alleviation.
The
joint mission carefully examined the PDDEB and made proposals on the multisectorial
approach in order to enable the harmonization of national institutions
of the sector. In addition, the mission proposed a certain number of practices
and innovations as a condition of forthcoming activities.
The
mission made recommendations aiming to reinforce the capacity of formulating
policies and managing the sector by the national party. It finally proposed
an agenda for meetings (in the context of the dialogue) between donors
and the national party as follows :
The context
The initiative of
elaborating a strategic plan for scientific research was taken by the
Ministry of Secondary and High Education and Scientific Research during
the meeting between researchers and the President of Faso in August
1994. This initiative would first of all enable scientific research
to play a key role for the country development and permit the national
center for scientific and technologic research (CNRST) to become an
excellent tool to promote and coordinate research.
The adoption of
the strategic plan for scientific research in October 1995 occurred
in a context characterized by the non structuring of the research sector,
the unsuitability between research programmes and development objectives
and the strong dependence of the research sector on external funding.
Planning programmes
were to cover the period from 1995 to 2000 with priorities related to
agricultural research, researches in social and human sciences, researches
in health sciences, in technologies and applied sciences. Each programme
determines sectorial objectives which should be harmonized with criteria
related to rationality, consistency and relevance required at global
level by the CNRST.
Actors
Involved actors
comprise technical Ministries (agriculture, animal resources, environment
and water, basic education, etc), political authorities, the private
sector, associations, NGOs and producer organizations, scientific and
financial partners. In addition to these different actors we should
add the CNRST institutes such as the environmental and agricultural
research institute (INERA), the research institute in applied sciences
and technologies (IRSAT) and the research institute in health sciences
(INSS).
Integrating
institutions and initiatives
Different
institutions have been involved in certain phases of the process to
develop the strategic plan. The involvement modalities per phase can
be described as follows :
Phase
1
: the internal evaluation of institutes has enabled to assess each
research institute activities and make proposals for the future.
Phase
2
: the CNRST external evaluations were carried out by experts from
the University, the Ministry and organisms for international scientific
cooperation. Over twenty five experts contributed to work on the research
programmes and evaluate their compliance with the country development
objectives.
Phase
3 :
development constraints were identified at the level of all activity
sectors, particularly rural development in the regions covered by
the CNRST with the participation of producers, officers of decentralized
technical services, NGOs and association, etc..
Phase
4
: actors involvement was shown by the creation of twenty one reflection
groups. These groups mission was to define research orientations,
evaluate needs for human and financial resources to implement priority
themes, make proposals which would enable to remove institutional
constraints and propose a consistent communication policy. In total,
over two hundred and fifty national and international experts contributed
to intervene in this phase.
Phase
5 : a national conference was organized for several hundreds
of actors who examined the proposals of the different reflection groups
and analyzed needs for resources to implement priority themes and
validate all proposals pertaining to the strategic plan.
Phase
6 : after the conference, internal committees were set up
to work on the amendments and structure the document according to
the CNRST research areas.
In implementing
the plan, other involvement mechanisms especially from the private sector
and scientific partners were planned to be used such as the signature
of contracts and research conventions. As regards follow up/assessment
some structures were created and started to function. These were the
board of directors, the scientific and technical council, the scientific
and managerial committee and the general Directorate.
It was not possible
to identify common consistent points with other existing programmes
and plans.
The process
The elaboration
of the strategic plan was a large reflection process carried out by
the national scientific community supported by the technical Ministry
officers, the private sector, the civil society, partners from the West
African sub-region and northern countries.
The process occurred
in several phases such as the internal evaluation of the CNRST institute,
external evaluations ordered by the general Directorate, the identification
of development constraints, the creation of reflection groups, the organization
of a national colloquium held in February 1995 and the completion of
the strategic document adopted in October 1995 by the Government.
Reliable and qualitative
data were provided for the process. There was also transparency in the
process management through units established by the CNRST (board of
directors, scientific and technical council, scientific and managerial
committee).
One should consider
the Government decision to bestow more authority on the CNRST with the
status of general Delegation instead of simple general Directorate.
Among the CNRST
institutes, only INERA has regional teams implementing research programmes
in the agricultural and environmental sector. However, each institute
is responsible for ensuring the follow up of the plan activities.
Now, there is no
formal consulting framework between donors for the plan execution. But
its elaboration process was strongly supported by the World Bank. In
fact, most plans now depend strongly on external financing which doesn't
enable actors to own processes fully.
At regional and
central level, technical committees have been created presided over
by the CNRST and serving as real consulting frameworks for researches,
producers and popularizers. Regional officers are in charge of studying
and analyzing constraints at regional level, discussing with researchers
in order to come up with consensual solutions which could be changed
into programmes. Now the process is undergoing an operational implementation.
Impact
In terms of impact,
one should note that the implementation of the strategic plan has enabled
the CNRST to enhance its coordination and validation functions in relation
to research activities. We can also note that external financing has
been better organized and has been implemented in compliance with the
country programme priorities while reinforcing balances in resources
allocations.
The national
strategy of the sanitation sub-sector
The context
For a long time
in Burkina Faso, environmental issues had not been seriously taken into
account and authorities thought that these issues should be addressed
by public institutions which would orientate their actions towards the
rural sector. In this regard, it was decided to carry out natural resource
management in the rural area. As a result, other environmental issues
occurring in the urban area were addressed lately. Environmental issues
were seriously taken into account in the 1990's when demographic growth
started to show negative impacts, degrading the environment.
As a matter of fact,
all national actors gradually considered the holistic dimension of the
environment.
In view of this
perspective, the Burkinabe State decided to define a consistent sanitation
strategy in order to improve environmental management in the urban area
and prevent environmental deterioration.
The strategy
orientation in relation to sanitation identified three main actions
- closely involve
local authorities in the planning process so as not only to ensure
sustainable actions, but also to favour capacity building and ownership
by the actors whose initiatives are based on the grassroot communities
demand ;
- restructure the
institutional system by adopting the principle of sharing responsibilities
by the different actors (administration, NGOs, local communities,
private sector, etc.) ;
- consider sanitation
as an essential component of development policies and programmes while
taking into account community based opportunities and initiatives
These orientations
resulted in an action programme. The project forms were elaborated based
on priority operational activities (evaluation of industrial pollution,
control of rain water in secondary towns, reduction of hazardous waste)
and supporting measures for the strategy implementation (strategic planning,
human resource development and normalization). The duration of the strategy
implementation is not stated in the document.
Actors
Preparation of the
strategy in relation to sanitation was launched under the supervision
of the Directorate of pollution prevention and sanitation (DPPA) with
the participation of other ministerial departments (especially departments
in charge of infrastructures, housing and town planning), the national
office of water and sanitation of Ouagadougou commune. Actors working
at decentralized level were involved to conduct surveys in certain provinces.
The team responsible
for writing the strategic document had working sessions with development
partners and public and private institutions interested in sanitation
issues.
The national workshop
to validate the strategy was attended by about a hundred and twenty
participants representing public institutions, NGOs, cooperation agencies,
private actors and municipalities, especially those who were visited
during the surveys.
Integrating institutions
and initiatives
The DPPA conducted
the preparation process of the strategy by setting up a work group made
up of representatives of public institutions, ONEA and the commune of
Ouagadougou. The group supervised the surveys conducted by the national
consultants team and organized consulting meetings with different technical
services, NGOs and cooperation agencies. These consulting meetings made
it possible to consider actors vision and view points on sanitation
issues particularly technical and institutional measures to be taken.
Despite considerable
efforts made to widen consultation with other institutions, one can
wonder about the efficiency of these mechanisms and their capacity to
ensure the application of decisions made.
The strategy development
was jointly financed by ONEA (consulting works) and the third urban
project (national validation workshop).
The strategy didn't
define precise harmonization mechanisms with the PANE even though it
was stated that its elaboration was included in the plan.
The strategy implementation
was accompanied by measures aiming at :
- encouraging consultation
and the development of human resources at all action levels ;
- boosting a dynamics
which would enable to address problems caused by environmental degradation,
the reduction of public finances, the spread of poverty and unemployment
and
- promoting and
supporting basic initiatives.
At institutional
level, competence and responsibility areas were determined for the different
actors (public authorities, local collectivities, NGOs, private actors,
grassroots communities) while taking into account the nature of waste
and types of actions required.
But the basic option
was based on the principle of the contracting authority which bestows
certain functions to local collectivities and the civil society organizations
while providing them with means to assume them efficiently.
The institutional
organization of the sanitation sector calls for the state intervention
as regards regulations, control, promoting research, support/counseling
and financial incentives. Since these missions have to be conducted
by several public institutions, it is indispensable to improve inter-sectorial
coordination.
The fact of bestowing
effective responsibilities on organisms and private structures means
that strong mechanisms should be established to facilitate their access
to information and reinforce their capacity especially in relation to
negotiation and management.
The sanitation strategy
didn't propose accurate mechanisms to follow up and assess actions to
be undertaken.
The process
The strategy elaboration
process was launched after the Ministry of environment CASEM meeting
held in 1995. During the meeting, participants analyzed the causes of
ONASENE failure (national office for service maintenance and embellishment)
and recommended the dissolution of the office and the definition of
an orientation framework for all actions pertaining to sanitation.
The group created
by the DPPA elaborated the terms of reference and set up a national
consultants team in October 1995.
To determine political,
social and cultural impacts caused by sanitation issues in Burkina Faso,
the team conducted in depth surveys in certain sample areas of the country
in Bobo-Dioulasso, kaya, Koudougou, Dori, Ouagadougou and Ouahigouya.
These surveys were
completed by consulting meetings with some actors such as communes,
NGOs and development partners. The preliminary version of the document
was revised by the work group steered by the DPPA.
The national validation
workshop held in December 1995 made amendments and recommendations which
were taken into account while completing the document. The strategy
was adopted by the Cabinet in May 1996 and is now being implemented
by institutions concerned.
While elaborating
the strategy document, the consultants team used available data at the
level of the different national institutions and conducted complementary
surveys.
The impact
All priority actions
defined within the strategy are being implemented thanks to the different
partners support. Projects being executed mainly deal with the strengthening
of the different actors capacities (public institutions, municipalities
and private sector), the valorization of biodegradable waste, the definition
of regulations and norms related to sanitation, the evaluation of industrial
pollution in Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso, the elaboration of sanitation
strategic plans in four secondary towns and sanitation development particularly
hygiene and health in rural areas.
It is difficult
to determine the impact of these experiences due to the fact that they
haven't been evaluated yet. The other components of the strategy, especially
the institutional structure haven't been assessed either.
Moreover, the implementation
of the sanitation strategy hasn't been established but the DPPA has
started another process aiming at defining a national strategy for the
sub-sector of open plan development.
Draft document
for national sanitary policy (PSN)
Context
The elaboration
of the PSN was mainly urged by the Ministry of health which was concerned
about having a comprehensive overview of the different actors interventions
in the field (state, private sector, NGOs and financial partners). This
should make it possible to define a guideline and a strategic orientation
for all actors involved in the health sector.
The elaboration
context of the national sanitary policy is characterized by several
political, economic and social factors. At political level, the Burkinabe
State has considered sanitary development as one of the priority areas
to be addressed. At economic level, there are not enough resources to
cover health programme financing which could be influenced by strategic
options adopted within the Structural Adjustment Programme. Finally,
at social level, the sanitary situation is characterized by high death
rate, poor quality of health services and the low attendance of health
centers by the populations.
The PSN was elaborated
after the adoption of the first document of sanitary programming in
March 1979 to cover the period 1980-1990. This document was prepared
after the Alma Ata conference and gave priority to primary health care.
The programme logics was strengthened by the adoption of the Bamako
Initiative (1991) which emphasized the decentralization of the sanitary
system.
The PNS was planned
to cover twenty to thirty years with sequences of elaboration and action
implementation.
The
general objective was to improve the populations sanitary state. Specific
objectives aimed at :
-
reducing mortality
significantly within the populations ;
-
increasing the
sanitary coverage ;
-
improving the
quality and utilization of health services ;
-
improving the
mobilization and management of financial resources for a sustainable
development of the health sector and
- strengthening
the Ministry of Health institutional capacities.
Actors
The elaboration
process of the PSN and the national sanitary development plan (PNDS)
which is still ongoing was one of the main recommendations of a workshop
organized by the Ministry of health in 1996 gathering the different
actors of the health sector. Initially, the Ministry of Health DEP
was in charge of monitoring and steering the process which should
lead to the elaboration of the PSN and the PNDS. But, because of several
constraints and the lack of operational structures, it was decided
to create a technical coordination secretariat so as to strengthen
the process.
To attain these
objectives, the technical secretariat established eight thematic work
commissions involving professionals from the public and private sector,
representatives of several ministerial departments including social
action, woman promotion, education, the territorial administration,
the environment, youth and sports, culture, defense, etc.. Cooperation
partners and the civil society were also included. The civil society
was especially associated through human rights associations, traditional
associations (traditional healers, specialists of traditional medicine)
and NGOs working in the health sector.
To elaborate the
PSN, several seminars and workshops were organized for actors at national
and regional level. This made it possible to identify priority problems
of the health sector and propose strategies to address them. However,
it is important to precise that the participation of regional actors
was limited to an analysis of the sanitary situation through data
collection in the field and during restoration meetings.
Integrating institutions
and initiatives
Institutions integration
in the process occurred essentially through the eight thematic commissions
activities. Some initiatives were taken to ensure an effective involvement
of different actors in the process. For example, there was the case
study on the evaluation on health services created for about a thousand
and five hundred beneficiaries in order to comply service offer with
the populations effective demand.
In addition, the
direct involvement of a representative of the Ministry of economy and
finances in the technical coordination secretariat in charge of elaborating
the PSN appears as a good initiative which can help to consider other
options in the process.
Regarding consistency
with the other existing frameworks, one should note that the PSN objectives
are adequately integrated in those defined by the national policy on
population issues especially in relation to its sanitary section.
The PSN will be
implemented with sanitary development plans which will be elaborated
by the Ministry of health. It was also envisaged that the monitoring/assessment
system will be steered by the high health council.
The process
The preliminary
results of the PSN elaboration process were generally approved within
the Ministry of Health. During the workshop held in July 2000 and attended
by different actors and partners of the health sector, financial partners
made proposals which consisted of giving priority to the objective of
combating HIV-AIDS. Therefore, the workshop recommended that this concern
should be taken into account while dealing with the PSN intermediate
objectives.
As indicated,
donors were steadily involved in the PSN elaboration. To materialize
this partnership, a round table will be organized as soon as the Government
adopts the PSN.
In fact, this conference
was required by development partners before they financed programmes
and projects included in the PNDS.
Resources mobilized
to finance the PSN process derive from the national budget (infrastructures
and project staff), the World Bank, the Dutch Embassy and UNFPA. The
European Union and the WHO may also provide resources.
Concerning the state
of the process, after the validation of the PSN document, the next step
should be the elaboration of a PNSD which will develop all priority
actions identified.
For the time being,
no structure has been designated to implement the PSN and the PNDS even
though proposals have been made to strengthen the mandate of the current
technical secretariat to enable it to pursue the steering of the process
or keep its present structuring and help the health Ministry DEP in
the process implementation.
Reliable data required
for the PSN elaboration are available. Data collected from the health
democratic survey in 1998-1999 have been taken into account as well
as data from other ministerial departments (schooling rate, statistics
on excision, young people's health, etc..
Traditionally, consulting
mechanisms have been established in the context of sanitary cooperation.
At central level, we can cite the annual conference organized for partners
of the health sector. Besides, bilateral and multilateral partners organize
periodical meetings under the aegis of the WHO in order to find ways
for solving specific problems.
At decentralized
level, consulting frameworks are established by regional health technical
committees and district health councils. However, one should stress
that these different frameworks are reliable and function efficiently
but for the time being there are no mechanisms enabling an accurate
coordination of the different donors' interventions.
The
impact
The PSN elaboration
process is still underway. For the time being it is not possible to
assess the impacts at this phase due to the fact that the implementation
will only occur when the Government adopts the PSN.
The framework
document of economic policy (DCPE)
The context
Economic reforms
were performed by the World Bank as a response to the international
economic crisis which seriously affected African countries in the 1980s.
The first framework
document of economic policy (DCPE) was elaborated in 1991 with the advent
of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) to face the persistent
deterioration of public finances and balance of payments. However despite
efforts made in the context of national development plans and specific
programmes, progress aiming at improving the populations' living conditions
has remained limited.
To face this situation
public authorities have found the necessity not only to intensify efforts
for poverty control, but also to promote a favorable macro-economic
framework.
In this perspective,
the Government got involved in a first SAP (1991-1993) with a DCPE whose
objective was to restructure public finances and create proper conditions
to relaunch the economy. Furthermore, three other DCPE were elaborated
to boost the sanitation process of the macro-economic and financial
frameworks and increase economic growth.
Actors
The DCPE was essentially
elaborated by the Government with the support of the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund. It was noticed that the participation
of other actors (civil society, private sector, populations…) in
the document elaboration was very insufficient.
Integrating institutions
and initiatives
Two institutions
were strongly involved in the DCPE development : the Ministry of Economy
and Finances and the STC/PDES. These institutions meet during the evaluation
missions conducted by the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund in relation to the preparation of preliminary documents.
There is a steering
structure made up of a certain number of ministries whose members meet
when necessary.
The DCPE is poorly
coordinated with the other planning frameworks. Meetings are not held
on a regular basis and consulting mechanisms also function inadequately.
A monitoring/assessment
mechanism has also been recommended. Supervisory missions are organized
by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to ensure this
process.
The SAP (DCPE) objectives
are consistent with the country development objectives.
The process
Information required
to elaborate the DCPE is available and reliable. It was provided by
national agents working within the Ministries of the different institutions
concerned.
On the whole, the
SAP was satisfactorily managed by the Government in terms of transparency
and accurate managerial practices. A structure such as the STC/PAS which
became the STC/PDES was set up to ensure the SAP management.
The process which
started in 1991 is still underway at an advanced phase. The DCPE 1998-2000
has become the fourth process. Financing for the SAP occurs through
outlays in certain conditions. The other actors participation in the
process is reliable. Donors intervening in the SAP financing along with
the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund regularly meet in
the context of a consulting mechanism.
The impact
The SAP impact was
differently perceived by public authorities and the beneficiary populations.
For the Government, the SAP permitted to reorganize public finances
and restructure public companies. It also permitted to improve macro-economic
results.
According to the
beneficiary populations, the SAP caused the dismissal of several civil
servants. It also caused the state to disengage itself from certain
economic sectors and didn't urge the promotion of the private sector.
Nevertheless, the
SAP made it possible to improve technical administrative and managerial
capacities of national frameworks and brought about entrepreneurship.
Adjustment Programme
for the Agricultural Sector (PASA/DOS/PSO/PISA)
The
context
The Adjustment Programme
for the Agricultural Sector (PASA) was boosted by the World Bank.
The different diagnostic
studies conducted showed the inadequate performance of the agricultural
and livestock sectors which were supposed to play a dynamic role in
the national economy. The Government got involved in the elaboration
and implementation of PASA I in 1992 and PASA II in 1996 in order to
relaunch the economy.
PASA objectives
were as follows
- modernize and
diversify production,
- reinforce food
security,
- improve natural
resources management.
In order to promote
agriculture and livestock and enhance progress in these sectors, the
Government elaborated and adopted an operational strategy through a
strategic orientation document (DOS) by the year 2010. The DOS serves
as a reference framework for the elaboration and execution of programmes
and projects in the areas of agriculture and livestock. It defines priority
objectives by the year 2010, and determines strategic orientations for
both sectors.
Actors
National senior
managers elaborated the PASA basic document called the Policy Letter
for Agricultural Development (LPDA) with the World Bank support.
Insufficiencies
were noticed in the participatory mechanisms established for the participation
of peasant organizations. Besides, these peasants were not sufficiently
prepared to be fully involved in debates and bring a significant contribution.
To elaborate the
DOS only officials from the public administration, the civil society,
professional organizations, and the private sector were involved in
the activities along with development partners. These actors were involved
at the level of the DOS elaboration and improvement.
Integrating
institutions and initiatives
The PASA coordination
unit, the World Bank and the Ministries of Agricultural and Animal Resources
participated in PASA different phases (elaboration, implementation and
follow-up).
The PASA is linked
with ongoing projects and programmes at the Ministry of Agriculture
but hasn't developed strong relations with other Ministries. It was
noted that public authorities were greatly concerned about environmental
issues, even though no concrete actions had been taken yet.
PASA has set up
a steering committee which functions if necessary. A monitoring/assessment
mechanism has been established as well. Activities are followed up by
the coordination unit, the World Bank supervision missions, and through
the PASA donors meetings.
Consistent projects
with global objectives have been selected to be executed within the
PASA. The DOS determines the orientations of the agricultural and livestock
sector for the ten forthcoming years. It has been changed into an operational
strategic plan (PSO) made up of action plans. Efforts are being made
to improve the inadequate coordination of these different action plans.
The
process
Information required
for the elaboration of the PASA and DOS is available and sufficiently
reliable.
The PASA was satisfactorily
managed in terms of transparency and sound managerial practices by the
coordination unit with the donors support. It also benefited from the
state and development partners financing. Partners financing occurred
through outlays based on certain conditions. The PASA has been completed
and its results and lessons learned have permitted to elaborate the
DOS.
The process of elaborating,
implementing, and monitoring the PASA mainly involved the coordination
unit, ministerial departments concerned, and development partners. Other
actors were strongly involved in the process of the DOS preparation.
For example, in addition to the public administration, the civil society,
the private sector and producer professional organizations took part
in its elaboration.
Donors played an
important role in the PASA and DOS implementation. They have even created
a consulting framework within PASA.
An investment programme
for the agricultural sector (PISA) will be formulated from PSO.
In this regard,
the terms of reference have already been elaborated. The PISA is considered
as a PIP for the agricultural sector. Therefore it is considered as
an instrument to implement the State investment policy in this sector.
The
impact
The PASA impact
has been appreciated in different ways. For the Government, the PASA
has permitted to improve agricultural productivity, diversify productions,
and strengthen the private sector participation in agriculture. For
the private sector the lack of incentive and supporting measures hindered
private actors involvement. For producer organizations the PASA didn't
have any noticeable positive impact either on their activities on their
structures improvement.
TRANSVERSAL
FRAMEWORKS AND PLAN
Orientation and
decentralization regulations
Context
On June 2, 1991,
the new constitution turned down the year of exceptional regimes and
relied on the national desire to opt for a democratization process.
Five laws were enacted in 1993 to express the national option for decentralization
in compliance with the spirit of the constitution.
The goal of the
decentralization is to enhance democracy within the communities so as
to enable citizens direct participation in current activities. It encourages
the promotion of sustainable development through the liberation of local
energies and the use of available resources.
Objectives aim at
creating local communities and transferring the central powers and responsibilities
and the use of resources to these collectivities. This process is consistent
with the country economic development policies.
Actors
The government workshop
held on August 1, 1996 examined the options proposed by the CND related
to devolution, the creation of communes and the distribution of competencies
and resources. The different actors of the civil society (peasant organizations,
urban populations through representatives, national expert, etc) attended
the workshop. Reflection and animation groups on decentralization were
created in all the provinces. In September 1996, a national assessment
workshop was organized again for the different actors.
The CND functioned
unusually. Its communication strategy enabled the involvement of all
social groups in the debate : use of commercials for civic training
and plays, etc.
The reflection and
animation groups role was to have the different actors meet in a consulting
framework and exchange ideas.
However, the actors
involvement mechanisms were established through their participation
in the different workshops. Unfortunately, the participants (particularly
popular rural and urban groups) didn't have the opportunity to be involved
in the debates and make proposals based on their vision and their own
experiences.
Integrating
institutions and initiatives
Several synergy
mechanisms were envisaged with other institutions and resource persons
: the structure in charge of the Strategy and Methods of the CND general
Assembly.
This structure is
responsible for proposing major orientations and studying proposals
made by the different studies. It is made up of resource persons and
national institutions managers who play a key role in development issues.
The National Assembly
comprises persons working in the ministerial departments (1 to 2 depending
on the case). This double system role is to ensure a synergy between
the CND and the other departments and planning frameworks.
However, some constraints
often arise :
- the mobility
of the Ministries personnel working in the national Assembly ;
- the importance
that the ministerial departments give to the selection of their representatives
who should participate in the general Assembly (persons selected are
not always the best indicated to ensure communication between their
original institution and the CND);
- the lack of specifications
for the representatives of ministerial departments.
The CND is requested
for different steering committees (for example committees of the PNGT,
FEER, the Ministry of health and SP-CONAGESE) or for formulating policies
(for example the policy letter for decentralized rural development).
This enables it to transmit orientations and principles adopted by the
decentralization.
Regarding follow
up/evaluation, the CND organizes a self evaluation half yearly which
allows it to assess the process evaluation on a regular basis. In addition,
donors had ordered external evaluations and only one was carried out
in 1999.
Unfortunately, for
the time being, there is no specific system to deal with decentralization
principles through intervention projects and programmes.
The process
Several basic studies
were conducted to develop the strategy and the TOD. The process was
managed by the CND which was connected to the Prime Ministry. Management
is controlled by the administration but indirectly by the different
non governmental organizations.
Orientation regulations
have been elaborated but application decrees haven't been yet. The CND
started a national consulting process to define modalities for transferring
responsibilities and financial resources related to the services to
be transferred in the context of decentralization. The decentralization
process is now being discussed in the rural sector and the context of
the current political crisis appears to hamper it.
Donors (Switzerland,
the Netherlands, Denmark, Canada, etc) provided considerable financing
for the process implementation through an accurate coordination with
fungible funds. This facilitated the implementation of a real programme
which avoided being hindered by slow accounting and administrative procedures.
Ownership of the
process is effective due to its attraction for the population different
groups.
Donors have been
organized in consulting committees which have enabled them to harmonize
their actions. Regular exchanges between the CND and the donors consulting
committee have made it possible for the CND to contribute to the process
The impact
The strategy impacts
can be summarized as follows :
- increase the
municipalities participation in business management especially through
infrastructures established by SAGEDECOM and FODECOM ;
- improve services
provided to the citizens (development of internal roads, waste management,
construction and maintenance of educational and health infrastructures,
parceling out …) ;
- establish higher
recovery rates for fiscal and parafiscal receipts ;
- create employments
(over five hundred employments have been created within the decentralization
process by recruiting agents for management and sanitation works,
and municipal workers…) ;
- establish a local
entrepreneurship by increasing the number of work sites and giving
priority to local companies ;
- develop the associative
movement
The National
Action Plan for the Environment
The context
In Burkina Faso
and in most African countries environmental national plans were developed
following recommendations made by the World Bank. In order to urge countries
to address environmental management consistently, the World Bank has
decided to include environmental planning in its various requirements
for access to its financial resources.
The environmental
action plan concept was formulated in 1987, based on an experience conducted
in Madagascar and related to a planning action whose objective was to
promote the consideration of environmental issues in economic and social
development processes while including institutional aspects and macro-economic
policies.
In getting involved
in the process of the PANE preparation, Burkina Faso decided to address
the country environmental constraints and priorities and define mechanisms
which would allow to guide the different economic actors choices in
order to enable their decisions to comply with "objectives set by the
authorities and resulting from an awareness of limited and insufficient
available natural resources.
Therefore, in launching
the environmental planning process, the national authorities sought
to transform a constraint (condition imposed by the World Bank in order
to proceed with financing) into an opportunity (strengthening sectorial
and transversal policies regarding aspects directly or indirectly related
to the environment and natural resource management).
In this perspective,
the environmental planning process set the objective of creating a strategic
framework which would make it possible to "orientate and coordinate
current actions efficiently and with flexibility" through all development
partners and establish the basis of an operational system for natural
resource and environmental management.
The PANE which was
considered as a concrete assertion tool for the country environmental
policy was committed to strengthen the orientations of the structural
adjustment programme and the programme for relaunching the national
economy in the medium term, especially for the agricultural sector.
These orientations focussed on productivity growth and food security
in a context of improved natural resource management
The PANE strategic
orientations led to action programmes and projects to be implemented
over five years.
Actors
The PANE process
involved representatives of the different technical Ministries, the
territorial administration, NGOs, sub-regional cooperation organizations
and development partners. These actors participated in the different
consulting workshops organized to prepare the PANE first version. Materials
collected during these meetings were completed by the results of consulting
works on environmental and other crucial issues. The PANE document was
written by the World Bank experts and consultants.
Later, modalities
to conduct the process were modified to permit the involvement of the
civil society actors in the process. Soon after the Rio Conference held
in June 1992 , Burkina authorities decided to review the PANE in order
to make the Agenda 21 recommendations at national level.
This planning document
review was carried out by about thirty senior managers essentially from
the central administration.
Two NGOs managers
participated in the ad hoc committee works. Despite this opening towards
the civil society, it was clear that the processes of the PANE development
and review were based on a technocratic and centralized approach which
kept the civil society actors in marginalized position.
Integrating
institutions and initiatives
The environmental
planning exercise was first conducted by the Permanent Secretariat of
the National Committee for desertification control. Then, this institution
was replaced by the PANE Permanent Secretariat when public authorities
decided to replace the national plan for desertification control (developed
under the aegis of CILSS in 1986) by a more global framework which would
integrate the environmental dimension in macro-economic planning.
The environmental
planning process was essentially conducted by public institutions and
cooperation agencies. Civil organizations involvement was limited to
NGOs and study offices representatives participation in workshops.
The PANE preparation
process was supported by different development partners, mainly the
World Bank and UNDP/UNSO.
From a general environmental
audit, the PANE attempted to implement an understanding and integrating
approach in formulating proposals for solutions. For example, while
taking into account interactive development activities/environmental
impact, the document identified three major framework programmes aiming
at the improvement of living conditions and environmental management.
The PANE is carried
out through a crossing between these framework programmes and supporting
programmes which are designed as inter-sectorial horizontal schemes
(managing information related to the environment and capacity building).
This structure has been completed by several "projects defined by the
different partners at the level of ministerial departments and non governmental
organizations".
We can notice that
the PANE elaboration was carried out consistently with the territorial
development process. In accordance with the environmental action plan,
regional programmes for the territory development are indispensable
operational tools to provide a territorial dimension to national economic
planning while organizing the environment harmoniously and ensuring
an appropriateness between activities and environmental specificities".
On the other hand,
the plan orientation activities emphasize the necessity to make readjustments
which will permit to channel actions related to common principles at
local level.
The planning document
doesn't include any monitoring/assessment system. It has then been decided
to define an appropriate monitoring/assessment system including performance
indicators of programmes and projects during the PANE implementation.
The process
The PANE development
process was officially launched during the national workshop on the
environment held in Bobo-Dioulasso in 1989. This meeting which was essentially
attended by public institutions was aimed at conducting an in-depth
debate on major environmental issues and priorities in relation to "major
areas defined by the physical, social and institutional environment".
After the workshop, national research organisms and study offices carried
out investigation works in the context of the process.
The preliminary
report was written in 1991 based on the different seminars recommendations
and the findings of previous research works. The document was reviewed
in July 1993 under the SP/PANE supervision. Its second edition was written
by the SP/PANE team with the support of an international consultant
and was published in April 1994. The PANE investment programme was submitted
to a donors round table in 1994.
Now, the SP/CONAGESE
is envisaging another review of the document because, according to its
opinion, the PANE which was developed to address several issues for
environmental preservation, appears to be inefficient regarding the
follow up of the environmental policy.
This review would
make it possible to take into account not only framework programmes
and supporting programmes, but also all sectorial strategies to meet
the current needs of a global consistent system.
The PANE was developed
while considering secondary data available or produced by certain exceptional
surveys. Due to the lack of a thorough inventory of natural resources,
the document couldn't accurately identify constraints raised in the
different regions of the country or measure their degree and make proposals
for appropriate solutions.
However, one should
recognize that the planning process permited to bring about innovations
by proposing economic analysis tools related to the environment (analysis
of the estimated cost of the natural resource degradation and evaluation
of advantages caused by a sound environmental management).
The impact
The PANE was designed
as a strategic orientation framework related to an action plan. According
to this system, the PANE should ensure the structuring between framework
programmes and supporting programmes which were defined and between
ongoing initiatives in the field and those which have been planned.
In this perspective,
links should be established between the frameworks programme for land
management and the national programme for village land management (PNGT).
Besides, the framework programme for environmental improvement should
include the second and third urban development projects.
The operationalization
of the framework programme for the national patrimony management should
take into account the lessons of the experimental experience conducted
by the Burkinabe Sahel programme whose aim is to define a coordinating
and planning approach at regional level (elaboration of regional schemes
for the territory development).
Certain activities
proposed in the context of the supporting programme for information
management related to the environment were carried out along with the
implementation of the national programme for environmental management
(PNGIM).
In spite of these
achievements it is difficult to evaluate with accuracy the effects caused
by the PANE. This is due to the lack of structuring mechanisms between
projects action lines and the PANE orientations.
Moreover, it has
been noticed that institutional systems which are supposed to support
the PANE implementation have never been actually functional. This situation
has been worsened by the sectorial partitioning of public institutions.
In order to reinforce credit lines that could be obtained from donors,
these institutions have been committed in a real race for projects causing
rivalries and interest conflicts between services of the different ministerial
departments
National strategy
and action plan on biologic diversity
The context
Preparation the
strategy and the action plan on biologic diversity represents the main
contractual commitment deriving from Burkina Faso ratification of the
convention on biodiversity. One should recall that in accordance with
provisions of this international legal agreement adopted during the
Rio de Janeiro Conference (1992) participant countries, according to
their capacities and specific conditions, were committed to elaborate
strategies, plans, and programmes or to readjust existing systems in
order to better adapt them to the principles and orientations of the
convention on biologic diversity.
In the current Burkina
Faso context, developing a strategy to manage biodiversity presents
obvious advantages when one considers the upsetting situation of degraded
natural resources caused by unsatisfactory climatic conditions, and
effects resulting from anthropic activities such as the modification
of systems related to the use of space and natural resources.
The strategy aim
is to improve the environmental situation continuously through a better
control of erosive phenomena affecting animals and the vegetation. In
other words, the planning exercise aims at establishing a consensual
reference framework which will permit to boost actions pertaining to
the preservation and restoration of species in their surroundings. Such
a dynamics should be based on efforts oriented to promote concerns about
sound management of natural resources. The action plan schedule has
been indicated
The actors
In conducting the
elaboration process of the strategy and the action plan, an emphasis
was placed on the organization of national and regional consultations
in order to ensure all actors concerns about biologic diversity.
The national workshop
to launch the process gathered about sixty senior managers form different
public institutions, NGOs and socio-professional groups. This meeting
offered an opportunity for the different categories of actors to have
a thorough debate on the stakes and challenges related to the conservation
of biologic diversity. The participants also discussed the objectives
of the exercise and the approach to be implemented for the pursuit of
the process.
During the workshop,
the team members in charge of collecting and analyzing data participated
in training sessions pertaining to strategic planning participatory
methods.
At regional level,
the planning workshops were organized for producers designated by peasant
organizations and decentralized technical services. However, at national
level, several groups of the civil society (peasant organizations, communication,
female organizations, etc) were not involved in the debates except in
the final phase which consisted to validating the results.
Integrating
institutions and initiatives
The preparation
process of the strategy and the action plan was conducted at national
level by a technical committee in charge of implementing the convention
on biologic diversity. This committee which was run under the aegis
of the SP/CONAGESE was made up of representatives of the different ministerial
departments, research institutions and NGOs.
At regional level,
the exercise was based on consulting frameworks established for the
PAN/LCD steering needs. No matter their relevance, one can wonder about
the function of these consulting frameworks which have not been enhanced
by the process.
Data collection
and regional meetings organization were carried out by planning teams,
each having a group of three to four senior managers from the State
decentralized technical services (environment, water and forest, agriculture,
animal resources, economy and planning). The civil society organizations
functioning at local level participated in meetings during which survey
results were presented and structuring elements of regional plans were
defined.
Activities to develop
the strategy and the action plan were financed by a UNDP/FEM supporting
project.
The strategic document
for biodiversity management established a state review of the different
activity sectors (agriculture, livestock, forestry, wild life management,
hydraulics, industry…) and analyzed their impacts on biologic diversity
in terms of enhancing opportunities and controlling identified constraints.
In order to remove
constraining tendencies, three strategic options were defined in relation
to general objectives of the convention (biodiversity conservation,
sustainable use of biologic diversity and fair sharing of benefits resulting
from the use of biologic resources). These general strategic orientation
were completed by other specific or sectorial options defined while
considering evolution tendencies noted in the different structuring
activity sectors.
Such a procedure
permitted to enhance the consistency of the global objectives of the
strategy for conserving biologic diversity with the specific objectives
of other sectorial strategies and plans. Even though it doesn't explicitly
propose structuring mechanisms to other processes, the strategy for
conserving biologic diversity takes into consideration certain concerns
and calls to all institutions involved in the preparation of sectorial
and transversal policies regarding the rural sector.
In this context,
the analysis of the main upcoming challenges emphasizes the necessity
to improve inter-sectorial coordination and the operationalization of
consulting frameworks, but also enables the elaboration of the territory
development schemes in order to provide the country with a referential
framework for sectorial actions.
Regarding monitoring/assessment,
the strategic document recommends the combination of the different procedures
:
ongoing evaluation
to collect elements which will enable to readjust priorities and actions
so as to ensure their consistency ;
external evaluation
of intervention methodologies, activities carried out and supporting
measures ;
self evaluation
conducted by actors involved in activities at different levels :
The implementation
of the monitoring/assessment system should be based on the optimizing
of existing structures.
The process
Prior to the definition
of the strategy and the action plan, a monographic study was conducted
in 1996. The document was completed and adopted by the Cabinet in May
1999 and permitted to gather certain useful information (biologic, economic
and social ) and update experiences in relation to the conservation
of biologic diversity.
Options defined
by the monographic study were strengthened and precised while preparing
the strategy and the action plan. This exercise started in 1998 through
a national workshop.
Decentralized activities
included in the planning process have been implemented since 1998 in
the country ten regions. Surveys and consulted reflections conducted
during regional planning meetings provided the teams with basic materials
to design the strategies and national plans.
A central planning
team in charge of elaborating the draft project of the strategy and
the national plan completed the synthesis of these regional reports
in January 1999. Later, the strategic document was examined and validated
during a second national workshop held in December 1999.
This workshop which
was attended by participants at the launching meeting of the process
and representatives of technical ministerial departments, NGOs associations
and cooperation agencies, formulated amendments and recommended the
elaboration of a comprehension budget to implement the action plan.
The budget has just
been completed and the planning documents should be soon transmitted
to the Cabinet for approval.
Data on these planning
documents derive from thematic investigations and surveys conducted
in different zones representing various eco-geographic and socio-economic
situations and also from consulted reflections expressed during national
and regional workshops. The strategy for managing biologic diversity
sough to take into account certain PAN achievements especially the results
of the assessment of natural resource management projects and proposals
made during decentralized meetings.
However, the question
of synergy in implementing the different conventions was not actually
addressed in the strategy development.
In relation to other
processes such as the PAN, the exercise to develop the strategy for
biodiversity management lacks visibility.
As a matter of fact,
it is important to improve communication mechanisms between the steering
committee and public institutions which are not well informed about
the process.
In the same way,
it would be appropriate to define mechanisms of effective involvement
of the different components of the civil society in the implementation
of the strategy and the action plan on biologic diversity. Such mechanisms
would permit to go beyond the current stage of episodic consultations
with these actors during seminars and establish permanent collaboration.
On this basis, true negociations with the civil society organizations
are likely to be conducted on the modalities of operating orientations
and action lines.
The impact
Implementing the
strategy and the action plan hasn't started yet.
Elaboration plan
of the national territorial development scheme and regional schemes
State review
of the SNAT elaboration process
The SNAT elaboration
process is occurring in a starting phase although preparatory works
have been carried out since 1984. This delay is due to a lack of political
goodwill and insufficient resources provided for the Directorate of
Territorial Development (DAT) which is responsible for conducting the
exercise.
The process was
relaunched in 1998 with UNDP support (consulting mission intended to
define an updated methodology for the SNAT development ).
Before funding required
financing to start a sustained process, the DAT ordered several series
of studies which were successively conducted as follows :
- in 1980, UNDP
supported studies on the general methodology ;
- in 1998/1999,
BAD supported thematic inventories on the physical environment, economic
activities, infrastructures and equipment and also on the organization
and functioning of space ;
- in 2000, UNDP
supported the production of card games and studies on different themes
:
- assessment
of policies and sectorial strategies,
- institutional
and financial mechanisms,
- trading and
the informal sector,
- housing and
culture,
- regional
specificities and planning and,
- regional
prospective framing.
In seeking required
financing, the DAT elaborated a project document which analyses the
current context (including the institutional and legal framework) and
determines the importance of the policy of territorial development.
The document presents the objectives to be achieved and the scheme main
functions before describing the methodologic approach recommended for
the SNAT elaboration and implementation. It also evaluates required
means and proposes a planner to conduct the exercise scheduled for 23
months.
State review
of the SRAT/SAHEL development process
A
regional planning test experience was carried out in the Sahelian region
along with the initiatives undertaken at national level. The experience
was primarily financed by GTZ as a component of the Burkinabe Sahel Programme
(PSB) and currently by several development partners (Germany, Denmark,
the Netherlands, the World Bank and BAD).
During
negociations to seek GTZ support for the PSB in 1986, the programme planning
section set three objectives :
- collect complementary
data which are indispensable for the SRAT development ;
- establish a monitoring/assessment
system to be used in the planning, programming and assessment of the
regional scheme ;
- develop methods
which can likely facilitate the use of planning tools by supporting
structures.
The
regional planning process combined several activity series :
- thematic reflections
from 1989 ;
- local workshop
to restore/validate results of these thematic reflections (1996/1997)
;
- prospective reflection
on ongoing projects in the region.
These activities
which were supervised by the regional planning structure permitted to
enrich the SRAT outline which led to the production of its first volume
on diagnostic assessment completed in December 1995 and transmitted
to the DAT.
Terms of reference
were developed in May 2000 to proceed with the work. The next phase will
deal with the capitalization of experiences (assessment of processes and
developed tools).
National action
plan for the child survival, protection and growth
The
context
The national action
plan development for the child survival, protection and growth (PAN-Enfance)
was initiated in 1997 by the Ministry of Social Action and Family after
the execution of the first five year plan (1991-1995) in favour of children,
adopted by the Government in 1991.
The "PAN-Enfance"
development context was characterized at national level by the application
of economic reforms which had negative social impacts on vulnerable
groups' living conditions especially children and the persistence of
sociologic impedimenta unfavorable for children, and women (education,
health, training, etc). In the meantime, qualitative changes occurred
with the process of democratization and decentralization.
At international
level, we can notice that the development process of the different plans
in favour of childhood appears as a logical consequence of the World
Summit for Children (New York, 1990) that urged countries to be committed
in this way.
The "PAN-Enfance"
(1997-2000) set two main objectives :
- ensure children's
well being and blossoming by placing more emphasis on their rights
to survival, protection and growth ;
- promote women's
role in development by strengthening their economic and social position
and by facilitating their access to essential health services.
In order to achieve
these objectives, the following five priority action domains were defined
:
- health/nutrition,
- education/training,
- children and
women in particular hardships,
- culture/leisure/sports
and
- the environment
The actors
Actors involved
in the development and implementation of PAN-Enfance came from different
ministerial departments (health, agriculture, animal resources, social
action and family, environment and water, culture, youth and sports,
economy and finances, education, etc), the civil society (associations
for the protection of human rights, NGOs, customary and religious authorities,
etc).
However, no involvement
strategy of the private sector was defined and one could note that private
actors didn't fully participate in the process.
Integrating
institutions and initiatives
The ministerial
departments involvement in the process occurred through surveys conducted
concerning the different Directorates of studies and Planning (DEP).
Thus, the DEPs which represent the main entry into the Ministries for
activities related to the process were only involved to provide data
and information on children's living conditions. Therefore, these structures
were poorly involved in the process. They were only mentioned in PAN-Enfance
to implement activities related to childhood in their sectorial projects
and programmes.
The involvement
of the civil society actors occurred through certain actions undertaken
on awareness raising and formulating children's rights.
Several organs and
institutions such as the national committee and the Permanent Secretariat
of PAN-Enfance, have steered the process since 1992
The national committee
is made up of ministerial departments, representatives of donors, the
Economic and Social Council, human right associations and NGOs, and
customary and religious authorities. It is responsible for monitoring
and assessing the plan and regularly holds meetings twice a year to
examine the Permanent Secretariat activity reports
The PAN-Enfance
Permanent Secretariat was initially placed under the supervision of
the Directorate of Childhood (Ministry of social action and family)
and since 1996 it has been linked with the secretariat General of the
same Ministry with its institutional autonomy
It is in charge
of boosting the implementation of the plan and capitalizing its results
The functioning
of the monitoring/evaluation system has been impeded by insufficiencies
and difficulties. A monitoring/assessment unit is established within
the Permanent Secretariat and networks with the ministerial department
DEPs. The DEPs provide data of poor quality due to the fact that there
is no specific monitoring/assessment system related to childhood issues.
In reality, even if children's issues are particularly taken into consideration
in sectorial projects and programmes, there are not adequately addressed
in monitoring/assessment systems due to the fact that the "child" issue
is not sufficiently considered
The plan consistency
with other planning frameworks was not clearly determined, especially
the action plan for woman promotion. Besides, one should note that no
work was carried out in relation to conceptualizing, boosting and harmonizing
of actions in the context of the process. The PAN-Enfance is viewed
as a compilation of projects and programmes of the different ministerial
departments without any links between them.
The process
The first phase
of the elaboration of the PAN-Enfance document was based on surveys
conducted with the different ministerial departments to identify all
projects and programmes in favour of childhood either ongoing or planned.
Then, data and information
were compiled to develop the draft action plan which was validated during
a national workshop in 1997. Participation in the plan development was
insufficient. The civil society was only involved during its validation
phase.
Required data and
information for the process were available and reliable especially during
the plan development phase. However, there was no data to monitor/assess
implementation activities.
We can state that
more efforts need to be made in relation to efficient managerial practices
and transparent management of the process despite the new institutional
positioning of the Permanent Secretariat. Participation and ownership
of the process are inadequate, due to the low involvement of the civil
society and ministerial departments to some extent.
UNICEF is the main
donor involved in the process. In fact, there is no consulting framework
designed for donors involved in the process.
The impact
The PAN-Enfance
Permanent Secretariat conducted a mid-term assessment of the plan impacts
which showed that children's living conditions have not been significantly
improved due to parents' insufficient financial resources. A regression
has even been noted in the field of health and education. However, some
improvements have been observed in children's living conditions thanks
to awareness raising and training sessions undertaken by the Permanent
Secretariat over several years for journalists, judicial police officers
and professional school students (police, primary education).
Action plan for
woman promotion
The context
The elaboration
of the action plan (1998-199) for women promotion was an initiative
of the Ministry of woman promotion created in 1997. The materialization
of this initiative should permit the ministry to have a consensual action
framework for action programming with a sustainable incidence on women
living conditions (51,1% of the population according to the 1996 census
results). Despite their important number, they are insufficiently involved
in decision making processes.
The plan was
developed after the experience of the national action plan to reinforce
women's role in the development process (1991-1995). One should note
that at national level, when the Government adopted the declaration
of the national policy on population issues in 1991 in order to better
consider the gender approach, this permitted to pave important ways
for the plan development.
At international
level, several forums including the Beijing conference held in 1995
contributed to urge the development of national actions plans.
The plan development
objective (1998-2000) aimed at improving both rural and urban women
conditions, enhancing their autonomy, developing human resources, protecting
and promoting woman's image and role in the society.
Priority areas
to be addressed were as follows :
- poverty control
- development of
female human resources ;
- promotion and
protection of women and young girls' fundamental rights and
- advocacy and
social mobilization in favour of woman.
The actors
Actors involved
in the process are women associations, NGOs, ministerial departments,
technical and financial partners, (the national decentralization commission,
the national programme for land management, UNFPA, the Dutch Embassy,
the University, etc.).
However, the private
sector was insufficiently involved, due to the fact that there was no
framework designed for the purpose.
Integrating institutions
and initiatives
The action plan
(1998-2000) derives from large consulting sessions which started as
soon as the Ministry of woman promotion was created in 1997.
Institutions involvement
occurred through consulting workshops attended by all actors working
in the area of women socio-economic promotion. Over a hundred and twenty
people from different ministerial departments, associations, NGOs and
cooperation agencies took part in this first workshop.
Furthermore, a validation
workshop gathering about forty participants was held to collect the
main actors and partners comments and suggestions.
Regarding the plan
coordination with other existing frameworks, we noticed that the plan
development was inspired by priorities defined in the Intent Letter
of the sustainable human policy adopted by the Government.
However, consistency
with the PAN-Enfance hasn't been clearly demonstrated although actions
related to women empowerment and children survival and protection require
similar approaches. In addition, PAN-Enfance aims "to promote women's
role in development while strengthening their economic and social position
and increasing their access to essential health services".
Certain institutional
mechanisms were established to facilitate the execution of actions included
in the plan. These were the national commission for woman promotion
(CNPF), the observatory of the Burkinabe women's living conditions,
the information and training and research center on woman (CIFRAF),
the national commission to combat discrimination against women (CONALDIS).
Designating focal
points of the Ministry of woman promotion with the other ministerial
departments was one of the key links of this institutional structure.
The mission of these focal points, seventeen (17) of them, was to :
- ensure the application
of the woman promotion policy in their ministerial departments and
an harmonious and efficient integration of all actions conducted in
favour of women ;
- guarantee the
integration of the gender approach at the level of analysis carried
out in their activity sectors and the level of projects and programmes
development ;
- ensure data collection
and assess the execution level of programmes and projects within their
ministry.
In reality, these
focal points are often insufficiently known in their respective departments.
This is due to the fact that there is no specific intervention framework
for these focal points and their meetings with the Ministry of woman
promotion are not held on a regular basis. Moreover, these focal points
are not entitled to make decisions.
Actions carried
out at local level are inadequately monitored and assessed and the Ministry
of woman promotion doesn't have decentralized structures. In these conditions,
information is collected through the high commissioners.
The insufficient
coordination and monitoring of the plan actions is due to several factors
: inadequate available resources to cover all concerned areas, non integration
of women-oriented actions in an overall framework and constraints related
to donors conditions. Besides, one should note that the creation of
several structures (CNPF, Observatory, CONALDIS, etc) raises consistency
problems in terms of objectives and actions. For example, even though
the CNPF presents obvious opportunities to develop the social aspect
of the Ministry of woman promotion, structure is not operational yet
in the field.
Nevertheless, the
CNPF first session has been scheduled to be held in November 2000.
The process
The process was
implemented through the following three main phases :
- the organization
of a national reflection workshop in November 1997 to define orientations,
objectives and strategies which should guide the Ministry of woman promotion
action ;
- the translation
of the workshop conclusions into an action plan draft project 1998-2000
by a technical national committee supported by international experts
and ;
- the organization
of a national workshop to validate the action plan document in March
1998.
Information required
for the process was available and reliable. It was provided by the
ministerial departments focal points and complementary surveys. Different
actors and partners are now actively involved in the process.
For the time being,
there is no formal framework designed for donors. It is now difficult
to assess the process management since it started recently
The impact
The impact of the
plan implementation is noticeable at socio-economic level, especially
through the national karite project and the supporting project for women
empowerment groups.
These projects first
aim is to ensure women economic insertion by taking their role into
consideration and then to empower them through an integrated approach
(access to credit, appropriate technologies, education and health).
On the other hand,
it is appropriate to mention other outstanding achievements, especially
the increasing number of women-orientated micro-projects and various
initiatives, the emergence of female entrepreneurship and awareness
raising resulting from training and sensitization sessions on gender.
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