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Comparative
Analysis of Planning Frameworks
While conducting a
comparative analysis of the planning frameworks, whether sectorial or
transversal, the following aspects are to be taken into account :
- the context ;
- actors ;
- how to integrate
institutions and initiatives ;
- the process ;
- impacts.
Planning processes
context
The initial idea of
elaborating planning frameworks derived from various motivations. For
example, regarding the ten year plan for basic education and the elaboration
of the strategic plan for scientific research or decentralization policy,
these planning processes were urged by national concerns, particularly
a strong social demand and pressures exercised by certain actor groups.
One should note that these processes occurred in a context characterized
by great institutional changes (questioning the state's role as the greatest
rural development actor, emergence of new actor groups seeking new negotiation
opportunities, etc.).
Concerning planning
frameworks dealing with issues such as population, gender, child protection
and poverty control, they result from international consensus's concluded
during important meetings such as the Beijing summed on Women (1995),
international conferences held in Bucharest (1974) in Mexico (1984) and
in Cairo (1994) on population issues and the world summit for children
held in New York in 1990.
On the other hand,
the ratification of certain international conventions by Burkina Faso
can be considered as one of the fundamental causes of these planning processes
particularly in the case of the elaboration of the national programme
for desertification control and the preparation of the action plan for
biologic diversity.
The last case concerns
planning processes resulting from certain donors' requirements in relation
to the implementation of structural adjustment policies (especially PASA,
PASEC/T and DCPE).
One should note that
whenever these planning processes are initiated on the basis of an external
condition, the national authorities find a way to transform this constraint
into opportunities (enhancement of policies or programs being executed
or elaborated).
In pursuing their
objectives, the plans and sectorial frameworks will have to define their
guidelines aimed at consolidating achievements in the concerned sector
and/or promoting new relevant actions at institutional, economic and organizational
level. Plans and transversal frameworks have undertaken important intersectorial
actions such as human resource development, poverty control, improving
environmental management and promoting women in economic and social development.
Actors
The actors are involved
in the planing processes in several ways. In fact, we could say that there
are as many involvement formulas as the number of planning processes.
However, these various involvement forms can be classified in three main
categories.
The first category
concerns involvement modes based on a technocratic and centralized approach
which tends to keep the civil society actors in a marginal position and
to provide a better position to state institutions. In elaborating the
ten year development plan for basic education, public institutions which
were directly concerned worked in close collaboration with cooperation
agencies involved in the sector. However, one should note that it was
only during the validation of the plan that social partners were involved
in the process including the elaboration of the framework document of
economic policy which was executed by technical agents of the Ministry
in charge of economy and finances with the support of World Bank and IMF
experts.
The second category
is related to modalities of involvement in the planning processes aimed
at including the civil society, but one should note that the quality of
this involvement is not always satisfactory. For example, in elaborating
the PSO, it was not possible to set up participatory mechanisms which
could provide the civil society organizations with means to define their
own vision and formulate proposals taking into account their specific
concerns and their experience in the field. The same observation can be
made in the elaboration of the national policy on population issues which
didn't include several actor groups of the civil society who have relevant
visions and proposals in relation to policy orientations and intervention
strategies (union organizations, human rights movements, youth organizations,
women groups). Besides, it was also noted that the private sector's participation
in the process of strategic framework for poverty control was insufficient
despite the initial wish of officers working at the Ministry of economy
and finances. These actors didn't show any interest in the process due
to the fact that the consultations on strategies for poverty control occurred
through technical debates without the participation of the civil society
actors.
The third category
refers to all involvement strategies which have been successfully implemented
while raising the concerned actors'awareness of their responsibility.
During the process of formulating the decentralization policy and the
PAN/LCD, a remarkable improvement was noted in the quality of actors involvement
through a successful combination of different mechanisms, especially reflection
groups, steering committees and consulting workshops. Even though important
insufficiencies have been noted, these innovations have been introduced
to show the way.
In general, the actors
involvement strategy has been hindered by several constraints. The first
constraint is related to ways in which the consulting and steering structures
are established and function. In fact, mechanisms used to represent actors
in these structures don't always take into account proxies' capacity of
contributing significantly in the planning process. This remark specially
refers to actors participation in forums and larger meetings. It has been
noted that technical service representatives and those from the civil
society organizations cannot always establish adequate relationships between
their original institutions and the planning frameworks the represent.
This situation is
partly due to the fact that the institutions which should be involved
in the planning process are generally selected by the steering structure.
Deadlines given are not enough to assess the different institutions capacities
of being actually involved in the process and to carefully examine agents'
profiles before designating proxies.
The lack of specifications
for these representatives doesn't enable to precise their roles in the
steering frameworks. When terms of reference are defined, the representatives'
mission is not clearly determined and there is no procedure to evaluate
the quality of their involvement in the process. As a matter of fact,
the lack of specifications including sanction procedures (positive or
negative depending on cases) shows the proxies unmotivation and their
inadequate performance.
This situation has
been worsened by the fact that institution representatives in the steering
committees change their ways according to the meeting they have attended,
which undermines the continuous follow up of the planning process.
Another constraint
is the lack of mechanisms designed for a preliminary sufficient preparation
of the different meetings (forms, steering committees, work meetings).
Actors attending these meetings only receive the preparatory documents
on the eve of the meeting or on the very day. In these conditions it is
difficulties for them to bring their contribution efficiently while taking
into account all the experience of the actor groups or the institutions
for which they work.
In addition, regarding
pedagogical aspects, French illiterate actors face serious difficulties
in getting involved in the consultation processes due to the lack of devices
which could enable their comprehension (translations of basic documents
into local languages) and in defining a suitable work plan according
to their needs. The civil society actors cannot always participate in
debates largely. They need mediators who will help them better understand
some terms used in the debates. This is indispensable and enables them
to express their concerns and make proposals.
It has been noted
that when actors are not enthusiastically involved in planning processes,
this is due to the fact they are requested at a late stage after the processes
have been designed and modalities defined. As for the civil society actors
more specifically, they feel that their involvement in the process is
simply a vindication and a source of legitimacy for state institutions
since there is no certainty that their viewpoints will be actually taken
into account.
It has been also noted
that the insufficient involvement of the civil society organizations in
planning processes is due to the internal functioning of these organizations
which doesn't always enable a sufficient preparation of meetings and an
adequate selection of representatives within the different consulting
frameworks. In fact, according to some observations, these organizations
are run by a few managers who take initiatives and make decisions alone
without consulting grassroots individuals. This situation causes several
problems related to the internal functioning of these organizations, to
the legitimacy of their managers and to information dissemination.
Development partners
are usually well motivated to support almost all planning processes. However,
they face several problems in their intervention. In order to respect
their deadlines donors have imposed a progression pace to the planning
processes which could often affect the quality of work (collection of
preliminary data, assessment of ongoing actions, consultation between
actors, etc.).
Instead of following
the progression pace in accordance with their own agenda, national actors
try to comply with donors agenda ; since the respect of the deadline is
a criterion of process assessment and a condition to benefit from financing.
On the other hand,
it has been noted that donors' financial efforts to support consultation
processes don't always meet requirements. As a matter of fact, these insufficient
financial resources cannot encourage efforts made by the different groups
of the civil society to develop consulting internal mechanisms.
Integrating institutions
and initiatives
The problem of integrating
institutions and initiatives should be addressed in relation to the steering
of processes on the one hand and to consultation between the different
planning frameworks on the other hand.
At the first stage
which is related to the steering of mechanisms, two major actions need
to be taken :
i.referring to
the DEP or to a technical Directorate and ;
ii. establishing
a specialized structure (coordination technical secretariat, permanent
secretariat or national committee).
Experience has shown
that the DEP's involvement in planning processes don't always ensure a
sufficient horizontal consistency. An obvious example is the preparation
of the national policy in relation to population issues. The different
technical Ministries DEP's involvement in this process didn't actually
contribute to improve sectorial strategies as expected.
In the case of the
decentralization policy, the CND has participated in the activities of
the different steering committees and in formulating policies. This has
permited the structure to show the orientations and principles adopted
in the context of decentralization. However, since there is no specific
action taking into account these orientations in projects and programmes
supporting activities remain very limited.
As regards the process
elaborating the PAN/LCD, their orientations are not sufficiently addressed
by the different ministerial departments involved in natural resources
management. It has been noted within the Ministry of Environment and Water
that the PAN/LCP was not well prepared in compliance with the two conventions
on biologic diversity and climatical change even though the SP/CONAGESE
was the focal point of these three conventions.
The strategic framework
for poverty control was elaborated during a moment when most sectorial
policies were already underway. The CSLP has included orientations, objectives
and planned reforms in certain sectors (essentially basic education and
health) while adding new indicators. In its current formulation, the CSLP
is not a reference framework for most sectors which are unfamiliar with
it. Besides, there have been no major innovations regarding defined indicators
even for these sectors. In addition, the CSLP hasn't modified the orientations
of the different sectorial policies.
It has been decided
to adopt the principle of iterative approach to elaborate the CSLP different
versions through a close consultation whose modalities need to be clearly
defined.
The steering committees
and executing technical structures have been hindered by constraints noted
at three essential levels :
- the low participation
of public institutions whose representatives don't fulfill the requirements
to be involved in the processes. In some rare cases when the institution
relevantly selects its representative, it doesn't pay a sufficient attention
to the preparation of meetings and the examination of the outcomes of
activities in which the representative has participated.
- the inadequacy
or lack of a legal authority to ensure the monitoring and adoption of
orientations and strategies. This is one of the essential problems faced
in steering planning processes. In fact, these committees don't have
enough authority to negotiate with state institutions and urge them
to include orientations and strategies defined by the planning frameworks
into their sectorial policies.
- the inadequate
capacities of technical organs responsible for the operationalization
of the different planning frameworks (permanent secretariat, executive
secretariat...). These structures usually lack required competence and
don't have multidisciplinary teams capable of conducting dialogues efficiently
and proposing working procedures which can reinforce synergies and complementarities
between planning frameworks and the different sectorial policies. It
is clear that the way in which these teams are made up and remuneration
conditions proposed can't provide the most appropriate national expertise
(in terms of professional competence and autonomy level).
At the second level
concerning decentralized planning processes, it has been noted that some
processes have developed ad hoc frameworks before being adjusted through
the enhancement of existing frameworks, especially the CCTP without actually
reinforcing them.
Generally, the weakness
of the steering committees (irregularity, quality of participation) didn't
permit to develop a sufficient capacity for an efficient follow up of
decisions and enable coordination and consistency of processes. This situation
raisses the question of the coordination framework and political authority
capable of taking over or supervising the effective implementation of
orientations. In order to work efficiently, these frameworks should be
made up of the main representatives of the different social groups (public
institutions and non governmental actors) and exercise sufficient authority
(in terms of taking over) to supervise planning activities and create
favorable conditions for a common implementation of policies and plans.
The Ministry of Economy
and Finances which is in charge of coordinating aid and development planning
is unable to fulfill its mission satisfactorily. In fact, this department
doesn't have enough authority to efficiently boost the coordination of
aid and activities executed by the other ministerial departments. Besides,
coordination between the different services within the department needs
to be improved.
In the area of cooperation
with development partners, certain processes have attempted to develop
a steady dialogue with donors based on consulting mechanisms they have
established. On the other hand, other processes have encouraged bilateral
relations with cooperation partners.
Donors in general
have tried to develop sectarian attitudes. Each of them prefers to encourage
actions which respond to their concerns without considering ongoing dynamics
in the field, or attempting to coordinate planning frameworks and policies.
The priority that each donor gives to his own options in relation to objectives,
evaluation criteria and financing procedures, tends to keep planning processes
in an isolated functioning logic.
Thus, several planning
processes happen to be concomitantly steered by the same ministerial department
without any coordination between them. An example is the case of the national
action program to combat desertification and the action program on biologic
diversity elaborated under the aegis of CONAGESE. Anther example is the
national policy on population issues and the CSLP which are steered by
the Ministry of Economy and Finances. Such a situation seems to favor
national actors since this enables them to mobilize external financial
resources. Therefore, each process is perceived as a new potential channel
to mobilize aid.
Two important issues
should be taken into account in assessing cooperation systems :
- the lack or difficulty
of consultation among donors themselves. In some sectors remarkable
exceptions need to be highlighted. It is especially the case of consultation
related to the decentralization process, support to the education sector
and to environmental plans specifically the (PAN/LCD) ;
- the insufficient
coordination of development policies and the low assertion of a true
national leadership ;
Processes
During their implementation
the planning processes have been structured in several steps and have
been validated at different levels :
i. an internal
validation at the level of the ministerial departments DEP,
ii. a social validation
during decentralized and or national seminars and
iii.an official
approval during the Cabinet meeting. In the particular case of the PANE
and the national population policy, lessons learned during their implementation
have aroused the idea of reviewing these planning frameworks.
In almost most cases,
planning processes have largely depended on external financing. The Government's
support consists of only providing agents and premises. In some rare cases
of financial support, amounts provided were purely symbolic and couldn't
meet financial needs identified.
Donors support occurs
in different forms according to cases. In the case of the decentralization
process they showed a good example by acting in consultation in the context
of fungible funds. This unique procedure facilitated the execution of
a real programme unaffected by accounting and administrative heaviness.
However, in preparing the PAN/LCD, financing modalities were mainly undermined
by the lack of flexibility of financial partners in elaborating budgets
and by the option of these partners which consisted of financing actions
gradually.
One should note that
donors have always disagreed to support a national expertise even partially
for a determined duration. Besides, they are note very willing to provide
resources intended for mobilizing appropriate expertise at national level.
Local experts are largely less paid than expatriates without considering
the actual market situation ; as a matter of fact, this doesn't enable
the recruitment of better national experts. The Burkinabe public authorities
are partly responsible for this situation since they haven't defined guidelines
for the use of national expertise.
Since the planning
processes depend on external supports, actions are likely to be hampered
as the experience of the national policy on population has shown it. In
this case, projects supporting the SP/CONAPO will be completed in December
2000. This situation compels the public authorities to increase their
financial resources to ensure an effective functioning of technical structures.
In the future, the
planning processes agenda will have to be better controlled by national
actors. Otherwise, deadlines shouldn't be determined in accordance with
donors requirements, but should rather take into account priorities defined
by national actors. This improvement in the process control means that
a progression pace should be adopted and adapted to the internal capacities
of institutions and actors involved in the planning processes.
The operationalization
of the different planning frameworks remains an important challenge. There
are still no reliable indicators which will enable to assess the quality
of the process and the impacts deriving from it. With the OSS support,
the PAN/LCD has made an important effort to establish a monitoring/assessment
system.
In general, actors
responsible for monitoring/evaluation activities are not fully autonomous
to appreciate the process impacts objectively. This situation resulted
in divergences noted between government officials' appreciation and those
of donors and beneficiaries. The SAP experience is an obvious example.
Donors are not always
willing to allow true autonomous evaluations which could enable to question
their programmes and plans. Consultants hired are most of the time members
of the central offices (head offices) or experts who are closely linked
with certain institutions considered individually that would like to have
their contracts renewed. Whatever the case considered, it has been noted
that consultants avoid criticizing officials' presuppositions objectively
and highlighting donors responsibilities.
Impacts
It is difficult to
determine the planning process impacts for at least three reasons :
- the operational
implementation of most processes is still in a starting phase;
- certain oldest
processes lack institutional structures to support their implementation;
- others have not
yet been thoroughly evaluated so as to determine impacts.
Therefore, processes
related to the SAP have produced effects which have been differently appreciated
by actors (Sate disengagement, economic reforms, etc.). Other processes
(scientific research, decentralization, PAN/LCD...) are perceived as bringing
progress especially in the sense of reinforcing local contracting authority
and establishing a reference strategic framework for all actions.
As indicated previously,
there is a difference between the donors and the beneficiaries viewpoints
obtained through data on the evolution of poverty indicators.
Ongoing innovations
to promote synergy and coordination of development actions
Innovating practices
are implemented or sought by the state financial and technical partners
to promote synergy between actions and improve the efficiency of coordination
structures (workshop in Tenkodogo in April 2000).
To avoid the danger
of an abstract presentation of these innovating practices, we suggest
that a definition of the outlines be illustrated from some important actions
being executed in the rural sector and the sector of basic education.
Description of
innovating practices and attempts to enhance actions in the basic education
sector
Innovating practices
have been recently introduced in the basic education sector. The most
important changes occurred during the last months (May to July 2000).
For the time being, we don't have enough information to evaluate expected
or unexpected effects. Nevertheless, we can make a presentation and outline
an analysis which will show the main difficulties arising in this experience.
Commitments for
the principle of sectorial approach
Since 1997 most partners
working in the educational sector have taken part in the formulation of
the ten year plan and have adopted the principle of including any new
sectorial action in the plan.
Most donors interested
in the sector have approved the principle of sectorial approach. This
position was initially strongly supported by the Dutch Cooperation and
the World Bank. More recently, other financial partners actively brought
their support (European Union, French Cooperation, Canada).
In adopting the principle
of sectorial approach, the donors agree with the following conditions
:
Donors agree with
the principle of the State leadership in the ongoing process. Even if
important observations have been formulated and should be taken into account
by the ten year plan, one should note that donors have decided to respect
the progression pace defined by MEBA.
Joint missions
A joint mission of
technical and financial partners interested in the basic educational sector
was conducted 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, ONUSIDA, OSEO, PAEB, PAM,
The Netherlands, UERD, UNESCO, UNICEF, European Union, Tin Tua.
The composition of
this mission shows real progress made concerning the coordination of the
different donors (the most important NGOs of the sector and even a national
NGO are included).
According to the mission's
objectives one can note their concern for supporting actions and coordinating
dialogues with the national party. These objectives mainly aimed at getting
interested financial partners and national actors agree on a ten-year
programme which will serve as a reference framework for all actors involved
in the sector.
The technical
and financial partners framework (PTF)
Its members comprise
all institutions currently working in the sector of basic education in
Burkina Faso. NGOs are also included through the platform they have established
for education.
The PTF have formed
working groups that have been all involved in the process of the ten year
plan elaboration. Recently, the donors set up the following two working
groups to contribute to the operationalization of the ten year plan :
During the process
the donors have sought to carry out their activities in compliance with
the provisions of other frameworks (CSLP) and new financing opportunities
in the context of the initiative for debt alleviation.
The joint mission
carefully examined the issue of intersectorial consistency. It formulated
a series of proposals to promote a multisectorial approach and develop
appropriate integration modes for institutions and initiatives in the
education sector.
Towards the adoption
of guiding principles defined consensually
The mission expressed
its interest in a certain number of practices and innovations which are
very important for the pursuit of the process (financing principles, provisions
for policies, etc.).
Assertion of
the priority given to MEBA institutional reinforcement
The mission made recommendations
aimed at reinforcing the national party capacity in formulating policies
and managing the sector. It also proposed an agenda for meetings (in the
context of dialogues) between donors and the national party.
The PTF agreed on
the principle of breaking down financing fields while taking into account
each donor's comparative advantages. Although the principle was clearly
defined, the PTF haven't been concretly committed yet. This issue will
have to be discussed as one of the essential points of the dialogue within
the consulting framework.
Agreement between
the national party and the PTF on the reform of aid conditions
In 1997 a large group
of donor's started an experimental approach related to aid for development
in Burkina Faso in the context of the Special Program for Africa (PSA).
This experimentation on the reformulation of aid conditions was conducted
under the aegis of the European Community that ensured its coordination.
It mainly aimed to have all the donors agreement on a series of sectorial
performance indicators for the government activities. These indicators
should serve as a common reference for decisions on aid disbursement in
the form of budgetary support in accordance with the principle of sectorial
approach.
The experimentation
objectives dealt with the following :
- improving and reinforcing
actions to ensure the Government ownership of the processes of definition,
follow up and policies evaluations ;
- regulating aid
flow and reducing aid suspensions which cause sudden disturbances in
the state treasury management ;
- improving efficiency
in donations by following up programmes on the basis of measurable performance
indicators consensually defined beforehand ;
- reinforcing and
improving coordination between the PTF.
Such a procedure is
globally consistent with the sectorial approach. The experimentation was
completed by the filth evaluation carried out in July 2000 with the participation
of the most important donors interested in the sector of basic education.
The evaluation came up with the following conclusions :
- by opting for a
real ownership of public policies by the Government, this supposes that
after the definition of objectives and sectorial strategies, the PTF
should allow national actors to choose the modalities of their operational
implementation, their appropriate progression paces as well as the reform
programme ;
- evaluations should
be done on the basis of defined indicators in agreement with all interested
parties (cooperation partners and Government). These evaluations should
help define the nature of the different partners' contributions to the
programme and especially establish harmonization systems ;
- the selection of
the most relevant indicators should be done during the elaboration of
new programmes ;
- the agenda should
give sufficient deadlines to develop reflections and come up with operational
conclusions on two essential issues related to :
i) the identification
of result indicators for a certain number of sectors or activity
areas and,
ii) the establishment
of a link between results obtained while monitoring indicators and
financing amounts allocated by donors.
Description of
attempts to enhance actions in the rural sector
The elaboration of
the policy letter for decentralized rural development (CPDRD) is to be
considered as a relevant initiative. In fact, the CPDRD has decided to
promote a comprehensive consistency and complementarity of activities
implemented in the field by enabling consultation on some guiding principles
to orient these actions. Since representatives of ministries acting in
the rural sector are involved, the elaboration process of the LPDRD should
make it possible to reach a common agreement between concerned public
institutions on the principles of actions carried out at local levels.
To reinforce the achievements
of the LPDRD process it is necessary to take into account certain issues
which represent important challenges for the future of the process. These
challenges are related to :
- the technical competences
and autonomy level of the technical group in charge of preparing the
files to be submitted to the different institutions representatives
;
- the importance
given to the civil society proxies ;
- the authority given
to the coordination framework. In this respect, it's important to note
that by involving the representative of the Prime Minister, this raises
a sine qua non condition regarding not only choices and required arbitrations,
but also sanctions which are indispensable for the process success.
Even if the elaboration
of the LPDRD is a considerable breakthrough (in terms of objectives, formulation
of guiding principles, structuring of institutional organs), the process
covers only the rural sector. The CSLP ambition is to cover all sectors,
but its results are still modified. Therefore, for the time being the
CSLP coverage is limited to the sectors of basic education and health.
Analysis of ongoing
processes and innovations
If certain major innovations
are presently accepted by all parties involved in the basic education
sector (particularly innovations related to the sectorial approach and
new conditions), their implementations face serious difficulties which
need to be identified.
Consensus on
the principles of a sectorial approach and follow up indicators in relation
to the conditions reform
For the time being,
these new innovations concern the adoption of a new approach and the modalities
of designing the ten year plan (content and principles). Principles adopted
deal with national priorities and the coordination of actions (multi sectorial
integration).
We should note that
the decentralization process has been taken into account in the ten year
plan including the reinforcement of MEBA management capacities. However,
the plan was unable to precisely determine the nature of links which should
be established between outlays and results achieved by the governmental
policy. This issue will have to be discussed by the national party and
the PTF.
Lack of real
agreement on certain measures to be adopted
Upon completion of
the joint evaluation carried out with the national party, the donors insisted
on the fact that the achievement of the objective of improving the educational
coverage according to the ten year plan proportions, means that infrastructures
should be largely extended and the staff reinforced. Because of the state
budget insufficient resources, donors have recommended a reduction of
education cost by fixing teachers' salary as the triple of GDP per capita
income, which means a decrease of the current remuneration. This proposal
was turned down by the national party whose members consider that this
could result in social conflicts and a decrease of teaching quality (unmotivation).
A representative
consulting framework but in search of greater efficiency
Thanks to its quality,
the donors consulting framework has managed to establish a dialogue with
the general agreement of most PTFs. However, there are still certain important
partners (BAD, BID, UNDP) who have not been involved in the process yet.
The creation of working
groups has opened up interesting perspectives but they haven't included
all the donors. The working group on the harmonization of procedures is
very less productive, which doesn't encourage donors to adopt the recommended
innovations. To adapt their procedures to a sectorial approach, the PTFs
are hampered by difficulties which cannot be exactly evaluated.
The marginalization
of the civil society
Non governmental institutions
(associations belonging to the basic education sector) have been very
insufficiently involved in the consultation processes. This situation
can lead to nasty consequences, especially in relation to the relevance
of the plan under certain aspects but also to the sector governance. In
this area, the approach no longer complies with the major orientations
set by both financial partners and the Burkinabe Government.
Donors didn't provide
necessary support to ensure a real involvement of the civil society (grassroots
associations, teachers unions) that could play a key role in lobbying
and making proposals. There is no doubt that these actors involvement
is indispensable if we want to achieve a national consensus and promote
a real ownership and a viability of all processes.
Some important objectives
such as the transparency of the process management and the civil society
participation at all levels, have not been explicitly taken into consideration.
If the implementation of a sectorial programme should largely be based
on state institutions, it also means that the civil society and local
communities have to play an important role in activities related to the
monitoring of aid management (access to information, involving the civil
society actors in decision making processes pertaining to management,
especially bidding). These different issues have not been soundly discussed
yet.
The low effectiveness
of the Burkinabe Government leadership
The agenda of the
process formulating the plan is largely determined by donors. One can
wonder about the degree of involvement of the national party in the process
and how they attempt to own it. This remark is related to important delays
which occurred during the process implementation. Technical and financial
partners are essentially responsible for taking initiatives and making
proposals. In these conditions, the following question is worth being
asked : will the national party sincerely adopt the sectorial approach
or will it adopt it simply because it is a new condition for action ?
The national party
doesn't still play its coordination and arbitration role fully by effectively
steering the PTFs meetings ; this could make it possible to play a leader's
role. Despite its pretensions, the national party can't still enact rules
which should de respected by the PTFs. Things are happening as if the
national authorities carefully avoided scaring the donors who still hesitate
to comply with the new requirements.
MEBA
institutional weakness in assuming its role
To pursue the process,
uncertainties are being expressed especially concerning the national party's
capacity to implement certain actions mainly related to :
- administrative
and financial management (in the present context, MEBA's level of budgetary
implementation is below 80 %) ;
- programme follow
up/evaluation.
All institutional
audits carried out (particularly audits dictated by the World Bank and
MEBA itself) show important deficiencies in the functioning of the department.
In order to overcome these difficulties, it is indispensable to implement
in-depth reforms in the sector management. Other reforms still need to
be implemented not only by MEBA alone but also by other departments as
well.
Shouldn't these reforms
be efficiently implemented, the capacity of the national party leadership,
which is the foundation of the sectorial approach, could be compromised.
One should recall that the financial partners have assisted several projects
which provide institutional support to MEBA, but results expected haven't
met expectations yet ; and one should wonder what to do now. In this area,
there are no clear, explicit and comprehensive lessons which could be
learned either by donors or by the State.
However, we can notice
that public administrative positions at high level don't sufficiently
attract national officers who are more skillful to perform managerial
tasks efficiently. In addition, managerial tasks are not urged by incentives
and motivating awards. These essential issues which had been dodged by
all partners including donors should now be raised and addressed objectively
so as to define an efficient strategy for institutional capacity building.
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