Decentralisation and communal development in Burkina Faso
Context
Decentralisation has been enshrined in the constitution of Burkina Faso since 1991 and the country has been implementing the devolution process in stages since 1995. As of 2014, all relevant responsibilities have been formally transferred to the local authorities. Nevertheless, the new distribution of responsibilities between the different levels of government still poses major challenges for the successful structuring and implementation of the decentralisation process. The same applies to the complex negotiation process involving the population, civil society, municipalities, and local and national state bodies. The severe shortage of financial, specialist and human resources within municipal administrations is currently making it virtually impossible to provide basic services which meet people’s needs.
Project description
The overall objective of the programme is to support local authorities in order to enable them to offer improved and demand-oriented services. The PDDC’s services include expert and policy advice, process consultancy as training measures on different levels (multi-level approach). The implementation is carried out through activities divided into four areas in the regions East and South-West, namely:
- Steering of decentralisation: Establishing the necessary conditions for the central actors of decentralization, as well as the Association des municipalités du Burkina Faso (AMBF) and Association des régions du Burkina Faso (ARBF) in order to provide a needs-based support to the local authorities.
- Local Democracy and Accountability: Strengthening of local actors of decentralization in selected municipalities by using tools and competencies with the aim to enable municipalities to be accountable for the spending of public funds in the health and water sectors.
- Education and training of local actors: Strengthening the capacities of elected officials, decentralized services and territorial specialists regarding general administration tasks and subsequent diffusion of learning experiences with the help of peer-learning practices
- Improving the prerequisites for increasing the financial resources of the municipalities.
Services
The consortium AMBERO-GKW is responsible for the execution of field of action 2 Local democracy and accountability which aims to promote constructive relations between the state and society and, in this sense, to improve participation opportunities for citizens, especially women and young people.
Services in detail:
- Further development and application of participatory municipal development and investment planning with regard to majority participation of the population and, in particular, consideration of the priority needs of women and girls;
- Development and application of cooperation mechanisms for accountability, particularly in the water sector;
- Development and application of cooperation mechanisms for improved and needs-based use, maintenance and monitoring of municipal facilities (health and social centres, municipal markets, water taps, etc.) between municipal administrations and civil society organisations (organised user groups);
- Intercommunal exchange of experiences with regard to the broad impact of previous experiences in the project (horizontal upscaling via coaching, on-the-job training, peer-to-peer learning and communities of practice).
