In Burkina Faso, 80 percent of the population live in rural areas, 51 percent of the rural population live below the poverty line (versus 16 percent of the urban population) and food crop producers account for 75 percent of the rural poor. Rural development would not just reduce poverty, but had the greatest potential for stimulating growth through agricultural micro-projects.
The government has undertaken a long-term decentralization effort that groups rural villages into self-governing communes-a level of representative local government-with capacity to plan and manage their own development programs and mobilize the necessary resources through increased local revenues and government fiscal transfers. The IDA-supported Community-Based Rural Development Project sought to kick-start this effort by helping the government create new municipalities and by providing direct funding for community-driven investments in physical and social infrastructure. IDA aimed to cover 2,000 of Burkina’s 8,000 villages.
The project has reached more than 3,000 villages (one-third more than planned), located in 26 of the country’s 45 provinces. Successful capacity-development activities have resulted in realistic and high quality local development plans, and in investments at community level that demonstrate strong local ownership.
Highlights:
- 302 rural communes have been established and elections for local officials have been held. Half of Burkina’s villages have established village committees and built local capacity for planning, implementation and monitoring.
- Nearly 5 million person/days of training have been provided to build local capacity.
- US$39 million has been disbursed for 12,000 micro-projects.
- 1,700 community wells have been constructed, providing nearly half a million (450,000) inhabitants with the norm of 20 liters of safe water per person per day.
- 600 literacy centers have been established to allow an average of 30,000 adults per year to achieve literacy by reading and writing in their local languages.
- Hundreds of social infrastructure projects have been completed. The construction of classrooms and of lodgings for teachers and nurses allowed villages to attract quality personnel and create functioning schools and clinics.
- Advocacy and skills for protecting the environment and improving soil fertility have been emphasized. Among micro-projects: 75,000 'manure sinks' producing an average of around 370,000 tons of organic fertilizer per year; 28,000 hectares of land protected through anti-erosion measures.
- Specialized training has been given to promote income-generating activities such as dry-season irrigated agriculture, fish farming, small-scale livestock and forestry management.
- A revised Law on Local Communities, of 2004, established rural municipalities. The first municipal elections were held there in April 2006.
- US$66.7 million from 2000 to 2007.
- Of this, US$39 million was distributed to community-level investments.
- IDA supported the participatory effort to draft the 2004 decentralization law that establishes more than 300 local government bodies-the rural communes.
- IDA continues to provide the global expertise to implement a large-scale community-driven development program and the technical expertise to help Burkina Faso build new local institutions.
The government, local communities, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Netherlands and Denmark helped expand the program to more villages and provided co-financing to cover project’s total costs of US$115 million.
The government strongly supports community-driven development, and wants to expand coverage within and beyond the 26 provinces, as well as increase the per capita resources available to support larger projects with higher potential impact. As villagers gain confidence, they are defining more ambitious projects, with women, in particular, requesting support for a wider variety of income-generating activities. IDA will be financing a Phase 2 project which will primarily support the 300 rural communes in the preparation of their development plans.
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