From December 17 to 22, 2023, Solidar Suisse Burkina Faso honored tradition by bringing together all its staff for its annual seminar, a forum for reflection. This year, the town of Bobo Dioulasso played host to the team. On the menu for the meeting were physical and financial assessments of the various projects, reflections on how to improve support services, prospects for 2024 and a recreational outing.
The annual team seminar aims to improve the quality of Solidar Suisse’s programs. Dieudonné ZAONGO, Solidar Suisse’s Country Representative in Burkina Faso, made this point at the start of the proceedings. Rather than mere assessments, the presentations called for reflection on how to improve interventions to achieve greater impact in the field, for the benefit of the population. During the seminar, discussions focused on the two intervention programs, i.e. the Economy and Labor program and the Democracy, Civil Society and Humanitarian Aid program, and the supporting structures.
The themes and content of the discussions focused on peace education in the context of Burkina Faso, recent developments in the political and institutional framework for education, the strategy for formalizing informal apprenticeships for young people with master craftsmen, and so on. A number of projects and new projects were reviewed to draw lessons from the difficulties encountered in their implementation. These projects include Promotion de l’Orpaillage Responsable (OR), Promotion des Pratiques Agroécologiques et de Valorisation des Productions Agricoles (RILGRE), Entrepreneuriat agricole, Promotion de l’accès des filles à un Système Educatif et de Formation Professionnelle de qualité (PROMESSE-FP), Résilience Communautaire des Ménages Agrosylvopastoraux dans les régions du Nord et de la Boucle du Mouhoun (RESICOM).
Following the presentation of reflections and analysis of project achievements, financial statements were presented, along with the overall budget for 2024.
Reflections during the seminar also concerned support services. These included ways of improving the quality of project monitoring, the management of procurement processes for goods and services, the management of human resources and compliance with security measures.
The meeting also included an exchange via teams with some members of the head office team in Zurich, Switzerland.
Last but not least, the final act of the 2023 annual seminar was a recreational outing aimed at building a good team with a shared vision and a common commitment to development.
