At forty years of age, 17 of which have been spent as a community organizer, Alidou Compaoré is a living map of the province of Oubritenga (Central Plateau Region), which he has travelled the length and breadth of on several occasions. For three years now, this native of Nomgana, 18 km northeast of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, has been putting his talent as a community organizer at the service of the Association manegdbzanga (AM). Alidou Compaoré and four other colleagues trained in democracy and participation by Solidar Suisse work directly in the villages of five of the province’s communes, raising people’s awareness of democracy.
Nomgana, February 17, 2016, in the association’s meeting room. After a good five minutes of animated conversation, Alidou hangs up his phone. Those were the women from Gounghin, a village in Absouya,” he murmurs. They want me to come and refresh their memories on the criteria that should guide the choice of their future municipal councillors”. This request from the women of Gounghin is no coincidence. In around two months’ time, the populations of Burkina Faso’s 351 communes will be called to the polls to choose their municipal councillors.
The women of Gounghin have no intention of playing second fiddle. That’s why they’re keen to deepen the discussion they had with the animateur-relais in the run-up to last year’s presidential and legislative elections. On that occasion, the group discussed the electoral process, fair play and crisis management in the pre- and post-electoral periods, etc.
Like the people of Absouya, the villages of Dapelogo, Loumbila, Nagréongo, Ourgou-Manéga, Ziniaré and Zitenga have held awareness-raising meetings on democracy and participation, organized by Solidar Suisse and its local partner, the Manegdbzanga association.
These events are becoming increasingly popular.
After three years in the field, Alidou Compaoré has no doubts about rural communities’ interest in good governance. As proof, he points to the growing mobilization of villagers, session after session. “At first, I couldn’t get 10 women and 20 men together. But now we’ve asked for and obtained megaphones to make ourselves heard by the crowd. We often gather up to 70 people during our meetings.” What’s more, the meetings are spreading beyond the affected villages. “We get requests from neighboring villages that we visit, asking us to come and lead talks with them.”
Equipping local authorities to provide quality public services.
During the events, villagers raise the problems that are holding back their full participation. “When we encourage people to register on the electoral roll, they sometimes ask us to overcome legitimate difficulties. Many say they don’t have the administrative documents they need to register, in particular a birth certificate”. Indeed, in some communes, obtaining a civil status document is not easy. This is the case of the Ourgou-Manéga town hall, which had no computers or power source to run its civil registry service. That’s why, in 2014, Solidar Suisse provided the commune with the equipment it needed to get the registry office up and running.
Proven training and discourse, the secret to attracting interest
Alidou Compaoré readily admits that the secret to the success of the awareness-raising sessions lies in the quality of the training and in a tried-and-tested internal organization. “Solidar Suisse provides us with comprehensive training. Together with the trainers, we define the essential message to be conveyed to our contacts in the villages. Then, as relay facilitators, we make sure we use the same terms to translate concepts such as democracy, participation, etc. This is what makes us so successful. That’s how we manage to keep people interested and gradually bring about change.
