Democracy and participation

About the theme

Administratively, Burkina Faso comprises thirteen (13) regions, forty-five (45) provinces and three hundred and fifty-one (351) communes, of which three hundred and two (302) are rural and forty-nine (49) urban. After almost two decades of decentralization, Burkina Faso has entered a 3rd cycle of decentralization. Adopted by decree n°2018-0269/PRES/PM/MATD of April 09, 2018 the current decentralization repositories include the forward-looking vision of decentralization, the national decentralization policy, the ten-year decentralization strategy together with its first five-year action plan 2018-2022.

Decentralization stems from the failure of centralized management of public affairs and the conditioning of international aid to more multiparty democracy and citizen participation. Decentralization is therefore defined as the transfer of authority and responsibility for public functions from central government to subordinate or quasi-autonomous governmental organizations and/or to the private sector. Various reforms have been introduced to facilitate its implementation. However, difficulties remain. These include

Several local authorities are currently weakened by insecurity and massive population displacements, leading to humanitarian problems;
the persistent risk of socio-political crisis linked to governance problems within communities;
a lack of ownership of the instruments of consultation and accountability, which tend to appear as a mere requirement of donors;
the absence of an effective and operational communication mechanism between local executives and communities at village and sector level.

To change this, Solidar Suisse has been implementing the Democracy and Participation Program – Participatory Community Development since 2017. The main aim of this program, whose second phase covers the period 2021-2024 in the Central Plateau and Boucle du Mouhoun regions, is to strengthen local democratic culture by improving, on the one hand, the influence and watchdog capacities of CSOs and citizens (M/F) in urban and rural areas, and on the other hand, by strengthening the dialogue and proposal capacities of local and sub-local authorities, with a gender-sensitive approach.