Burkina Faso/Citizenship Laboratory: A workshop to strengthen the creation and responsible management of social services
As part of the Programme to support social accountability in favour of access to basic social services in 35 communes in Burkina Faso (PReSS), the town of Koudougou hosted an inter-regional dialogue workshop between parliamentarians, local elected officials and civil society organisations on Wednesday 8 September 2021. Organized by the Laboratoire citoyennetés, this meeting made it possible to share the results and experiences of the program and to identify perspectives with a view to contributing to the strengthening of institutional instruments for local governance.
The meeting, funded by UNICEF, brought together some 50 participants, including parliamentarians, local elected officials and local civil society organizations. The objective is to provide better support to elected officials (municipal councillors and parliamentarians) in the process of reforms to be undertaken at the national level in order to strengthen the creation and responsible management of accessible social services.
Under the theme "Citizen control and social accountability as instruments of good governance of transferred competencies in Burkina Faso", the conference was held in the framework of the "National Conference on Social Development".Under the theme "Citizen control and social accountability as good governance tools for transferred competencies in Burkina Faso", the workshop provided an opportunity to discuss the functioning and prospects of the drinking water, sanitation, education and health sectors.
The opening ceremony was punctuated by three interventions. In his welcome address, Brahima Koné, Mayor of Bérégadougou, on behalf of his counterpart from Koudougou, welcomed the participants and praised the holding of this meeting in the welcoming city of Koudougou.
During this working day, it was a question, among other things, of taking stock of the implementation of the programme, of presenting to the parliamentarians the actions of the project, of bringing the parliamentarians and local elected representatives to propose effective measures to reinforce the legal and political frameworks for a better management of the transferred areas of competence.
Raogo Antoine Sawadogo, President of the Citizenship Laboratory, said that access to education, health, drinking water and sanitation is a right for every citizen. This explains why the Laboratoire citoyennetés, in its mission to support local authorities, maintains its efforts to strengthen local governance and build a committed, responsible and better equipped civil society. "Citizen control and social accountability are not a fashionable trend, but responses to the difficulties experienced by certain categories of people in accessing quality social services adapted to the needs of the population"He hopes that with the improvement of governance practices, communities will not only be able to mobilize more public, private and local resources, but also establish better planning and management of their resources. He is also convinced that given the quality of the participants and their commitment, relevant lessons will emerge from the exchanges.
For MP Dramane Nignan, Vice-President of the National Assembly representing President Alassane Bala Sakandé, accountability is an action very dear to his president. "The theme that has been selected falls within the tasks that have been entrusted to us because an elected official must, periodically, account for what he said on behalf of others. I invite my colleagues to make sure that this seminar results in decisions, resolutions, commitments that each of us will take to advance education and sanitation in our country," he said. Before officially launching the session, Dramane Nignan invited each actor to actively participate in this workshop of giving and receiving.
As a reminder, the implementation of this project covers the sectors of education, health, drinking water and sanitation in 35 urban and rural communes in the regions of the Centre-West, Centre-South, North, Boucle du Mouhoun and Cascades. The project is based on four strategic axes to systematize citizen control and accountability practices in relation to education, health, drinking water and sanitation; to support better exercise of the areas of competence; To accompany the dynamics of local planning and resource mobilization for a better consideration of education, health, drinking water and sanitation issues and finally to invest in influencing public decisions and policies.
Source: lefaso.net
