Burkina Faso: The capacities of 35 communes strengthened in the practice of citizen control and accountability

Published on 26/09/2021 | La rédaction

Burkina Faso

The project to support social accountability for access to basic social services (PReSS), which is being implemented in 35 communes in Burkina Faso, is coming to an end. For 38 months, the Laboratoire citoyennetés, which is leading the project, has been working with the beneficiary communes to make citizen control and accountability practices more systematic in the education, health, drinking water and sanitation sectors. In order to make a participatory evaluation of the achievements and shortcomings and to identify the prospects for perpetuating the achievements, a closing seminar of the project is being held on 24 September 2021 in Ouagadougou.

Oury is one of the 35 beneficiary communes of the PReSS project. According to its mayor, Boubacar Barry, the commune has benefited for three years from the support of Laboratoire citoyennetés, for the implementation of citizen watch and accountability structures, as well as the organization of accountability days. The commune was also supported in the collection of revenues, which have increased by 7% compared to previous years. He maintains that it is governance in general that has been improved through the PReSS project.

During the period of the UNICEF-funded project, actions were taken not only to improve the practice of accountability and citizen monitoring, but also to improve access to and the quality of basic social services in the sectors of education, water and sanitation, and health.

To this end, the communes have worked in tandem with local civil society organizations. Monitoring and citizen watch committees have been set up to monitor the implementation of development projects and policies at the local level. The communes have also been supported in fulfilling their duty to report on management, which is an obligation for them.

According to the programme officer, Seydou Sana, in most communities, there are no resources allocated to this type of activity. These are therefore opportunities that the project has created so that those primarily responsible, the local elected officials, can face the people and explain to them the steps taken in the implementation of the project.These are therefore opportunities that the project has created so that those primarily responsible, i.e. local elected officials, can face the population and explain to them the steps taken in the implementation of the various projects, and call for the involvement of citizens in the mobilisation of resources and in the implementation of development actions.

Challenges such as the reluctance of some communities to make data available in relation to their budgets, as well as the low level of mastery of citizen monitoring by some local associations, did not prevent the project from achieving conclusive results. And it is in view of these results that the project will continue until 2022. This will be done through the integration of new axes, in order to consolidate the achievements and boost the issue of citizen control at the local level as well as the action of accountability.

Source: lefaso.net


Did you like this article? Share it ...

comments

Leave a comment

Your comment will be published after validation.