Participatory Local Democracy

For general information about the country profiles click here.

Population: 20.9 Million

HDI ranking: 182/189

HDI score: 0.452

The decentralization process initiated in Burkina Faso since the 1990s was further consolidated with full communalization in 2006 following the adoption of the General Code of Territorial Collectivities in 2004. However, major challenges, such as widespread illiteracy in rural areas, remain for decentralization implementation (Europeaid, 2013).

Local governance at a glance

• At the national level the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization (MATD), led by Pengdwendé Clément Sawadogo, is responsible for the process of decentralization (UNDP, 2009).

• The commune is the basic unit of local government, of which there are three types: 302 rural communes, 47 ordinary urban status communes, and 2 special status urban communes (Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso) (Government of Burkina Faso, n.d.).

• Each commune has a municipal council directly elected through universal suffrage and a mayor indirectly elected by the municipal council (World Bank, 2013).

• Special status communes are organized into arrondissements, sectors, and villages. At the end of 2011, Ouagadougou had 12 arrondissements, 55 sectors, and 17 villages; and Bobo-Dioulasso had 7 arrondissements, 33 sectors, and 36 villages (World Bank, 2013).

Civil society actors include

• Réseau Afrique Jeunesse, a network of young people dedicated to building a more just, accountable, and prosperous Burkina Faso.

• Yam Pukri, a technology association that created Democr@TIC, an online portal for democracy and governance organizations in Burkina Faso.

Capacity building institutions

• The Centre International de Formation des Autorités/Acteurs Locaux (CIFAL), is a training center for local officials from 15 West African nations. The objectives of the center are to develop the skills of local councilors through education and exchanges, help improve local government, set up networks of towns, and monitor and assess the impact of its training sessions (University World News, 2010).

• The Burkina Faso Urban Country Program is an initiative undertaken by the Government of Burkina Faso to align urban development efforts at the national government, local government and community levels and include the urban poor in the planning and decision-making processes (Cities Alliance, n.d.).

Fiscal control

• In 2005 and 2007, local government received 2% of total public sector spending (World Bank, 2008; UCLG, 2010).
• Taxing authority remains largely with the central government. The central government retains control over the determination of base and rates on the most significant local taxes, while local governments have autonomy to revise base and rates on limited number of taxes (World Bank, 2008).

• The Law 014-2006 enshrines the expenditures and resources allocations of local governments. According to this law, capital expendi- tures must reach at least 1/3 of total subnational expenditures, which is a great constraint on local governments’ budget (OECD).

• Governmental transfers still the principal financial ressources of Burkinabé LGs, althought they can levy taxes, which are partly shared between the two tiers of subnational government. Municipalities have also the possibility to get paid for local services that they render, through secondary taxation system and user fees. Access to borrowing is very limited and mostly undirect (retroceded from the State to the LG), except for Bobo Dioulasso and Ouagadougou which have been authorized to borrow from an international development agency in the past years (OECD).

Key initiatives for participatory local governance

• Beginning in the 1990’s, the country adopted a series of laws to establish an increasingly decentralized government. The constitution gives official status to the territorial collectivities (collectivités territoriales) that are now recognized as legal entities, financially autonomous, and administered by elected bodies.

• In 2004, the General Code of Territorial Collectivities (Code général des collectivités territoriales) “communalized” the entire country, bringing the levels of local government to two. The grouping of the country’s 8000 rural villages – where 80 percent of the population lives – into self-governing communes was designed to enhance local capacity to plan, manage and mobilize resources for their development (IDA, 2007).

• In 2006, the first country wide municipal elections took place, electing representatives for the 13 regional governments and the 351 urban and rural communes.

• In 2007, the Government of Burkina Faso adopted a decade-long strategy (2006-2015) for implementing decentralisation reform. The main pillars of the strategy are (German Agency for International Cooperation, n.d.):
  • Mainstreaming decentralisation in social and political life
  • Transferring competences and resources to the municipal authorities
  • Capacity building among local actors
  • Promoting local development planning
  • Steering and coordinating the reform process

• At the 2008 National Decentralization Conference the Government committed to reporting annually on the implementation and progress of decentralization and adopted an action plan for the following three years. A fund has been set up to finance municipal infrastructure for the local authorities, to which the government makes annual contributions (German Agency for International Cooperation, n.d.).
• The Programme Decentralisation and Municipal Development (PDDC), funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by GIZ (2005-2021), supports the implementation of decentralization in Burkina Faso in four areas (Alliance Sahel)
  • Steering decentralization: The program has been supporting the Ministry of Territorial Administration, Decentralisation and Social Cohesion (MATDC, since January 2021 MATD) in the implementation of the new decentralization strategy and its monitoring.
  • Local democracy: The program supports local elected officials, civil society representatives, and the municipal media to communicate more with citizens, to inform on policy decisions, to make local development planning more participatory and to facilitate accountability to the population.
  • Training of local actors : The program accompanies a direct exchange between municipalities and devolved technical services through thematic clusters (archiving, public works management, water and health sectors).
  • Local finance : The MATDC, the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Development (MINEFID), the sectoral ministries (e.g. water, health, education) and the AMBF and ARBF are advised on the introduction of an allocation key for financial transfers from the central state to the local authorities based on their needs.

Challenges for participatory local governance

• In 2009, the UNDP reported 90 percent illiteracy rate among rural officials, nearly 16,000 individuals. In 2009, the government piloted a literacy campaign in 40 communities, funded in part by UNDP and led by the Ministry for Basic Education and Literacy Training and the Ministry of Regional Government and Decentralization (UNDP, 2009).

• UNDP reported additional challenges, including weak technical capacity and poor support mechanisms for decentralized services and territorial communities. UNDP pointed to the need to mobilize resources to finance the decentralization process, for improved literacy skills, and wider distribution of informative texts that guide the decentralization process (UNDP, 2009).

• A 2010 report for the World Bank concluded that local governments have a very low degree of discretionary power and weak accountability to citizens at all levels. In the fiscal sphere, taxing powers are restricted, while transfers are insufficient and unpredictable, making local financial management extremely difficult (Journal of Public Administration and Development, 2010).
• An analysis done by Georgia State’s Andrew Young School of Policy in 2008, deemed government officials, wary of losing power, and political parties, in search of more administrative power, as two of the larger governmental obstacles to the spread of decentralization and the localization of resources (Decentralization in Burkina Faso)

• A 2013 World Bank report identified 8 major institutional challenges for decentralization, including (World Bank, 2013):
  • An unclear link between decentralization and deconcentration. Government agencies at the regional level are both national government and local government entities. The functions of the decentralized regions do not seem clear despite a list of devolved responsibilities.

• • A lack of democratic legitimacy within the regional assemblies, as these representatives are indirectly elected by their peers, risking a lack of autonomy from the local governments. This risk is heightened by the fact that six of the main local taxes are shared with the communes, which collect the taxes and then transfer only a small share (1.5–3 percent) of the receipts to the regions.

Recent posts on this website about this country:

• What’s in a right? : the liberalisation of gold mining and decentralisation in Burkina Faso (2013)
• The political economy of decentralization in sub-Saharan Africa : a new implementation model in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, and Senegal (2013)
• Emerging lessons from MCC/MCA-sponsored initiatives to formalize customary land rights and local land management practices in Benin, Burkina Faso and Senegal : paper (2012)
• Survey results : advanced seminar – decentralisation and local governance : session 1.2 (2012)
• Decentralization and community forest management in Burkina Faso : constraints and challenges (2011)
• Yes Africa can : success stories from a dynamic continent (2011)
• FAGLAF : Forum d’action pour la gouvernance locale en Afrique francophone (2011)
• Agrarian change below the radar screen : rising farmland acquisitions by domestic investors in west Africa : results from a survey in Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger (2011)
• Rural demography, public services and land rights in Africa : a village-level analysis in Burkina Faso (2011)
• Mobilising tax revenue to finance development : the case for property taxation in Francophone Africa (2010)

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List of sources (in order of citation):

General Report of The Primitive Budgets, 2019 Management of Territorial Collectivities UN Human Development Index, 2013: “Burkina Faso”

Europeaid, 2013: “Burkina Faso”

Government of Burkina Faso, n.d.

World Bank 2013: “The Political Economy of Decentralization in Sub-Saharan Africa”

UCLG, 2010: “Local Government Finance: The Challenges of the 21st Century.”

OECD: Burkina Faso

University World News, 2010: “Burkina Faso: Local government centre opens.”

Cities Alliance: “The Burkina Faso Urban Country Programme.”

World Bank, 2008: “Local Government Discretion and Accountability: Application of a Local Governance Framework”

International Development Association (IDA) , 2007: “In Burkina’s Poor Rural Areas, Paving the Way for Decentralization”

German Agency for International Cooperation, n.d.: “Decentralization and municipal management.”

Alliance Sahel: BURKINA FASO: THE MUNICIPALITIES IMPROVE PEOPLE’S ACCESS TO BASIC SOCIAL SERVICES AND LOCAL DEMOCRACY

UNDP Newsroom, 2009: “40 communities launch literacy courses for Burkina Faso politicians.”

UNDP 2009: “Owning the Participatory Process in Burkina Faso.”

Decentralization in Burkina Faso: A Policy Reform Process in Slow Motion, 2008.

Journal of Public Administration and Development, 2010: “Local Government Discretion and Accountability in Burkina Faso.”