Burkina Faso overview

Burkina Faso is a relatively small country in West Africa with a population of approximately 14 million, of which 77% live in rural areas. The decentralisation process started in 1998 with the adoption of several decentralisation laws and decrees. Despite positive growth rates in the past years, a significant number of people – up to 46% in 2004 – remain below the poverty line. It has a per capita GDP of US$1,304 (IMF, 2010). Current coverage for rural and peri-urban water supply stands at around 52%, but there are significant disparities between regions.

The country is divided into 13 regions, 45 provinces, 351 communes and about 8,300 villages.

Main sector institutions

Though the ultimate responsibilities over a number of small towns and the villages located within the boundaries of urban communes are unclear, sector organisation is relatively well defined, with a separa­tion of functions between a number of key institutions:

  • The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources is the ultimate authority for water supply and sanitation issues in rural areas, and the National Office for Water and Sanitation (ONEA), is responsible for urban areas.
  •  The General Directorate for Water Resources is the national body for policy development and planning.
  •  The Regional Directorates for Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources coordinate planning, resources and activities at regional level.
  •  The National Office for Water and Sanitation and the private sector operate some dimensions of water services in a selected number of communes (local government units).
  •  International donors (GTZ [German international cooperation organisation], World Bank, the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) (French Development Agency), Danish International Development Assistance (Danida), the European Union (EU), etc) finance about 90% of the national water budget.
  •  INGOs implement and support local capacities.
  •  Communes are responsible to ensure service provision to their populations.

 

Service Delivery Models

In Burkina Faso there are four principal SDMs recognised in sector policy, with three of them being recent and under trial in specific regions (2 – 4):

  1. Community-based management, covering 70% of rural and peri-urban water supply systems.
  2. Delegation to the private sector in the form of leasing contracts. Three major operators share the market.
  3. Delegation to ONEA through mutual agreement with urban communes for water provision in their urban perimeter for a specific length of time. A local non-governmental organisation (NGO) supports the commune in negotiations with the Agency. Seven communes have adopted this model.
  4. Through Associations for Water Conveyance Development. These Associations aim to accelerate growth of the water market in rural and semi-urban areas through public-private partnerships (PPPs) extended to associations from civil society and NGOs. The service delivery relies on a voluntary pooling of equipment.

Key issues

CBM was implemented thoroughly prior to the 2000 National Water Reform, which supports the implemen­tation of PPPs in the management of water delivery services. Such partnerships are recognised through leasing contracts (for delegation) or through coordina­tion units (for pooling equipment). Such experiences are however still conducted at pilot level, and no scaling is planned for by the six year National Water and Sanitation Program (2009-2015) to meet MDGs. Moreover, a number of local committees created before 2000 are hostile to change, especially those who still keep their systems going, and want to keep their leadership in public services delivery. In parallel, the central government created an executing agency to operate water services in place of the communes, with the objective of accelerating the pace to meet the MDGs. By doing so, the government holds back the transfer of project ownership to local authorities. Hence, the central government is faced with both the need to produce immediate results and the need to set up ownership at communal level.

A certain level of coordination is in place between national stakeholders, donors and actors (NGOs, General Directorate for Water Resources, etc), notably through the National Water and Sanitation Program and its numerous platforms. The main issue is around the actual transfer of responsibility and resources to the communes whose capacities to plan and manage water services are limited.