Luxembourg Dedicated Additional €4.6m Financial Support to Burkina Faso amid COVID-19 Crisis

On Monday 20 July 2020, the 12th Partnership Commission between Luxembourg and Burkina Faso took place via videoconference.

This 12th session of the Partnership Commission forms part of the regular monitoring of the commitments made by Luxembourg and Burkina Faso since 2003 in order to ensure efficient implementation of the General Cooperation Agreement of 27 October 1999. Like previous sessions, it was chaired by Franz Fayot, Luxembourg's Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs and of the Economy, and Lassané Kabore, Minister of the Economy, Finance and Development of Burkina Faso. The meeting of the Partnership Commission saw the participation of representatives of the first heads of ministerial departments receiving support from Luxembourg.

This 12th Partnership Commission was characterised by discussions on the performance of development projects and programmes benefiting from the technical and financial support of the Grand Duchy. A total of six bilateral projects and programmes costing around CFAF 48.54 billion (€74 million) financed by Luxembourg are currently underway in Burkina Faso under the third Indicative Cooperation Programme, which links the two countries and covers the years 2017-21. These projects and programmes concern the fields of education, the environment, digital development and jobs, youth and the promotion of youth entrepreneurship. In addition, there are projects financed by Luxembourg and implemented by multilateral agencies, NGOs and humanitarian actors for an amount of CFAF 28.8 billion (€43.9 million) for the period 2017-20.

At the end of the meeting, the two parties made commitments to improve and consolidate the achievements of development projects and programmes. These include improving governance and project monitoring and dialogue between Luxembourg and Burkina Faso. The two parties agreed to extend the project implementation period by six months, i.e. until June 2021, following the pandemic of COVID-19. In addition, funds were made available to the Environment Ministry, in support of the coronavirus response, on the basis of a budget review of the programme. The two parties also welcomed the new dynamic within the Environmental Intervention Fund since the end of 2019.

In support of the sectoral policy of technical and vocational education and training, progress has been made since the signing of the bilateral agreement in October 2019. In this spirit, the two parties urged the actors to accelerate the implementation of works to achieve the objectives of the project. Regarding the Burkina Faso fiscal cadastre, both parties confirmed their willingness to collaborate within the framework of support from Luxembourg for the implementation of actions relating to capacity building and the digitalisation of archives in Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso. In this regard, they agreed that a project be formulated for their implementation.

As part of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the Partnership Commission noted the additional efforts of the Grand Duchy to the tune of approximately €4.6 million (or CFAF 3 billion).

Finally, the Partnership Commission discussed the mid-term review of the third Indicative Cooperation Programme, which will be launched in the second half of this year and will make it possible to assess Luxembourg's contribution to the achievement of the National Economic and Social Development Plan 2016-20. At the end of this mid-term review, the two parties will be able to initiate a dialogue on the modalities of the next programme.

At the end of the 12th Partnership Committee, the two parties praised the consistency and the quality of the dialogue between the actors of the implementation of the interventions of the cooperation programmes allowing to find solutions to the difficulties encountered and encouraged them to maintain this permanent dialogue mechanism.