Goal:
Ensure ecosystem resilience and sustainability
Goal:
Efficient use of natural resources and capital produced
Goal: Promote well-being and equita-ble distribution of resources and costs
Economie verte
Inclusive green economy (IGE)
Economy
Social well-being Environment
Source: Authors, adapted from a document of the European Environment Agency.
In order to improve and add to the content of the report, a technical validation workshop was held in Ouagadougou on 16 and 17 October 2014. It was attended by some 50 public and private sec-tor participants who reviewed the findings and made their contributions in the form of construc-tive criticism, amendments and
recommenda-tions. The final output presented here was thereby able to be further enriched. Before and after the workshop, and from the earliest planning stages, the report was also subjected to several other peer reviews and drew on useful comments from United Nations partner organizations and various ECA division teams.
2. Macroeconomic framework of Burkina Faso
Since its independence, Burkina Faso has tried out various policies and strategies for enhanced well-being. The following section offers an overview of these main policies and strategies in relation to key moments and requirements.
2.1 Brief overview of policies and strategies
In response to various macroeconomic contexts and its development imperatives throughout its history, Burkina Faso has adopted a number of pu-blic policy options. A review of the related docu-ments shows that these many responses can be divided into four categories.
2.1.1 Austerity and self-adjustment in response to budgetary imbalance
In the post-independence period, the socioecono-mic context of Burkina Faso, then Upper Volta, was marked by poor management, reflected at the macroeconomic level by significant imbalances.
To address this situation, an austerity programme was put in place aimed mainly at swiftly restoring the macroeconomic balance (zero budget deficit, zero public debt). The programme proved effec-tive and very rapidly led to strong control of pu-blic expenditure and restrained and honest use of public resources. Unfortunately, with a slackening of public management, bad practices again be-came apparent through a substantial increase in the public debt and a dwindling of the budgetary balance achieved.
The authorities took over the goals of resto-ring the macroeconomic balance, resulting, between 1961 and 1962, in a set of
self-adjust-ment measures (establishself-adjust-ment of an investself-adjust-ment fund, known as the “people’s investment ini-tiative”, a reduction in civil service salaries from 5 to 12 per cent according to category, a 25 to 50 per cent reduction in the advantages granted to civil servants, a lowering of the retirement age from 55 to 53, etc.). On the whole, these mea-sures saved the country from bankruptcy without however eliminating the budget deficit. At the structural level, there were no significant changes and agriculture remained dominant. At the social level, the growth rate of the population also re-mained stable overall (averaging 1.34 per cent between 1960 and 1963).
2.1.2 Central planning in response to a loss of public control
To build on its relative successes, the State main-tained its policy of deficit management while strengthening or introducing strong measures to reduce State expenditure. Moreover, the policies adopted reflected a firm resolve to cope with the country’s development needs and requirements through planning, central planning in particular.
Between 1962 and 1982, the public policy of Bur-kina Faso was marked by a succession of plans and projects predicated mainly on the readiness of donors to release financing. A Ministry of the Plan was set up for the purpose, tasked with stee-ring the multiple programmes and plans, inclu-ding the grassroots development programme (PPD, 1983-1986). A large number of regulations and laws were enacted to facilitate planning and put the reins of the economy in the hands of the State, present at that time in all sectors of econo-mic life: establishment of State-owned corpora-tions, price control, manufacturing, distribution, the banking system, international trade, etc.
In the specifically agricultural field, policies were adopted aimed essentially at diversifying agricul-tural production, ensuring land conservation, pro-moting irrigation, combating the negative effects of drought and restoring livestock. Numerous ins-titutions were set up (the regional development authority, ORD, and the regional centre for agri-cultural production, CRPA,7 the textiles corpora-tion, SOFITEX,8 the national cereals office, OFNA-CER,9 etc.), land reform (RAF) and related policies were adopted and between 10 and 25 per cent of investments were regularly earmarked for the agricultural sector. In the early years such policies brought about substantial agricultural growth.
By contrast, the secondary and tertiary sectors showed a downward trend.
At the social level, numerous indicators gave concern. Just prior to the structural adjustment programmes, education indicators were as fol-lows: 0.7 per cent preschool attendance rate, 30 per cent primary, 7.8 per cent secondary and 1 per cent higher education. Life expectancy rose from 37 to 48 years between 1960 and 1980 thanks in particular to the public health policies10 put into effect. All in all, the period was charac-terized economically by erratic growth, an indus-trial sector in difficulty because of low competi-tiveness, high costs of factors of production and significant shortcomings in natural resource ma-nagement. However, crop yields were good and inflation levels were acceptable.
As authority was centralized, it became more cu-mbersome to administer and manage the country and the State was bowed down by the weight of the many responsibilities it had assumed. Now in-capable of covering all its expenses, the State again found it necessary to devise fiscal consolidation policies and strategies. It needed to reduce expen-diture and find new sources of income and it was with this end in view that structural adjustment pro-grammes (PAS) were introduced into the country.
7 For wider access to inputs.
8 For cotton.
9 For cereals.
10 Building of many centres for health care and social advancement (CSPS).