FOREWORD
It gives me great pleasure to present the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM)
Country Review Report and the national programme of action of Burkina Faso. This
is the ninth report in the series and the sixth to be accomplished under my stewardship
as chairperson of the African Peer Review (APR) Forum.
Burkina Faso is among the first group of countries of the West African subregion that
pioneered the implementation of the APRM. Having voluntarily acceded to the
APRM in March 2003, Burkina Faso embarked on the onerous task of preparing its
Country Self-Assessment Report (CSAR). At the end of the self-assessment process,
it hosted the Country Review Mission (CRM) from 18 February to 16 March 2008,
and this phase culminated in the peer review of Burkina Faso at the First
Extraordinary Summit of the APR Forum in Cotonou, Benin, on 25 October 2008. It
is a historic achievement and I once again congratulate my colleague, His Excellency
President Blaise Compaoré, on the successful accomplishment of this all-embracing
and very intensive process.
As indicated in the report, in spite of the difficulty in obtaining resources, Burkina
Faso has made substantial progress in several fields such as education, health and
housing. The increasing credibility enjoyed at political and diplomatic levels affords
Burkina Faso an appreciable capacity for negotiation that enables the country to play
an important role as mediator of conflicts in the subregion and elsewhere on the
continent. The main challenge ahead is to sustain the momentum of the peer review
process through the successful implementation of the programme of action arising
from this exercise. The APR Forum will maintain sustained interest in the
implementation process and receive annual progress reports thereon.
It is noteworthy that Africa’s position today is quite different from that which it
occupied during the past decade. There is encouraging economic turnaround with
progress in macroeconomic stabilisation in many African countries – in spite of the
prevailing global economic crisis. This reflects the implementation of sound economic
policies, and a move towards the establishment of rules-based institutions and
participatory forms of government that foster consensus between the state and civil
society.
However, this progress – welcome as it is – has remained too modest to make an
impact on the continent’s pervasive poverty. Investment has remained subdued,
limiting the efforts to diversify economic structures and accelerate human
development. Further, a number of countries have only recently emerged from civil
wars that have severely hampered their development efforts, while others are still
burdened with conflicts. At the same time, globalisation has raised the stakes by
offering greater opportunities for faster economic growth while significantly raising
the risk of marginalisation for the countries that fail to integrate into the global
economy.
Harnessing Africa’s immense potential therefore constitutes a global priority for the
21st Century. Our common challenge is to build the future on the basis of accelerated
development and shared growth through reduced unemployment, higher living
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