59 National conferences on corruption were held in December 2012. They helped carry out a diagnosis of corruption in Burkina Faso. The recommendations made were based, inter alia, on the firm application of instruments and sanctions against offenders. In the area of public procurement, following the recommendations of the 2008 and 2009 public procurement audits, and those made at the first public procurement officials’ forum, held in October 2011, innovations were made in 2012. They concern the raising of the threshold of requests for quotations by refining of the notion of the lowest evaluated bid, relaxing of procedures governing requests for bids examination based on the directcontracting procedure and better support for local governments. Thus, the level of open competitive bidding was 89.70% for a set target of 85%; that of limited competition was 4.25% as against a target of less than 10%. However, the proportion of contracts signed based on direct contracting was 6.05% compared to a target of less than 5%. 5.3. Gender promotion The reduction or elimination of gender inequalities constitutes a key condition for reducing poverty and sustainable human development. It is against this background that the Government undertook to formulate, with the support of its technical and financial partners, a National Gender Policy