Burkina Faso

Currently, development cooperation relations are governed by ICP III (2017-2022), signed on 21 November 2016 by both governments. ICP III has a current indicative funding envelope of EUR 98.5 million and focuses on four priority sectors: (i) new information and communication technologies; (ii) sustainable management of natural resources; (iii) education, teaching and technical and vocational training; and (iv) inclusive finance. The majority of the bilateral interventions, amounting to EUR 86.8 million in these areas, is implemented by LuxDev, the Luxembourg agency for development cooperation. In addition, within the framework of the ICP’s inclusive finance sector, the NGO SOS Faim was commissioned to implement Agri+, a project on the innovative financing of family agriculture, with a budget of around EUR 3.5 million.

On a bilateral level, Luxembourg Development Cooperation continued to implement the ICP III programmes in 2021. In view of the health crisis, the 13th partnership committee meeting was held on 1 July 2021 by video-conference, and was co-chaired by Minister Fayot and Minister Kaboré, Burkina Faso’s Minister of Economy, Finance and Development. ICP III makes provision for partnership committee meetings to be held annually. These are forums dedicated to dialogue between the two countries, which also facilitate the examination of the state of play in development cooperation interventions. Following one of the main recommendations in the ICP III mid-term review, carried out between October 2020 and May 2021, the two ministers formalised the extension of ICP III for one year, until 31 December 2022. This extension of ICP III translates, in practice, into the extension of some of the programmes currently being implemented and an increase of EUR 7 million in the funding envelope. This increase is mainly intended to finance Luxembourg’s commitment to Burkina Faso’s education sector (EUR 5.5 million), a sector in which Luxembourg has been acting as the lead technical and financial partner since September 2021. In addition, EUR 1.5 million has been added to the funding envelope for the project for the restoration and development of pastoral areas. Finally, and following the commitments made at the partnership committee meeting, in October 2021 Luxembourg and Burkina Faso signed a memorandum of understanding for a new project of EUR 1.8 million in the field of digitising the land registry in the cities of Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso, following an initial request from Burkina Faso.

Multilaterally, Luxembourg Development Cooperation contributes a budget of EUR 8 million to multilateral agencies under ICP III. Under this framework, in October 2021 Luxembourg completed its support in the area of local governance through a project implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) continues to be supported through a project on empowerment and sexual and reproductive health for vulnerable women and young people. The third tranche of support through ICP III, a UNDP project in support of youth and women’s entrepreneurship, came to an end in late 2020.

Apart from the ICP III multilateral programming, Luxembourg Development Cooperation provides support amounting to EUR 2.7 million to the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), which delivers aid for innovation in the field of inclusive digital finance in order to support the economic and climate resilience of populations. A similar project is also receiving financial assistance of EUR 3.2 million from the Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development (MECSD) for the 2019-2022 period. In addition, Luxembourg Development Cooperation is also contributing EUR 1.3 million to the Aid for Trade project to support the processing and marketing of shea from Burkina Faso, which is implemented by the Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), bringing total contributions by Luxembourg to multilateral agencies to over EUR 15 million.

Finally, in 2021, 16 Luxembourgish NGOs were active in Burkina Faso, and continued to implement their projects despite the health crisis, often through local partners. EUR 3 575 796.37 was disbursed by Luxembourgish NGOs in Burkina Faso in 2021.

Following developments in the security and humanitarian situation in Burkina Faso since the end of 2018, Luxembourg has considerably increased its support in the field of humanitarian assistance. In 2021, Luxembourg contributed EUR 4.3 million to emergency and “nexus” projects and programmes, including a financial contribution of EUR 2 million for the Ministry of Education’s education in emergencies response. In addition, in 2021 Luxembourg supported the World Food Programme, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and several humanitarian NGOs.