Overview
The November 2015 general elections in Burkina Faso saw the election of a new National Assembly of 127 members, all of whom are first timers. Characteristic of all parliaments, Members come into the House with varying professional backgrounds and so required some minimum level of orientation and continuous capacity building to fit them to their new role as lawmakers and the watchdog of the State. It was against this background that World Bank commissioned this project. The project aimed to equip MPs and staff of the National Assembly of Burkina Faso with skills and strategies that could enable them exercise complete oversight of all stages of the budget process. It focused on assisting MPs to identify entry points and tools for parliamentary engagement during the budget process; equipping MPs with tools and strategies for acquiring budget related data and analyzing the budget when it is presented to parliament; enhancing the capacity of MPs to monitor budget implementation; and enhancing MPs’ understanding of Burkina Faso’s decentralization and equipping them to monitor the activities of communes.
Interventions
A three-day orientation workshop was organized for Members of the Committee for Finance & Budget (COMFIB) and the Committee for Development, Environment, Economy & Climate Change (CODEECC) of the National Assembly of Burkina Faso. Fifty-four MPs and staff took part in the workshop. The workshop was on the theme “Parliamentarians and development – Control and Oversight of Public Finance”.
Outcomes
MPs and staff built enhanced their skills and built competencies in the areas such as:
- Identifying entry points and tools for parliamentary engagement during the budget process;
- tools and strategies for acquiring budget related data and analysing the budget;
- Monitoring budget implementation
- Oversight at the local level
Partners
- Parliament of Burkina Faso
- World Bank