UCLG Africa is advocating for financial decentralization in Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast

June 8-18,2017: UCLG Africa visited Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast to advocate for the development of a roadmap that will improve the level of financial decentralization,  and to follow up their study on the cost of resources transferred to these countries.

Mr. François Paul Yatta, UCLG Africa’s Director of Programs met with: the Director-General of the budget (DGB), the Director-General of Local Authorities (DGCL), the Director-General for Territorial Development, the Technical adviser to the Minister of Budget, the Technical adviser to the Minister of Territorial Administration, and the Permanent Secretary of the Association of Municipalities of Burkina Faso.

In Ivory Coast, Mr Yatta met with: the Director-General of decentralization and local development (DGDDL), the Director of economic and financial guardianship of local authorities (DTEF), the Director of financial operations of local Authorities (DCOB), the budget Directorate-General, the Permanent Secretaries of the Union of cities and towns of Ivory Coast (UVICOCI), and the Assembly of regions and districts of Ivory Coast (ARDCI).

The development and implementation of the roadmap for improving financial decentralization in these countries covers four aspects:

–Escalation of the sharing of resources between the State and the municipalities and regions so that with future planning, 100% of the competences are implemented by the local authorities.

The current state of the level of implementation of competences transferred by the local authorities shows that in both countries sectoral ministries are in reality the operators of the transferred competences. Out of 100% of the costs of transferring skills to the municipalities and regions of Burkina Faso, sectoral ministries continue to implement 85% of the dedicated financial resources and more precisely 70% of the resources in the municipalities and 100% of the resources in the regions.  In Ivory Coast, the resources dedicated to the competences transferred from the communes, but implemented by the sectoral ministries; represent about 72% of the resources. In Burkina Faso, the first stage of the roadmap will help to achieve the target set by the national Economic and Social Development Plan (PNDS) of 15% of state resources in 2020.

–Definition of a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to implement the roadmap for the transfer of financial resources to local authorities.

-Definition of the modalities for implementing accompanying measures, in terms of strengthening the technical capacities of local authorities and transparency in the management of local public finances.

-On the operational level, the implementation of the intervention of UCLG Africa is organized differently in both countries, taking into account the difference in institutional contexts.   In Burkina Faso, the mission developed the draft inter-ministerial order for the development of the Roadmap Committee, the terms of reference for the work of the Committee and the Convention with the AMBF.

In Ivory Coast, a consultant will do the work of developing the roadmap with the support of the Directorate-General of the budget. The consultant will work with sectoral ministries concerned with the transfer of competencies to local authorities; the latest then validating the roadmap at a national validation workshop. During the process, the consultant will be supported by the two national association of local authorities in Burkina Faso (AMBF and ARBF) and in Ivory Coast (UVICOCI and ARDCI).