Sustainable agriculture in Burkina Faso’s eastern provinces
- Sectors: Sustainable agriculture, Rural credit and decentralised finance systems, Decentralisation
- Duration: 11/1996 – 03/2012
- Volume: 8.1 million Euro
- Client: Austrian Development Cooperation, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Vienna
Support to this region started in 1996 with an extensive base line study conducted by the later project director, M. Martin Granzner. Early in 1997, the fist activities were implemented in the province of Kourittenga, which is situated at a distance of 150 km from Ouagadougou and is characterised by the country’s highest demographic density. Contributing to the management of natural resources therefore was and still is an issue of utmost importance. The project was then called “Projet d’Agriculture durable” and was conducted until 2005.
In 2002, we have won a new project with similar objectives, situates in another province – Koulpelogo, at the border to Togo, called “Projet d’Appui au Développement Local”. This project ran also until the end of 2005, when it was merged to the Kourittenga project by a new tender. In the new phase in was therefore called “Programme d’Appui à la Gestion du Fonds de Développement Local dans la Région du Centre-Est (PFDL-CE)”.
Three years later, after the successful completion of another phase, we were asked to include also the province of Kompienga, situated in the Eastern region of Burkina Faso at the border to Benin. The project became the PFDL-3K: “Programme d’Appui à la Gestion du Fonds de Développement Local dans les provinces Kourittenga, Koulpelogo et Kompienga” . The actual phase is supposed to end in March 2012.
The long duration of the project implies that there were major developments in the guiding principles of our activities. These shifts were mainly imposed by the donor who tried to be in line with the evolution of cooperation concepts as developed by the Bretton Woods institutions. It has still to be proven that these new concepts make a tangible difference with respect to the effectiveness and durability of the efforts undertaken by our team in collaboration with the target group.