ICT in Burkina Faso
Where are we now?
Impact & lessons learned
IICD in Burkina Faso

Widespread poverty (46.4%) and adult illiteracy (75%), low life expectancy (43 years), few natural resources, and an inadequate infrastructure have relegated Burkina Faso to the third poorest country in the world (UN, 2003).

It is under these difficult circumstances that the Burkina Faso Country Team and local organisations have been working together on the ground since 1997 to bring about ICT-enabled development.

ICT in Burkina Faso

Between 1990 and 2004, the number of fixed and mobile telephone subscribers, and the number of people with access to a computer increased by a staggering 2000%. Yet, in 2004 not even one in ten people had access to these facilities, or access to the Internet. Figures show that there were more than 600,000 mobile phone subscribers in 2005.

Where are we now?

In 2007, the Country Programme is being consolidated, and moving towards independent implementation. To help the programme move into the Shared Dialogue Phase, IICD will continue to pay attention to the development of institutional and individual capacities of project partners, networking partners, and local consultants.

Following the successes of 2006, when the country programme realised its main objectives and most projects in implementation did remarkably well, Burkina Faso is expected to move from the expansion to the consolidation phase in 2007. This has been achieved with the help of local training partners, SULGA and ZCP, who together with IICD have provided close technical support and guidance for project participants, particularly in rural areas.

The main challenge for IICD in Burkina Faso in 2007 will be to finalise project formulation in the three active sectors (education, agriculture and governance). The addition of projects in the education and governance sectors will enable the country programme to move into a consolidation phase later in the year.

Impact & lessons learned

Monitoring & Evaluation activities began in 2003, to support learning among project partners, to look at the level of satisfaction and the longer-term impact of the Burkina Faso Country Programme activities.

Monitoring & Evaluation has focussed for the first time on impact, particularly from the end-user perspective. Looking at the TICE network, it emerged that there is a strong gender imbalance, with many more males participating than females. This has resulted in gender being looked at more closely by the TICE project.

Impact & lessons learned

• In general project implementation runs smoothly.
• Capacity in Burkina Faso is scarce. There is a lack of qualified, trained people (due to lack of literacy) which makes it quite challenging to find good, trustworthy enabling partners (for training and IN) with whom you can build a longstanding working relationship.
• Impact in education and livelihoods: projects seem to have a positive impact on the sector (innovation and knowledge sharing with regard to implementation of ICT projects).
• Impact in governance: there is a growing demand form the government for ICT-policy support. Together with UNECA and CPRC (Canadian) IICD supports the government in this process.

IICD in Burkina Faso

IICD was directly invited by the General Delegate of Information to support ICT4D processes, and in 1997 the Burkina Faso Country Programme was launched. The initial focus was on education, governance and livelihoods. As with all IICD Country Programmes, key stakeholders were invited to participate in an IICD Roundtable process to identify ICT priorities, and formulate and implement locally owned ICT-enabled projects. In Burkina Faso, this led to projects being developed in the education, governance and livelihood (focussing on agriculture) sectors.

The Burkina Faso Country Programme has previously been seen as slow in terms of development and implementation of IICD projects, particularly in terms of achieving tangible results. This is in part due to the deplorable state of the country (third last on the Human Development Index in 2003), and in part due to IICD’s own staff changes (the Programme Manager responsible for Burkina Faso has changed several times).

However, in 2006 circumstances began to improve, and the country programme is now gaining in speed and confidence. This is certainly in part thanks to the trust that has been built up between IICD and local strategic partners in the country. The dynamic and inventive national ICT for Development network, LIEN, is currently one of IICD’s most successful local networks.

Until the country reaches the consolidation phase, IICD will continue to provide a high level of support in developing the capacity of local project partners, the national ICT for Development network and local consultants. Partnerships, support for policy processes, and informing donors and other interested parties, will receive a high level of attention during 2007, and projects will be closely monitoring during their implementation.

Addressing Burkina Faso’s ICT needs

The most urgent needs identified included improving livelihood opportunities, increasing transparency and access to information from the government, improving ICT skills in education, and improving access to education (through on-line courses).

Agriculture

The number of projects in the agriculture sector has increased to five, thereby completing the project portfolio. The process of integrating the TICE-project into policy processes has begun.

Education

In the education sector the TICE project made very good progress in terms of visibility and acceptance by the schools involved. A Roundtable workshop was held on education, and the recommendations from this were integrated in a policy paper on ICT integration in secondary schools.

Governance

In the governance sector, concrete steps forward included webmasters from all the ministries being trained in XML. At the policy level, an agreement between the Ministry of ICT and IICD to support sector ICT policies in education and agricultural was successfully concluded.

ICT in projects

As the adult literacy is very low, most of the IICD supported projects combine the use of modern media (such as ICT) and traditional non-print media (such as radio, television and multimedia) to reach their target groups.

Internet access is being used to sell products, to achieve and disseminate market price information and new production technologies, to improve communication (through the Sahel Solidarité project/network) and public information, and to improve education (by training teachers in the use of ICT).

Currently, 9 projects are being implemented in Burkina Faso. Additional projects still need to be developed in education and governance, in order to build a critical mass of projects. These will then serve as a tool to illustrate what can be achieved using ICT. Existing projects will be made sustainable by embedding them in the project partner organisations and other institutions. That will also be the starting point to begin the process of influencing national ICT-policies.

Developing Capacity

Capacity development activities are carrying on, and include providing support for training in the agriculture projects and developing websites for the TICE project and for the ministries. Technical advice continues to be given for these projects, with activities including technical update seminars on ICT communication tools, VoiP and web 2.0.

The training partners SULGA Concept and ZCP are proving to be valuable assets, with a clear ability to adapt their training to suit the specific requirements of local partners from rural areas, particularly in education. For the time being, IICD will continue its role in providing coaching, guidance and expertise development for local training partners.

A lot of attention is being paid to improving the ICT-skills of end-users, including project partners. In 2006, several multimedia trainings were organised targeting users from both Burkina Faso and Mali.

Establishing networks

LIEN, the national ICT for Development network, is deepening its impact at the sector level through its thematic working groups in education and agriculture, and the network is now actively monitoring the topic of ICT & Gender. Extra funds, mainly investments, will be necessary to further develop and strengthen video production on these issues and on the IICD supported projects.

Participating in policy process

For this, IICD will work closely together with LIEN, Burkina Faso’s National ICT for Development network. Currently the network is focussing on deepening its impact at the sector level. Knowledge sharing activities are currently being developed in both education and agriculture. Training on e-facilitation has begun, and ICT and gender issues are currently being monitored.

One of LIEN’s activities is to continue to extend multimedia skills through video production on topical issues, and on IICD supported projects. You can find out more about LIEN on their local website: www.burkina-ntic.org.

Burkina Faso partners

Key partners in Burkina Faso are Groupe Recherches de Formation et de Conseils (monitoring and evaluation), Delegation Generale Informatique (DELGI), the Yam-Pukri Association (networking), and Zongos Consulting and Productions (capacity development). Various other local organisations are also involved in the Country Programme.

Use the Partners Search on the right to search for partners in Burkina Faso.