Priority action program to implement the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) 2004-2006

This Joint Staff Advisory Note (JSAN) reviews the second full Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP-2) for the period 2004-06, prepared by the Government of Burkina Faso, as well as the fourth progress report on the implementation of the first full PRSP (PRSP-1). PRSP-2 updates the strategy laid out in PRSP-1 along the same four pillars: a) accelerating broad-based growth; b) promoting access to basic social services for the poor; c) increasing employment and income-generating activities for the poor; and, d) promoting good governance. Key changes in the revised PRSP are the broadening of the range of priority sectors, the introduction of a regional dimension, wider involvement of civil society, and, an overhaul of the monitoring and evaluation system, centered on a Priority Action Plan (PAP). Overall, the staffs share the view that Burkina Faso's Poverty Reduction Strategy is properly presented in complementary nested documents--from the vision to the annual PAP--that strike an adequate balance between long-term perspective and flexibility to adjust the strategy to reflect new developments. Specifically, PRSP-2 articulates a sound strategy to tackle poverty challenges in Burkina Faso, by updating and strengthening PRSP-1 in several dimensions, including the participatory approach, and the monitoring framework. The latter is an illustration that PRSP-2 has taken into account recommendations from past joint staff assessments (JSAs). In the following sections the poverty trends in Burkina Faso are reviewed, the four pillars of PRSP-2 and their related subprograms are discussed, and, several areas where PRSP-2 could be strengthened are recommended: adopting a methodology to improve data comparability in future surveys and research, so as to correctly measure poverty trends, and draw relevant lessons; integrating the PAP and the macroeconomic strategies into a consistent framework that will take into account debt sustainability; including alternative macroeconomic scenarios in the PRSP and APRs that permit to gauge the authorities' response to exogenous shocks (low cotton prices, high oil prices, regional instability, dollar/euro exchange rate, inadequate external assistance, etc); setting the correct benchmarks for improving the business climate; in the education sector, pursuing the decentralization of the hiring and management of teachers, improving school construction programs, and implementing an action plan to increase instructional hours; and, in the health sector, adequately financing malaria programs, addressing nutrition and reproductive health programs issues, improving the availability of health workers in rural areas, and on HIV/AIDS.