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DEVELOPMENT
UNDP‘s 2003 report isn’t very flattering towards Burkina Faso
Once again, and in a seemingly repetitive way, the recent United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s report isn’t at all flattering for Burkina Faso. Our country doesn’t even manage an «honourable mention» among those nations doing their best to improve themselves. Ordinary citizens, intellectuals, media professionals and politicians are up in arms about the report.
A feeling of frustration
Burkina Faso comes 173rd out of 175 countries listed. To all intents and purposes this is as good as stating that Burkina has «missed the boat» as far as development is concerned. Admittedly, Burkina’s citizens know there is much to be done to improve such sectors as access to drinking water, education and health for all, but not to the point, surely, of coming tail-end in the world classification for development.
Everyone knows that Burkina lies on the fringes of the Sahara Desert and cannot be thought of as a «land of plenty», but what makes Burkina’s people furious, is to be always listed as «tail-end-Charlie», year after year. It’s difficult to understand how UNDP draws up its classification table — our people are well-known to be hardworking, so does this count for nothing? The ordinary citizen and the powers-that-be are now beginning to wonder if they can do anything right, in spite of an annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth per capita between 1990 and 2001, of 2%.
UNDP’s HDI
In order to determine how humankind is progressing, the UNDP draws up a Human Development Index (HDI) covering three main chapters, reflecting fundamental aspects of life today and an objective to be reached: Life expectancy; level of education; GDP. It’s here that the UNDP‘s considered judgement remains unfavourable for Burkina.
On the other hand, Burkina would certainly have made a better showing if the country’s cultural inheritance (which includes its present-day prosperous cinematographic and well-reputed craft industries) had been taken into consideration. Hence our people’s concern and indignation. They feel the UNDP‘s classification is demeaning their country before their very eyes.
However, in fairness to the UNDP, anyone taking the trouble to analyze its report in the clear light of day and from a distance, can garner information about what is really happening inside an individual country, notwithstanding that country’s never-ending programme of official declarations and international summits which might give the impression that all is well. Let’s admit it — with a GDP of 2.2 billion dollars and a life-expectancy which oscillates between 45 and 47 years, no one can really say that the common run of Burkina’s people is entirely satisfactory. The UNDP report records a ratio of three doctors for 100,000 inhabitants. And the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate — one of highest in the sub-region (6.5%) — is making devastating inroads everywhere, in spite of various health programmes carried out annually costing billions of CFA francs.
Education — the Achilles’ heel
African wisdom teaches that when one stumbles, it’s most important not to stay down where you’ve fallen, but to identify the obstacle which made you stumble. Burkina’s obstacle is clearly the lack of formal education.
Indeed, when considering education in Africa as a whole, Burkina Faso represents one of the least successful countries. Scarcely 25% of people aged 15 upwards are educated.
Since 1990, the percentage of people who are educated (one of the determining criteria when considering development) is below acceptable standards (40%) as spelled out by the UNDP. The government acknowledges it’s having great difficulty in improving this situation which it regards as having inherited from the colonial period. The UNDP‘s 2003 report lists Burkina as having an approximate formal schooling rate (both primary and secondary combined) of 22%; compared with Mali’s 29%; Côte d’Ivoire’s 39%; Nigeria’s 45%; Benin’s 49%.
Burkina’s situation must send an alarm signal for the country’s education authorities. There can be no let-up in the fight against ignorance and lack of school facilities. The nation’s Ten-Year Programme for the Development of Basic Education and the recent setting up of a National Fund for Education Purposes, must reflect this concern.
The Press recognizes that Burkina’s position in the UNDP‘s table is certainly not a matter for pride, but puts forward a number of arguments to mitigate the UNDP‘s judgement. Some say they are extremely cautious about the accuracy and reliability of the basic data used by UNDP‘s experts in drawing up their classification. Others wonder how is it possible that countries ruined by several years of war (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo RDC, Ethiopia, etc.) can come higher than Burkina Faso in the evaluation of human development.
Experts preparing the report are reproached for having got their values mixed, by disregarding the fact that each country is influenced by its own geographical situation and natural possibilities. In other words, you can’t judge every country’s progress in exactly the same way. e.g. Countries in the northern and southern hemispheres; rich and poor nations. Inevitably, Africa will lose out if you place every country on an equal footing when it comes to drawing up criteria for progress. In that case, a country such as Burkina Faso is always going to be the loser.
But, keeping in mind that although there are some weak points in the way in which UNDP‘s report was drawn up, it does enable us to become aware that there are a number of correlating facts in the field of human development. In particular, between formal education and the human development index, and even more obvious, between furthering the growth of formal education and the fight against poverty. It’s clear then, that African countries, including Burkina Faso, would gain from integrating such strategies as «Education for All» into broader initiatives taken and implemented for reducing poverty on a national, regional and international level.
- Anicet L. Quénum, Burkina Faso, October 2003 — © Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment