BUJUMBURA December 13th (ABP) – On the occasion of the closing of the mini-round table, organized on December 10, 2021 in Bujumbura, on the initiative of the President of the Republic, for the development partners of Burundi, Burundi’s development partners are called upon to be complementary with the government instead of being technical and financial partners.
That activity was organized to discuss the harmonization and coordination of their interventions, with a view to improving the lives of the population.
The Head of State wishes contributions aimed at improving the effectiveness of their interventions, as partners, to prevent their forces from being dispersed and ultimately producing results contrary to those expected.
He also added that the round table has just put the government of Burundi and its partners on a new way of doing things, where the problems will be solved together, instead of blaming each other, rather complementing one another.
During that mini-round table, the Head of State invited the development partners to advise the government, if necessary, because despite the funding, they found themselves unable to meet the needs of citizens.
According to President Ndayishimiye, the government is aligning officials and citizens at work and promoting the policy of decentralization, explaining that it is one of the ways to fight against corruption. In this case, the central administration, instead of embezzling funds, will rather monitor and evaluate the actions carried out, he specified.
He also indicated that the people of Burundi are going through a historic turning point, because being reconciled after 15 years of post-conflict reconstruction, the Burundians now want to make up for it by accelerating the process of socio-economic development and making an emerging country by 2040.
In that mini-round table, the participants made certain recommendations, asking to change the name of technical and financial partners (PTF), by development partners (PD).
It was also requested to gradually phase out official development assistance, promote digital use in exchanges between stakeholders, reduce meetings and workshops, map needs, interventions and achievements and map the necessary multisectoral reforms.
It was suggested to identify 10 to 15 priority projects on which the partners will intervene. There is also a need to reform the macroeconomic framework to make it stable.
At the same time, they called for the involvement of the private sector and civil society in the development of strategies, implementation and evaluation of interventions.
It is therefore necessary to create the joint sectoral monitoring committees (ministries-PTF) by axis of PND Burundi 2018-2027 and the high-level joint monitoring steering committee (Government-PTF), led by the Prime Minister.