BUJUMBURA March 6th (ABP) – The World Bank organized on Thursday, March 2, 2023 at the Hotel Club du Lac Tanganyika, a meeting for the mid-term review of the performance of the 2019-2023 country partnership framework and discussions on the speech of resilience prevention, a check by ABP revealed.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Mr. Audace Niyonzima, indicated that this meeting had the objective of evaluating the envelope that the World Bank had granted to Burundi, which is estimated at 1.3 billion dollars for five years. He pointed out that for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, $60 million has been used until the end of January 2023, out of the $180 million raised from the $220 million that was planned.
According to Minister Niyonzima, since the project managers have not been able to use those funds, that meeting was held for evaluating and making recommendations to the project managers, especially to take adequate measures to implement those projects on time and disburse those funds which are intended for the country, in order to be able to request other funds to promote the development of Burundi.
Indeed, challenges related to the pace that does not favor the development of the country have been identified. These include the slowness especially at the level of project management, the lack of skills or the will of the managers who think that those projects belong to the World Bank whereas they are projects of the government of Burundi but financed by the said bank, the minister responsible for finance underlined.
Mr. Niyonzima also called on the project managers to contribute to their achievement and the government’s objectives in the development of the country. He also pointed out that they will now organize quarterly evaluation meetings and even introduce performance indicators for all managers and be able to take the necessary administrative measures for incompetent managers.
According to the resident representative of the World Bank Mrs. Hawa Cissé Wagué, the meeting was very useful, they discussed not only the projects which are financed by the World Bank but also within the framework of partnership, it was a good discussion which allowed to adjust their strategy but also to agree on the actions to be taken to better implement the projects.
Finally, she recommended that the project coordinators and their teams be able to implement the agreed actions and the work plan of the activities to be carried out, while respecting the rules.
The representative of the World Bank also recommended her team to support the government of Burundi in the implementation of projects, to achieve development so that each Burundian can have enough to eat and money, as indicated by the Head of State of Burundi.