BUJUMBURA May 22nd (ABP) – The Prime Minister of the Republic of Burundi, Mr. Gervais Ndirakobuca opened, on Friday, May 19, 2023, in Bujumbura, a workshop to assess the portfolios of Burundi’s three development partners, namely the African Development Bank (ADB), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Bank, in the presence of members of the Government and senior officials of the various ministries, a check by ABP revealed.
In his speech, Mr. Ndirakobuca thanked the partners for their financial and technical support to the Government of Burundi in its efforts to fight against poverty. He specified that those partners contribute to the improvement of the living conditions of the people of Burundi and to the strengthening of human capital.
Mr. Ndirakobuca also stressed that Burundi is in a new momentum with a vision of an emerging country in 2040 and a developed one in 2060. He explained that this joint review is organized with the intention of adopting new measures aimed at improvement of the management of projects and programs financed by development partners in general and more specifically the partners mentioned above, with a view to achieving the country’s sustainable development goals.
Through these actions, he added, the Government has always provided guidance to all stakeholders in the management of development projects and programs. In addition, Burundi would like positive changes to be targeted, day by day, to improve the standard of living of the population.
To that end, the Prime Minister urged the coordinators of the projects financed by those partners to be responsible, hardworking and demanding in the implementation of those projects.
He also encouraged the country’s development stakeholders to do their best to ensure that the disbursements of funds and the implementation of projects are done at an acceptable pace to generate real impacts.
Taking the floor, the representative of the World Bank, Hawa Cissé Wagué, who spoke on behalf of the three partners, specified that the combination of their intervention is worth 1.850 billion dollars for 38 projects.
She also reported that they continue to support the government of Burundi through combinations of funding, sharing of international best practices and capacity building.
According to various interventions by the permanent secretaries of the various ministries, some challenges have been recorded. These include in particular the problem of ineligibility which stems from the poor performance of projects, the problem of recruiting units responsible for preparing projects and lengthy procedures to arrive at the disbursement of funds.
Based on those interventions, Mr. Ndirakobuca asked the minister in charge of finance and the permanent secretaries to send the report on the annual implementation rate of the programs to the Prime Minister before the late May 2023.
Recall that the projects and programs financed by those three partners are piloted by the ministries in charge of finance, agriculture, health, communication, solidarity, infrastructure, trade, education and interior.